The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1905-11-28
THE ROADS
continued from page L.

question is whether the decreased
cost will pay the shippers quota of
the cost OF Improvement. Will it
mean that the investment will pay
a dividend to the stockholders?
Stu dents Of the good roads question
declare tbat every evidence based
on experiences is that the dividend
will he surprisingly large to every
producer and every user OF the
country road.
Warn thu producer loads his wag-
on and starts to find his market ne
uaturally turns 10 thu connecting
link. that is to tav the railway or
thu waterway. Every carload of
raw material go4s first over the wag-
on rad, except in case OF those ar.
ticles slready mentioned.
Toe railway managers are max
ing ratea that will move the freight
10 nearly everv instance today. ard
this is fast becoming the hasic poll
cy of railway lines. Ttey realize
that if the shippers of the country
who are largely the producers have
not tois confederation at their hands
the producers and shippers will de-
maud this consideration at the
bands of the legislatures Of the
states and nation. In fact many
of the abuses of which shippers
have been sufferers during the past
and which should have been teme'
died by the general transportation
companies have gone SO far without
ttat remedy that legislatures are
air ady taking them up for consid-
r Grafton, and in some states lagisla'
tion for their .adication has al
ready been adopted. The national
! congress will, without doubt, have
: many of them up for discussion at
: It's coming session. The railway
companies NAV not all have been
/ guilty of the corrupt practices with
which they are charged today by
c the people who use their lines bui
a great many of them have, or there
would be no such general demand
for the legislation. But the abuses
l on the branch lines have as yet hac
: as little attention at the hands o
our legislatures or congress-. The
, road laws of the past have beer
adopted without any we'll developed
idea as to what their purpose was
nor what they propose to accom-
l. plish. In this matter the stock
holders in the branch transporta
e ton routes, in the wagon roads, tn
shippers themselves, are the one
r; to blame. They demand cheape
=, rates on the main line which toda,
is charges them on an average in til
states of the west ten and ive-hun
dredths mills per ton per mile, bu
= make little comglaint of their owl
branches on which they pay an av
erage of one hundred and fifty mill
D. per ton per mile. Then again o
&C the main line the rates have bee
lie steadily reduced, they having bee
E. sixteen and a half mills in 1885,
twelve and sixty.one hundredths
re 1895, reduced to eleven and thirty
ne six hundredths in 1899 and
he ten and a small fraction in 100;
On very few of the branches hay
On there been such sweeping averae
on reductions during this same perio'
h. VINO therefore questions that
cd the reduction of freight rat
nd amounting to half a cent per tc
ho per mile Oh the railways will eau
&C. an increase Of production that
n greater decrease per ton per mile {
the country roads would also SER
-, as a further cause of increased pr
duction2
at The United States governme
nieI has helped the construction of NJ
ny of the trunk lines of railway;
'es Las spent money of the / alton
n' the improvement Of inland wate
" ways; it is taking a hand in mar
" other things appropriating mon
~ therefor in which individual Sc
ne tons are more interested than pr
Q haps the general public. VIII
70 r.. - ZtE+-EA
{ therefore, is 1t not worth the pc
ple's while to demand of that sar
to government an appropriation in a
re- of the road improvements. of t
Ks, country2 Anefort has been ma
el, by a few in congress to this en-
IN and this movement should becor
gi- general.
TT In tho meantime, however, t
pes farmer, the stock raiser, all t
Us stockholders of the country 70
III system, will have to use their int
ere vidual efforts to secure the end
sired, an improvement of one gre
link of the transportation chain th
connect the producers field and t
market for bis product. These q
questions of industrial econon
worthy Of study and discussic
a. They are the things which the ra
way company studies all the tin
- They find that the expenditure
a million dollars in the removal
= grades will bring them returns