New-York tribune., 1908-09-20
THE AUTHOR 0F
THE RATE BILL
EARLY CAREER OF COLO
MEL HEPBURN.
He Tells Ho1c He Has Seen the
Country DeUeloped by Extension
Of Transportation.
Ey James p. Herrew-

washington September ~
When William Peters Hepburn the masculine
i--esucible and sabre tongued old officer OF cay
airy. whose name is attached TO the last or7s'io ~
law against rebates, penalizns the railways M
give and the shippers who take. thought OF IT, ne
laughed We were talking about transportation
WHY. sir" he said I ernigrated from Ohio TO
Iowa in ? steamboat. Think Of it, Most persons
fn those DAYS however. travelled in wagons
wen remember my first journey from Iowa city
70 Kew York The West was filling up CiV1llza-
zion was coming forward with rush There
were wooden pavements in chicago. great mod
erp Improvement. even if they splashed muddy
water on ones boots and trousers when ne walked
on them Well out with trunk bought
q ticket straight through 10 Davenport. where.
claiming my trunk and putting il on steamboat
crossed The Mississippi River TO Rock Island IN
Illinois NY second ticket took me TO Chicago.
in the mean time had been drinking awful oof-
fee and eating doleful pie and worse sandwiches
a. way stations slept where I sat a drayman
sn Chicago hauled me and the trunk across the
CITY 10 another depot
The third ticket l purchased took me as far
as Toledo in Ohio. There drayage at that
point as 7 remember. Another ticket and another
check carried me and the trunk to Erie. Penn.
From Erie l went 10 Buffalo. where l procured
ticket 10 Albanr. The trunk had become a
nuisance hut I didn't realize it. There no
change Of cars between Albany and New York
City where ] and the fool trunk We're duly set
down. bearing visible evidence Of the wear and
tear Of transportation. Such was travel before
railways were Joined together and made into con-
tinuous systems. Before we moved 10 Iowa we
lived at wellsvilIe, in Ohio which is on the river
Nsy stepfather was a forwarding and commission
merchant. receiving grain, cheese and farm prod
uce 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 through rate in those
days Each boat a separate unit Of trans
portation. Nor there any exchange of bust
ness between railroads
My father. for example. received produce from
q country merchant and. paying the freight in ad-
vance. shipped il 10 Pittsburg. where it was for
wsrded by canal wagon to its destination by
still another agent Commission merchants made
money. but their charges, CT course. were direct
and heavy tax on the consumers speak Of these
matters TO show that the amazing development of
our transportation business has occurred within
the lives of still active in the daily work of
the world. We landed Muscatine siXty-seven
years ago last April a lad Of less than eight
] remember how glad were to leave the river,
on which we had spent many weary days after
our departure from PiJtsbUrg Iowa City, our
destination. forty-one miles distant through q
lonely country without bridges roads, was
luilt enlircly of logs. We went there in rough
wagon. and cnly five desolate little 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
i. Eabtants and they were fighting the hardest
ana worst battle Of their lives. The population
now must be at least 100000. and every acre
Of lana except the forests is being used for crops
paSturage
Il have been a witness Of the greatest work in
nation building the world has ever known. No
lnan ever again can have my experience have
seen towns and cities spring out Of the tall grass
l OF the prairies. Yesterday a mighty reach OF dm-
h her followed q TO the blurred and misty
limits Of human vision To-day the trees gone
and there red and purple orchards, fat fields
and comfortable farnhouses. So have occasion
ally thought that 10y a singular working out of the
hsrmones in the case I have lived take part in
The legislation made necessary by the tremendous
development which ] have studied watched prac-
Jically from its inception
viii you tell me in few words" I asked what
The Ienbgrn law has accomplished2-