The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1911-01-27
over the onslaught Of Brownie the
MISERABLE.
THE BEST RAILROAD COM.
MISSION

position in regard to 1t at this time
The Republicans passed through tn
campaign with it in their platform
} and with Democratic governo
whose party was silent upon the sub
: ject and whose success is by man.
attributed to this same silence; thu
: prospects for the defeat of the bill
from political causes are very mucl
in favor of those opposing it.
i But there are other reasons why
the railroad commission should bt
forgotten now and saner reasons thar
ever sprang from political consider
atoms. Reasons based upon eco.
nomic conditions that must of nee.
essity witness the leveling of other
things to correspond with it.
| We have watched the promulga-
ton of reasons for and against the
commission, and the most forceful
things that have come to observa-
tion are that state commission can
deal only with freight that is billed
from one place within the state to
some other station within the state,
and this is said to constitute only
about eight per cent. of the freight
handled in stations in Idaho, the rest
of it being Interstate, and amenable
to the Interstate commence COM
mission established some thirty years
ago.
Idaho is becoming an agricultural
commonwealth, and careful observa-
lions lead to the conclusion that
while We have the conditions neces-
sary to produce staple crops and
domestic animals and dairy products
as cheaply as is necessary to keep
us on competitive basis with people
in other states, yet as a matter of
fact our farmers are not generally
getting rich. Large areas are under
mortgage, thousands of farms have
poor buildings, buildings that were
poor five or ten years ago and are
not being replaced by better ones,
and the methods of farming and of
stock-raising are such that there
seems to be little prospect of their
financial conditions improving radi-
cally. And people are disposed to
lay much of the blame at the door
of the railroads. Many of them do
It indirectly by stating that every
thing they buy is so high, that the
high prices are due to high freight
rates, and that necessarily the roads
are collecting exorbitant freight
tariffs.
On these same farms large acre.
age is cultivated in superficial way,
and II hay and grain are raised, much
of it is shipped instead of being con-
sumed at home. If hogs are raised,
they are too often shipped away to
Omaha, and hams and bacons are
purchased at the store for the family
use, the price being based upon the
cost of live hogs shipped to Omaha,
and the hams and bacon being ship
ped back.
The farmers can butcher their own |
hogs and save the freight both ways
and also the profits of the many peo-
pie who handle the porkers. Then,
too, the breeds of hogs raised are
too often Inferior and it takes as
much feed and trouble to care for
scrub hogs that grow slowly as it
does pure breeds that grow rapidly.
The same principle may be applied
to many things produced or that
should be produced on the Idaho
farms. and quite as important is the
selection of seeds for all farm crops.
May a field is treated for crop
md there is only poor stand, owing
~ 'hS ioSh VI pl0pdldllOu VI lU6
seed or to large percentage of it
,eing imperfect. There is more loss
n potato crops from planting seed
hat has lain in heap and heated
lfter the potatoes were cut for plant
ng than there is lost on exorbitant
reight rates. There is. more loss
rom imperfect stand in wheat that
vas not properly cleaned in the fam
ling mill and which in consequence
I'D not flow properly from the drill
IN account of particles that choked
he feed, than there is in bad freight
ates. All the inferior seed that is
'lanted bestows it's penalty in the
mailer yield, and no amount of re-
uction in freight rates would ever
vercome the downward trend of
1heat crops If no effort were made
o have perfect seed. In the very
lature of things 1t must put the
armer and the railroad both out of
BUSINESS If followed to it's logical
1t isn't so much what t.