Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-11-15

houses were used for handling the
apples, and a large number of men
employed to take care of the fruit
Now only one apple warehouse re.
mains, and other crops have taken the
lead.
Rates and Service.
The greater portion of the apples
produced in the west must find a
! market east of the Missouri river
and extending all the way to the At
| lantic seaboard, and even across the
! Atlantic some of this product has
made it's way. In this vast country
of ours, we are SO accustomed to
great distances that we take them
for granted without stopping to con-
slider their significance; it means
something and costs something, how
ever, to transport a box Of apples
from western points to New York,
nearly three thousand miles. For this
transportation, and because of the
perishable character of the product,
first class service is necessary. The
railway receives forty-eight cents per
box, or about half cent per apple.
When the grower hears that his ap-
pies are being retailed at ten cents
each in Chicago, New York, etc., he
should keep in mind how much the
railroad received as it's share, and
look elsewhere for the difference. If
he still thinks the transportation ex-
pense too high, he might do some
figuring on what it costs to wagon
haul his apples from his orchard to
the railway station; he will find, if
the distance is five miles and the
roads are of the average character,
that prevails in the irrigated districts,
of the west, that it costs him about
ten cents per box, and he will doubt
less turn his attention to something
entirely in his own power to improve,
and that is the wagon roads, for it is
a fact that his fruit runs more risk
of damage in a five mile wagon haul
over poor roads than in the three
thousand mile rail haul.
The apple grower, who at times feels
that the railway does not do what
is right, should remember the OBJ
stacles that have been overcome by
the owners of the railways in the last
forty years and not let small things
blind him to the great work that has
been and is being done, and should
obtain full knowledge of all the con-
ditions surrounding the railways be-
fore he condemns them and subjects
them to unjust criticism and attack.
Not Enough Work.
Another contributing cause to the
higher cost of living is the fact that
there is a growing tendency in this
country to insist that living can be
obtained with less and less work, so
that the labor cost on a great many
articles has increased very material
~. Every man can do some good by
pointing out that business can only
pay such wages as will permit it to
90 on. There is a much understood
about railway rates, name
y: that they are made on the theory
Of what the traffic will bear;" this
does not mean all that the traffic will
bear, but means that the rates are
so adjusted that the business will
move, the country grow, and give some
margin of profit to the owners of the
freight land some to the mover of
he freight. Without some conditions
will not be built. On the
'ther hand, the man who works for
wages must remember that he cannot :
tx his wages on the basis of "all that :
he traffic will BEAR" but must con- :
ider business as a whole, and real "
re that the owner must have mar :
in or he Will give up the business.
'ecessity for More Transportation :
Facilities.
Mr.. Knapp. chairman of the Inter
tate Commerce Commission, made :
he following statement:
"The question of railroad rates, that :
J to say of railroad revenues, involv- 4
8 a great deal more than the direct I
lterest of shippers or shareholders. 4
roadly speaking, it is a question of
ational policy second to none in it's {
importance.
Leaving out of account the compar-
lively small number of actual ship 4