Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1905-09-22
JAMES ]. Hill TALKS TO FARMERS
KN - "A MI 800 N. ~
Urges Then en- 70 !. Elect Ct. Men 70 Represent Them
WHO viii Wage War on Graft

you in this respect who opens new
markets, secures new customers and
helps to swell the volume of products
and OF purchases. This lis the way In
which the diminution OF the cost OF
carriage has been effected, and the
change Is greater than has occurred in
the price of almost any other commodi-
ty. The average receipts per ton per
,one-hundred miles Of all the railroads
in the United States were $1.99 in
1870, $1.17 in 1880, 81 cents in 1890, "A
cents In 1903, while in Great Britain
it is $2.35 and on the continent of
Europe from 81. 10 to $1.70. The Great
Northern railroad has been reducing
its rates progressively for the last
twenty-five years. The records of the
company and of the state railway COM
mission show that, if its freight
tariffs had not been altered in that
time, If it had charged throughout I'm
til today the rates that were then in
force, It would have received more
than $676,000 900 more than It has re-
cefved during the twenty-five years, an
average of over $4,000, 900, and this
a2rednctfon on one road, and I am as
proud of that as am of being here
with YOU: -: @i:tcs Es%s..;3 f'S ]s
Glow has this been Accomplished?
BY seeking to build up the country, by
studying how to develop its resources
and'its prosperity, by inducing set
tiers to come and till the vacant land
and by taking care of these already
here. BY careful business management
and by recognizing the essential part
nership between the man on the soil
and the railway which serves him.
And I want to ask you as you study
these figures to say whether these re-
suits, SO beneficial to yourselves, could
ever have, been reached through a
policy of antagonism and force, Some
OF the politicians will tell you that
railroad rates must be fixed by order
OF the government, and that this is the
reason why they must be kept in pub
lie life: 1t is an easy prophecy, be-
cause it. is an obvious fact, that rail-
road rates in this country would de-
cline more slowly under government
control than if fixed by those who have
lntelligently managed the railroads.
No public body would dare to make re-
auctions so sweeping as those that
have been made voluntarily by the
railroads. Unless the people on it's
lines are prosperous the railway must
be poor. They suffer together or
prosper together and this condition
will always remain. Those who make
the rates with full knowledge OF all
facts entering into them will make
them as low as possible because that
means more people, more acres under
cultivation, more business for the rail-
road company to carry, more earnings
and more profits. It is the right and
the duty of the government to secure
fair treatment and to prevent discrimi-
nations; but when any man SAYS that
ne is anxious to have political place
IN order that he may help place the
rate-making power in the hands of the
government, and subject the fortunes
OF thirteen billions of capital, of mil
lions of employees and tens of mil
lions of customers to the CAPRICE or
seif-interest OF politicians then the
history of railroad rates in this coun-
try as compared with those charged
anywhere else in the world, and the
history of rate reductions down to the
present time, constitute a sufficient
contradiction. - -,.., T,
The government cannot discrimf-
nate between ports and places. n
must deal with an absolutely equal
and impartial hand with all. There
fore, 1t would be obliged, sooner or
later, to ordain strict distance tariff.s
that Is, the charge for carrying com.
moddties would have to be, apportioned
TO the number OF miles n the ham.
The low charge for the long haul womb
disappear. and freight would nav !
mileage tariff. Now to some that
would make little difference, but you
here in Minnesota, in the center Of the
continent. distant from $500 to 2. 900
miles from all the great markets.
about whom great circle might be
described and have its circumference
sweep along the coasts OF the Atlantic
and Pacific and the Gulf or Mexico
You would be the most heavily tariffed
people In the world When men ask
Tor your support or demand your
praise on any such grounds as these.
1t win be wei for yf,n r., hrfn 8 Is, -,