The Holbrook news., 1911-02-17
THE PENNY IN
 TRADE CIRCLES

''Got any pennies?" inquired a sad
 eyed man of philosophic bent, address
 ing the paying teller of one of San
 Francisco's leading banking establish
 ments.
 "Pennies!" exclaimed the paying
 teller, this is not the cold, calculative
 East; this is the warm-hearted gener-
 ous West. Pennies! That spells puri-
 tanic commercialism. You will find
 pennies, and plenty of them perhaps, after you fly over the Sierras, across
 the Rockies and swim the Missouri, but not till then. We have yet to learn, and yet to practice in our conn
 mercial life on the Coast, the subtle
 process of splitting hairs.
 That is perhaps true up to the pres
 ent. But you know they are talking
 of reducing freight rates"
 Yes; I know they are talking about
 tons and carload rates and ton-miles,
 but that is the same old magnifying
 glass used by the office hunter and profit hunter to deceive the consumer
 You may cut your car load rate or ton rate in two and the consumer will derive no benefit What is it that the consumer buys by the carload or ton ? Is it sugar, flour, butter, fruit, gro ceries, eggs, clothing, shoes?"
 Mo- said the sad-eyed man reflect ively, that is where l thought the penny would come in. 1 know that the dealers will profit by cuts in carload and less-than-carload rates, but I am not interested in that, for if only the i dealers are to profit by it I'd rather see it go to the railroad for better service, new lines, more wages and de velopment of the resources of the | State, for that would benefit every I l.. -l1k @1, T. -x the consumer might get some of it, | too"
 How? The San Francisco consum- CT, we will say, buys a dozen of eggs. The rate on eggs from Petaluma is about one-tenth of one cent a dozen. How will cut in rates help him. The freight charge on a suit of clothes from the Atlantic seaboard to San Francisco is about 19 cents, on a hat one and one-half cents, on over coat 15 cents and on a pair of shoes about 515 cents. If these rates were cut in two, how much do you suppose would be left for tine consumer after the various jobbers, commission brok- CTS and dealers got theirs. The trou- ble with you, my friend, is that. lil1es many others, you do not look into these things from the proper angle. V in tons and carloads is one thing; viewing it from that of the consumer in pounds and single articles is quite another. It does not necessarily fol- low-indeed it is seldom true-that rate reductions that are beneficial to the dealer are also beneficial to the consumer. The consumers welfare is always present and uppermost in the put forth for reducing rates. but it is also always absent and lost sight of when it comes to dividing the benefits. I'll admit, my friend, if any part of the benefit from rate reduc- lions was to go to the consumer, the demand for pennies would be active, .or his share would rarely get above hat denomination, but the consumer s merely a shield or curtain behind which designing minds hide them selves while plotting against the ob- ect of attack. The real motive be lind this attack on rates is not to benefit the consumer The consum- ITS welfare is a myth. The fellows Yho are directing the fight have no nore concern in the welfare of the consumer than in the fate of the man n the moon. Get any one of them : o figure out for you how much the consumer will benefit by it-how much .heaper he will be able to buy. See hen if wampum, or beads, or buttons, l won't be just as likely to be essen ial in retail business circles as pen lies. Rate reduction, my friend, sus- aims no relation to price reduction md those who expect to buy goods / heaper because of a reduction in ates are, to say the least, poorly in- t ormed on tricks of the trade"