The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1911-05-13
FIGHT BEGINS ON
WOOL FRf|CHTS
Especial to the Silver State.)

ing reductions in freight rates on wool
produced in the territory stretching
from the Canadian boundary to the
Mexican border and west from the
Missouri river to Chicago, Philadel-
phia, Boston, New York, Baltimore and
other eastern and Atlantic seaboard
points are sought in the proceedings
just instituted before the interstate
| commerce commission by the National
Wool Growers association, of which
Frank r. Gooding, former governor of
Idaho, is president.
In making the foregoing announce
ment Frank H. McCune, traffic expert
for the people in the famous Spokane
rate case and suits in Colorado, Neva-
da and Oregon, who has been retained
by the growers as commerce counsel,
said in an interview:
'The case promises to be one of the
most important petitions thus far pre-
sented to the interstate commerce COM
mission. in that it practically attacks
the east bound schedules Of the higher
interior charge as compared to Pacific
coast cities as the intermountain cases
attacked the west bound rates from
the east. With the wool schedule re-
vised downward the whole fabric Of
east bound rates is imperiled.
The total production of wool in the
United States for 1910 was 336 6,S96, ,9O3
pounds, of which 10 per cent was pro-
duced in IL of the Pacific and north.
west states and 80 per cent west of the
Missouri river. Practically all of this
product finally lands in Chicago, New
York, Boston or far eastern wool mar
kets and the wool grower has to stand
the transportation cost.
The wool produced in the western
country is sold in the condition it is
sheared and is called wool in the
grease by which is meant wool from
which foreign substance has not been
removed The trade prefers to buy
wool in sacks rather than in bales, as
sacked wool admits of ready inspec-
tion and grading. Western wool is
subject to heavy shrinkage, ranging as
high as 81 per cent in Idaho, but on
this the wool grower has to pay
transportation charge, from which
there is no return to him from the car
rier or other source.
'"The freight charge from all Pa
cific coast cities to Boston is 81 a hun
dred pounds, but from eastern Oregon,
Washington, idaho, Montana, Utah,
Nevada, Wyoming and other states in
the same parallel, hundreds of miles
nearer Boston, the rate is $2.13 hun.
dred pounds, or $1.13 higher than from
coast points. The cost to the wool
grower to get pound of pure wool to
the Boston market from western ter
ritory is $50 cents a pound, while the
railroads will transport woolen cloth
from Boston to the same territory for
3.75 cents a pound. Thus, the raw
product pays a transportation charge
of nearly 100 per cent more than the
manufactured article. ;,
"The railroads invariably have
sought relief from the amended fourth
section of the act to regulate com
merce on wool shipments by filing ap-
plications with the interstate com
merce commission to allow them to
continue the higher intermediate rate
charge. These applications for relief
by the carriers will be heard at the
same time as the proceedings for a
reduction in rates as filed by wool
growers.
The railroads appear to have a
sort of superstitious reverence for
the classification they have placed on
wool and because of this they are pre-
pared to wage battle to prevent any
change in classification, fearing that
should wool be reclassifed it would
open the subject for a general reclas.
sification of the thousands of other ar
ticles enumerated in the railroad clas.
sifications, wool being considered the
keynote in the classification scale.
"The plea of the carriers is the
old, old cry of water competition, when
the fact is that no wool is raised along
the ocean borders. Practically all of
the wool is grown in the interior, hun
dreds of miles from the coast. We
hold, therefore, that the excessive
rates charged for the transportation of
this product over the rate as fixed at
the ocean line is arbitrary and unlaw-
full.
"The excess rates being exacted
from the wool growers in the western
country approximates 100000 year
lv. and this is the amount for which
the battle is being fought to save the
American flock master from ruin. As
this sum is divided among many
transportation companies the reduc. |
tion to each carrier would be as a |
trifle to the enormous earnings which |
the carriers secure annually. but to |
the hard pressed flock master it means
his salvation.
"The National Wool Growers case |
will attract nation wide attention. In. |
dications are there will be several |
hearings held by the interstate com |
merce commission in different parts Of |
the country, west and east, to gather |
all the facts and figures available, so |
as to enable the commissioners to give |
proper determination to this question, |
which means so much to every indi. |
vidual of the United States because of |
the wide use of wool in the manufac. |
ture of necessary articles