The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-03-01
WORD ABOUT BATES.
Correspondent Who Evidently Doesn's
Understand Situation.

Apropos the recent excitement over
| railroad legislation, 1 would ask how is
or the smith bill' going to benefit the
dear public? Is it not scheme on the
part OF shippers" to throw dust in the
eyes of the people?
am not a railroad man, have never
been, and win never be one. am getting
too old for that kind of business, so
that 1 cannot be accused OF taking
sides in the matter because Of selfish
interest. The public has decided that
the railroad rates are too high How
are they too high? How will state reg
uIation OF rates benefit you, Mr.. Ed
tor, or me; will you be able to buy
your meat, your grain, your flour, your
/ butter, your eggs or anything else any
cheaper than you are now buying these
articles? Are the stockmen, the grain
men, the millers, the wholesale grocers
and the commission men striving so
hard to get q reduction in rates to the
end that they may sell to the consumer
for less money than they are selling
now? or are they trying to make lit
tie more money out of their business,
and the public be damned" Let US
see:
Are the millers (who now get milling
in transit" rates) selling us flour any
cheaper than they did ten years ago?
Are we not paying more for our meats
tnau we did ten years ago? Are not the
| conTni ssion n.n getting two, three or
four times as much for butter, eggs,
/
years ago? Are not the stockmen get
ting more for their cattle than they
did ten years ago? How about wheat
corn, oats, barley, hay, etc, are they
not higher than ten years ago? In short
is not everything higher, except rail-
road rates?
Have railroad rates advanced on all
these commodities?
On the contrary, are not railroad
rates lower?
Please ask someone who is interested
in milling, in stock, in produce, etc, to
tell US all about it. INQUIRER.
Inquirer" makes some pertinent
queries and others that are not so per-
tinent. A careful study of them VIII
bring to the surface many facts that
have been lost sight of in this rail-
road agitation. One is that the leglS-
lature, like Inquirer" seems to nave
lost sight of the small shipper-the
man who pays the freight indirectly;
the man who is vitality interested IN
freight rates. but who is not great
enough to make a fight for justice; in
other words, the small farmer ana
common citizen.
AS to the merits of the two bills, the
anxiety of the railroad lobby to have
the Smith bill passed and the Carver
bill defeated seems to be weighty evil
dence of the claims of the shippers
that the Smith bill is in the interest
of the railroads. Neither side ought
will allow a commission of competent
and disinterested persons to say what
are just and equable rates. At pres
ent the railroads themselves make all
thing to say about it, and it is a well
known fact that ID is the policy of
most railroads to make the rates "all
the traffic will stand"
Inquirer SAYS: 1.-THE public has
decided that the railroad rates are too
high How are they too high ?"
Here is one rate that is too high: |
The railroads charge about ten cents |
a busehl for carrying wheat from
Smith Center or Hutchinson to Kansas |
City, a distance of approximately $50
miles, For a car of a thousand BUSH |
els this is about 500 a car. The /
same railroads carry the same wheat
from Kansas City to Chicago, over
twice the distance. for less than half
that amount.
For SAYS a car the railroads will
carry a carload of California oranges
anywhere in the east. at least $500 /
miles. If charged for at the rate of
Kansas wheat the rate would be at |
least $1,000 a car. Yet the interstate
commerce commission a few days ago /
decided that the orange rate is too
The freight on wheat comes out of |
the small farmer-the man with a /
quarter section of land-and it is in his /
interest mat the railroad commission /
ers should have power to fix rates on |
their own motion. No railroad commits /
sion is going to do an injustice to the I
railroads. The average farmer takes
his wheat to the grain dealer and takes /
what is offered to him for it. The
grain dealer pays the Kansas City price
less the freight rate, the commission
charges, and his own profit. Therefore
the farmer pays the freight but he does
not realize just what it amounts to, and
he will suffer long time before making
a complaint. The stock shipper, the
~ rrJ,+
direct, and that class realizes what it
to and has therefore been ac-
tive in securing railroad legislation.
inquirer intimates that this class
has been seeking lower rates from a
selfish standpoint and that the con-
sumner will not be benefited thereby.
1t is true that millers are not selling
flour as cheap as they did ten years
wheat. There also seems to be good
ground for believing that the millers of
some sections have trust. If this is
correct the Kansas antitrust law,
which has just been upheld by the Uni
ted States supreme court, furnishes the
general of the state or any
county attorney ample power to dis
solve it. It is also true th4t the con-
sumner pays more for his meat than he
did ten years ago, but the cattle grow
er receives no benefit from this. The
packing house combine pays the grower
less and charges the consumer more
than formerly.
Sometimes a railroad company ex-
hibits a disposition to be fair, believ-
ing it will be the best policy in the
ong run. Three or four years ago
he Rock Island made a rate on grain
from central Kansas to Galveston
which was the same as the rate from
Kansas City. The rate had been the
Kansas City rate plus the local rate
from central Kansas points to Kansas
City, although central Kansas is
nearly 200 miles nearer the gulf on
he Rock Island than is Kansas City.
This resulted in considerable wheat
going directly south from the wheat
- r--14