The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-10-20
THE AUTHOR Of
THE RATE BILL
The Early Career of Colonel
William Peters
Hepburn.

masculine, irreducible and sabretonguec
old officer of cavalry, whose name /:
attached to the last drastic law against
rebates, penalizing the railways which
give and the shippers who take, thought
of it, he laughed. We were talking
about transportation.
"'Why, SIR" he said, 81 emigrated
from Ohio to Iowa in steamboat.
Think of it. Most persons in those
days, however, travelled in wagons. /
well remember my first journey from
Iowa City to New York. The West was
filing up. Civilization was coming for
ward with rush. There were wooden
pavements in Chicago, a great modern
improvement, even if they splashed
muddy water on ones boots and trous-
ers when he walked on them. Well, l
set out with trunk. | bought a ticket
straight through to Davenport, where,
claiming my trunk and putting 1t on
steamboat, l crossed the Mississippi
river to Rock Island, in Illinois. My
second ticket took me to Chicago. in
the meantime I had been drinking
awful coffee and eating dOleful pie and
worse sandwiches at way stations. l
slept where / sat. A drayman in Chi
cago hauled me and the trunk across
the city to another depot.
"The third ticket l purchased took
me as far as Toledo, in Ohio. There
was no drayage at that point, as l re-
member. Another ticket and another
check carried me and the trunk to
Erie, Penn. From Erie l went to Buff
falo, where I procured ticket to AL
bany. The trunk now had become a
nuisance, but I didn t realize it. There
was no change of ears between Albany
and New York City, where 1 and the
fool trunk were duly set down, bearing
visible evidence of the wear and tear
of transportation. Such was travel be-
fore railways were joined together and
made into continuous systems. Before
we moved to Iowa we lived at Wells
vile, in Ohio, which is on the river.
Ny stepfather was 2 forwarding and
commission merchant, receiving grain,
cheese and farm produce and shipping
it to Pittsburg by water, whence it
was sent to the Eastern markets, either
by canal or in great COnestoga wagons,
lines of which ran over the Allegheny
Mountains. There was no such thing
as a through rate in those days. Each
boat was a separate unit of transpor-
tation. Nor was there any exchange
of business between railroads.
"My father, for example, received
produce from country merchant and,
paying the freight in advance, shipped
it to Pittsburg, where it was forwarded
by canal or wagon to its destination by
still another agent. Commission mer-
chants made money, but their charges,
of course, were direct and heavy tax
on the consumers i speak of these
matters to show that the amazing de-
velopment of our transportation business
has occurred within the lives of men
still active in the daily work of the
world. We landed at Muscatine sixty
seven years ago last April lad of
less than eight. l remember how glad
we were to leave the river, on which
we had spent many weary days after
our departure from Pfttsburg. Iowa
City, our destination, forty-one miles
distant through lonely country with
out bridges or roads, was built entire
" of logs. We went there in a rough
wagon, and saw only five desolate
cabins on the way The Territory of
Iowa, all that part of Minnesota west
of the Mississippi and the vast region
now known as the States of North and
South Dakota, contained only $4,000
inhabitants, and they were fighting the
hardest and worst battle of their lives.
The population now must be at least
100000, and every acre of land, ex
cept the forests, is being used for crops
or pasturage.
q have been a witness of the great
est work in nation building the world
has ever known. No man ever again
can have my experience. l have seen
towns and cities spring out of the tall
grass of the prairies. Yesterday a
mighty reach of timber followed a
stream to the blurred and misty limits
of human vision Today the trees are
gone and there are red and purple or
chards, fat fields and comfortable
farmhouses. So / have occasionally
thought that by singular working out
of the harmonies in the case 1 have
lived to take part in the legislation
made necessary by the tremendous de-
velopment which / have studied or
watched practically from its inception.
''Will you tell me in few words, -
asked, ''what the Hepburn law has
accomplished
Has Put End to Rebates.
"It has stopped the giving and TAX