Omaha daily bee., 1909-04-04

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be said, however, that the whole milk plan
still works well enough in thickly settled
d~sirying sections in Illinois. Wisconsin and
Minnesota. but only in such territory. Even
there it is gradually giving way to the
hand separator system. The latter has
economy for its great merit. saving the
farmer the hauling Of the milk, which was
a continual task in summer time. as get
ting the milk to the station while sweet
was the one great point. Mixing OF the
skim milk is found To be a source of
spreading bovine tuberculosis, as has lately
been proven by investigators Of agricul-
tural colleges. who have issued warnings
against the plan.
Not all Of the cream produced in Ne
braska goes to the cresmeries of the state
Denver, Kansas City, Topeka and Sioux
City taking a great deal from the producers
in their immediate neighborhoods. On the
other hand, Nebraska creameries draw from
parts of Kansas and Iowa quite heavily.
The number of dairymen and farmers look
ing to Omaha for cream checks every week
is 10000. as closely as can be estimated.
Resume OF n Noted case.
So great has become this business of
cream gathering and shipping that trains
W. ~ - nv - AAS 80
on some sections of the roads, notably on
the high line" of the Burlington. 1t was
this development beyond the dreams of
early years that brought about the recent
strenuously fought suit by which the CEN
tralized creameries sought to secure a re-
duction in the rates for hauling cream. The
plaintiffs of record were Beatrice Cream
cry company ct al. Fairmont Creamery
company ct al. and Blue Valley Creamery
company ct al. The railroad companies d.
rectly represented by counsel were the Illi-
nois Central, Chicago & Eastern Illinois,
Chicago & Alton, Chicago Great Western,
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the North
western and the Rock Island. The Pacific
Express company was also represented, and
the Wisconsin Dairy Manufacturers and
Producers association ct al, intervenors,
having backing, largely, of the local or
country cresmeries.
After exhaustive hearings, the case was
submitted to the Interstate Commerce com
mission on December 1 last. on January
s Of this year the commission handed down
a decision, accompanied by a lengthy opin-
ion in which the whole history of the bust
ness is traversed.
The commission held that, upon the facts
disclosed in the record, the existing rates
were excessive and defendants were or
dered to establish new rates, which the
centralized creamery men say are too high.
The commission established a rate of 20
cents for ten-gallon cans for all distances
up to and including twenty-five miles. BE
yond twenty-five miles" says the commits
sion, 1--WE think the rate should increase |
cent for each five miles, up to and includ-
ing fifty miles. For the next fifty miles n
should increase 1 cent for every ten miles.
and l cent for every fifteen miles there
after"
Rates Made by Commission
The commission thinks the effort should
be made TO transport all cream in the
larger can. 1t therefore establishes rates
for five-gallon cans which are approx
mately seven-tenths OF the rate charged
for the ten-gallon can, and for the eight
gallon can rates which are approximately
nine-tenths of the rates established for
ten-gallon cans"
In the course of the discussion and opin-
ion the commission gives the centralizers
a clean bin as conducting a legitimate in
dustry In a legitimate manner. Holding
that "the trouble comes in the borderland
Cbetween where the local creamery and the
centralizers, one or the other, clearly hold
the advantage. of which there Is much -
the opinion continues:
1.-THE general situation must be kept
clearly in mind. The local creamery can
only exist profitably when it can manu-
f~acture 100000 pounds and upward of butter
annually. . Today farmers will moi
haul milk more than six or seven miles Ia
the local creamery. Cream can be trans
ported by wagon profitably somewhat
longer distances, but it may be generally
stated that the local creamery can only
operate profitably where sufficient milk IL
produced within a radius of half a dozer
miles to manufacture 10000 pounds of but.
ter per annum. Now, there are vast area.
in the territory covered by this complaint
producing at the present time milk from
which thousands of pounds of butter are
annually made, in which the local cream,
cry, under the above test, could not exist
for the reason the COW population is no
sufficiently dense to produce the necessary
quantity of milk within the prescribed area
In all this territory the centralizer affords
to the farmer the Only means of disposinl
Of his cream.
C~entraliEer System Necessary.
"To strike down the centralizer would
be to strike down the dairy interests II
these sections. This territory includes al
most all the states of Nebraska and Kan
sas, much of Missouri. considerable o
Iowa. and some of Minnesota and Soutl
Dakota. The centralizer affords Il
> hundreds of thousands OF farmers the onl,
: satisfactory means of disposing of thei
milk. A blow at the centralizer is a bloy
at every farmer who produces butter ia
in thousands OF square miles Of the terri
= tory covered by this proceeding. 1t seem
, plain that the duty of this commission 1
to establish just and fair transportatio
charges insofar as that can be done, an
allow these rival methods TO operate unde
those charges. We should not establish
scale Of rates with a view and for the pun
pose of fostering or discouraging eithe
form of this industry"
Since the controversy arose. the Railwa
commissions OF Nebraska and WiSconsi
have established rates for the carriage G
+" cream. The Nebraska rate ranges from
cents for twenty miles TO IS cents for g
miles. The Wisconsin rate ranges from
cents for twenty miles to so cents for q
: miles.
One great factor In the remarkable sue
S cess Of the centralizer plan is the reduC
ton in the cost of putting a high-clas