Tonopah bonanza. [volume] (Butler City [i.e. Butler], Nev.) 1901-1909, 1908-11-07
EDITORIAL COMMENT.
.EEVADA VANS A SQUARE DEAL.

The traHc bureau of the Merchants Exchange of San Francisco has
gone IN record as opposing the petition of merchants and business men
o. Reno and Nevada for terminal rates, on the Southern Pacific. for Reno.
Notwithstanding that the business interests of Nevada are taxed hundreds
of thousands Of dollars each year, unjustly and unfairly IN account Of
present terminal arrangements of the Southern Pacific, the Merchants
Exchange of San Francisco, which has in the past posed as the friend and
ally of the Nevada business men, is now trying to shut the state of Ne
vada out from the advantages it would derive from active competition
between the east and the Pacific coast.
Under existing arrangements, the state of Nevada has no terminal
point on the Southern Pacific. A Tonopah mine owner. say, has a car
load of supplies shipped to this city from Chicago. According to the
railroad people, this cr of supplies cannot be diverted from its westward
course until it reaches Sacramento, California, which is a terminal point
Then, the "a is shipped back to Reno and thence to Tonopah. The ship
per is, of course, charged fol hauling that ca ron Keno TO sacramento
at through rates, and then charged for hauling the same car back from
Sacramento to Reno, at local rates.
And aggravatng the case is the fact that the car is never hauled to
Sacramento at all. but when it arrives at Reno is set off and hauled
directly from that city to Tonopah. The charge which is made to the
shpper-which the purchaser Of the goods mas 10 pay, OF Sc
nothing more n less than highway robbery. The business man is forced
to pay for something which he does not get He is forced to pay for a
round trip for that ar from Reno to Sacramento and return and which
trip the car never takes.
For the reason that the car is cut out at Reno, the railroad can not
put forward the plea that the through freight train can not be broken
until 1t reaches a terminal point. And certain it is that the railroad COM
pany a not say that a direct way bill, figured on a proposition of ton
mage and actual miles hauled from Chicago &c Ionopah' woul oe harder
to make out. and more confusing on the record books than the present
way Of figuring. That way necesatates a through booking of the car
from Chicago to Sacramento, and then a second booking from sacra-
mento back to Tonopah.
The Nevada delegation to Washington has a chance to get busy" on
this proposition. The merchants of Reno are taking the matter up
with the interstate commerce commission, and a live senator and a live
congressman can Sc represent Nevadas interests IS to secure recognition
of them, despite the selfish action of the San Francisco interests who de-
sire to keep the Nevada trade in perpetual bondage to them. 1t is not
expected that Sir Francis Newlands will help Nevada in this matter. He
Is one of the Hartman creatures, an ne vii 10 work fr tn ourtal-
ment of that steal which Hartman works o every pound of freight
shipped from the east to Nevada. If the interstate commerce commits
sion is honest in its endeavor to equaize traffic rates, and If it has any
power to enforce such legitimate rates, it should not be hard to convince
that body that the Southern Pacific is taking an unjust and most in
jnrous toll from the entire state of Nevada, and the remedy should be
prompt Otherwise, the interstate commerce commission is a farce and
an expense which should be done away with entirely.
The matter of terminal rates for Nevada should be made a state
issue, in which every interest should join. Reno will probably always
be the business center of the state-the San Francisco of Nevada-and
the rates should apply there, at least. And if San Francisco persists in
saying that Nevada shall not have her Just dues in the matter of recogni-
tbn by the railroad octopus, every business interest and man in this state
should declare and observe a boycott against that city, not sending a
dollars worth of business that way Chicago and St. Louis and New
York would be glad to secure that trade. and they would give Nevada a
square deal" San Francisco has been bowling about a Square deal
for Nevada but the terminal rate incident shows the derivation of San
Franchises interest