Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1907-08-18
EXPRESS RATES

THE wholesale produce merchants
of Los Angeles are experiencing
Il the "hooks" of Wells, Fargo & Co.
just now, and are up in high dudgeon
| because of the almost prohibitive
rates on produce between Los Angeles
and points in the Nevada mining dis
tricts. The discrimination in charges
made by this company for express
| service between San Francisco and
Nevada and between Los Angeles and
Nevada warrant the dissatisfaction of
the produce men here, and exhibit in a
marked manner just how local trade
with the great mining district is handi-
capped. Speaking of the matter Mr.
Carl McStay of the McStay Supply
company said:
I'VE have been waiting for the COM
mercial bodies of Los Angeles to take
action that would correct many dis
examinations that at present exist det-
rimental to the business interests ,of
Los Angeles merchants. Produce deal
ers have been up against the express
company rates for a long time. Just
think of it! Wells-Fargo rates from
San Francisco to Goldfield are SIS
hundred pounds The company rates
from Los Angeles to Goldfield are from
81 to $3.50 hundred pounds. Whole
salers in Los Angeles have many bust
ness friends in the Nevada district who
want our goods but they cannot give
us express orders with the rates re-
naming as at present. Consequently
Los Angeles is losing lot of valuable
business, not only in the line of prod
uce. but also in other branches of
trade. The freight rates are about
right. but the express rates are de-
cidedly wrong, and have been out of
adjustment for long time"
A charge of $3.50 per one hundred
pounds for produce is prohibitive, for
the good reason that no one article
known to the trade is worth $3.50 per
hundred pounds, to begin with, and
when the greater question of opening
up a paying market for the southern
end of the state is considered the ex-
orbitant rate is suicidal to the dealer
and carrier. If we cannot put down
fruit and produce in the Goldfeld dis |
trict as cheap in price as ou- northern
we must lose the trade, |
and with it the good will of the people,
which means the loss of trade in other |
lines.
Wells, Fargo & Co. cannot justify this
prohibitive rate, and public opinion de-
mands an immediate adjustment, in
order that Los Angeles may not be
handicapped in her right to fair share
of trade with the new country. A con-
Germ so wholly dependent on traffic for
dividends should not play the part of
killing the goose that lays the golden |
egg. and should be just and fair enough |
to Give and let live"
Let the citizen of the new mining |
district know that the peach, pear, |
grape or melon he eats costs more |
through the exactions of Wells, Fargo |
& Co, to get it from Los Angeles to
Goldfeld than it did to raise and pack
it and much will be accomplished to-
ward reducing this extraordinary !
charge. They are men who believe in
a square deal and will not be parties
to "cinching" OF course it is wholly
a question of disposition on the part
of the company, because of control
of transportation facilities, but the his
tory of trade in California contains
many chapters to prove that charge
so disproportionate as this one on
produce has been known to be boom
erang for those who made it,
The produce dealers have just cause
for complaint in this case, and the
people of Los Angeles, who look to a
large market in the mining district of
Nevada are behind the vehement de-
mand for immediate and reasonable
in this case.