The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-02-04
FREIGHr RATES. ALL IMPORTANT

FREIGHT RATES, ALL IMPORTANT
THE question of freight rates enters
strongly into the oil business" says
Governor Hoch. Unless the state is
given power to fix rates on oil, the
Standard. with its grip on the rail-
roads, could make the state refinery a
failure. Now if proper railroad legisla-
ton could solve the problem it would
be better for the state to make rates
than to engage in manufacturing.
Speaker Stubs, who, with the COVER
nor, represents what is understood to
be the pulling team in the matter of
legislation, is quoted as saying that his
plan for saving the Kansas oil produc-
ers from the octopus is make the rail-
roads give reasonable rates..
There you areI The question of
freight rates does enter strongly into
the oil business. That is truism
which has been discovered by others
than the governor and the speaker of
the house.
There is a prevailing opinion that the
matter of freight rates enters strongly
into every business of the state of Kan
sas. Can the reader think of any BUSH
ness that it does not strongly affect2
We all know it affects the wheat bus
mess and that the railroads have taken
what the grain men and the farmers
say amount to a half dozen million dol
lars in excess of what they call just
rates in a single season.
Freight rates affect the cattle bust
ness; they affect the coal business. In
fact. the universal cry just now is for
regulation of the freight traffic. The
president has taken it up; the state
legislatures are considering il. Some
of the states have fairer rates than
Kansas. This applies to the states on
three sides of this one The freights
are lower in Nebraska, Texas, Missouri
and Iowa.
The railroads are big and important
institutions. They represent not only
the money of the millionaires. but in
many cases the savings of smaller in
vestors.
The problem is not to injure or con-
fscate any railroad property; not even
to discourage investments in railroads;
not even to handicap these channels OF
commerce so essential to our existence.
The whole problem is to secure
equity and justice to the man who ships
and the corporation which handles the
shipment; to the firm which receives
the freight and the consumer who buys
II anu AAON RdJS AlOIG LUk Ills pQAAAie17C
because of unjust transportation
charges.
The freight problem is one of the big
gest questions of the day. 1t is too big
for those without exact knowledge to
solve in an off-hand manner. There are
a few things, however, which are plain
and which must be corrected. The
Santa Fe Railway company recently
admitted, through one of its officers,
that it had Disseminated and paid re-
bates to a big patron, the Colorado
Fuel and Iron company. The railroads
themselves do not pretend that this
was right. This was one of the dis
that was found out. How
many are there that have not been out?
All real reform which is not the talk
of a demagOgue, or said for public ef-
feet, is merely a demand for fair treat
ment. If one favored shipper or local
ity is given a rate too low. another
or locality must be given a
rate too high.
Paul Morton, one of the authorities
on railway traffic, recently made the
statement that the rate wars of the
railroads and the rebates given by them
are doing the harm to the railroads
themselves. He said he had long ad-
vocated that the companies devote less
time to politics and to legislation.
The public fears one thing; the rail-
road fears another. The company is
afraid of 'holdup" legisla-
ton and extreme measures on the part
Of those given little brief authority
during the term of the legislature. The
public fears that no real relief will be
given.
Who will help to solve this great
question? If the fair railroad men
could get together with the fair mem
bers of the legislature much could be
VIII they do it?