The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1908-07-31


to make it appear that the LaFollette
amendment was proposition to base
all rates at SO much per ton per mile
J when it was nothing of the kind. 1t is
specifically stated that the rate should
not be more in the aggregate" for a
shorter than for longer haul over the
same line in the same direction.
know, of no one who is asking that al
rates be based upon so much per tor
per mile.
His statement that special freight
rates for the west have caused the
farms of New England to be aban
doned is the fallacious and silly argu
ment that is used by all railroad at
torneys and traffic managers in ans
wer to complaints from western ship
pers against excessive rates and dis
ordinations. Anyone familiar with
the sterile and rocky soil of New En-
gland knows that the farms have been
abandoned there because one man in
Kansas, Missouri or Iowa can Guilt
vate five acres with more ease than he
can one in New England and produce
four times as much per acre.
To the Kansas shipper the first
part of his statement is full of as
founding statements, and it is unfor
tunate that the senator, for the en-
lightenment of his constituents, has
not cited few rates on staple Kansas
commodities and products to justify
his extraordinary assertions. His
statements are almost wholly at vari
ance with the facts.
Wheat Rates.
Take the export rates on wheat AZ
an illustration.
Kansas is the price in Liverpool less
the cost of delivering the wheat to
, Liverpool. The cheapest route to ship
wheat to Europe is by the way oil
Galveston. Every cent, therefore
taken off of the rate between Kansas
and Galveston is added to the price Of
wheat in Kansas, and every cent add
ed to the cost of shipping wheat from
Kansas points to Galveston Is taken
from the price of wheat in Kansas.
There are occasional exceptions tc
this rule when we have short croI
or when there is an unusually heavy
crop in Argentine or other wheat pro
ducing countries. This being an ex
port wheat country, however, the rule
, generally prevails.
I In August, 1906, spoke at Caldwell
Kansas, a station on the Rock Island
railroad some fifty miles southwest Of
Wichita. At that time the rate or
wheat from Kansas City to Galveston
a distance of 927 miles over the Rocl
Island railroad was liz cents pei
hundred. The rate from Caldwell tt
Galveston, 655 miles south, was 2t
cents Caldwell is en- route between
Kansas City and Galveston on the
Rock Island railroad, 271 miles near
er Galveston than 10 Kansas City, YET
the wheat growers in that vicinity
were charged twice as much for ex
porting their grain, as were the wheat
growers adjacent to Kansas City, and
the same was true OF Wichita, Newton
Great Bend, Hutchinson, Salina, and
practically every other shipping point
in the wheat growing belt of our state
Is this one of the Special rates" that
the senator says Kansas profits sc
much by? On the wheat crop of 1906
this unjust rate cost the wheat grow
ers of Sumner county more than $500,
900 for which they did not receive a
dollars worth of service in return. II
cost the wheat growers of Sedgwick
county that year $4,000; of Stafford
county, $275,0O0; of Reno county
$500 900, and of Barton county, $3.50,
000 and all told it cost the wheat
growers of Kansas millions. This
; enormous revenue was collected for q
service that was not rendered Not
: dollar of the money was earned.
Yet in the face of this astounding
showing, Senator Long justifies this
system of rate-making and declares
that he will vote to continue it as long
as he is in the United States senate.
The senator stated in a speech al
Oherlin the other day that the Hep
burn bill had remedied the discrimi'
nation in wheat rates. This he ought
to know is not true.
The Hepburn bill helps the big ship
pers but it is not available for the
small shippers who has neither the
time nor money to bring suits before
the commission to have the discrimi'
nation from which he suffers corrected.
Mr. Bristow then cited decision OF
the Interstate Commerce commission
in which it declared that these wheat
rates from central Kansas were
wrong and had been for years.
Long Votes Against Kansas Interest.
If, however, the amendment to the
Hepburn bill which was offered giving
the Interstate Commerce commission
authority to fix rates upon its own
motion, 10 correct injustice wherever
it found it, had been adopted, the
commission would have had power to
correct these rates.