The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1911-01-13
FREIGHT RATES ON WHEAT.
Santa Fe General Freight Agent Gives
Company's Side.

san Antonio speech ABOUT the ADJUST
ment OF freight rates on wheat from
Kansas City and Wichita to Calves
ton, subject which has attracted
considerable attention in the West.
Mr.. Koontzs statement follows
"The Governor says that this adj
justment is costing the farmers of
Kansas many millions of dollars. The
comparison which the Governor
makes is as against rate of 1917
cents from Kansas City to Galveston
when for export The rate from
Wichita, as fixed by Judge Prouty, of
the Interstate Commerce commission,
was 20 cents per hundred pounds. At
the time Judge Prouty fixed the %
cent rate from Wichita, he had full
and complete information before him
as to the existence of the proportion
al rate of 1914 cents from Kansas City
to the Gulf
There is no wheat raised in Kan
sas City. Every bushel of wheat that
moves out of Kansas City, in the di-
rection of the Gulf, or in any other
direction, pays a freight rate into
Kansas City The comparison which
might be proper to make is rate
from Wichita through Kansas City tc
the Gulf for export as against the
rate direct from Wichita to the Gulf
for export.
"If a carload shipment of wheat
moved from Wichita to Kansas City
and thence from Kansas City to the
Gulf, the rate would be the combi.
nation of the local rate of 1914 cents
from Wichita to Kansas City, plus the
proportional rate, as referred to by
the Governor, of 1872 cents from
Kansas City to Galveston, or a total
through rate of 81 cents. as against
the direct rate from Wichita to Gal.
weston of % cents, or cents per 10G
pounds less than through Kansas
City
This adjustment was gone into
very thoroughly by Judge Prouty in
the case entitled The Farmers and
Merchants Shippers club versus the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway
and number of other defendant
railways. In this case the Governor
appeared as a voluntary witness and
offered his testimony in support of
reduction in the grain rates from
Kansas to the Gulf. Judge Prouty
unquestionably considered the Gov
ernor's testimony when he decided
that a 25-cent rate from Wichita to
Galveston was reasonable.
Regarding the statement OF the
Governor about the great loss which
the farmer has sustained as a result
of the rate from Wichita and other
Kansas points to the Gulf, government
statistics show that the wheat yield
in the United States for 1909 was 1915
100000 bushels; in 1910, 692,O00,O 600.
For the u months ending June 80,
1909, the total number of bushels eX'
ported via all ports, Atlanta and Gulf,
was 66,923244 bushels. For the II
months ending June 30, 1910, the total
expectation reached the figures OF AZ,
679,S76 bushels. There was exported
for the same periods via the Gull
ports the following: 1909 ending June
Goth, 100000; 1910 ending June
30th, 100000. Statistics further show
that for the period June 30th to Octo
Der 31st, 1910 there was exported via
New Orleans S2,439 bushels; via Gal
weston, $4,000 bushels.
The rate situation is as follows:
From Wichita TO Galveston the freight
rate is % cents per hundred, or Ia
cents per bushel of 60 pounds. The
ocean charge for a bushel of 60 pounds
from Galveston to Liverpool, is ~
cents; adding thereto the wharfage
and other terminal expense per bushel
at Galveston of u cent, we have a
total charge per bushel of 60 pounds,
from Wichita to Liverpool, the market
of the world, of 2234 cents.
The freight rate from Wichita to
the Atlantic ports of Baltimore and
Newport News is sc cents per hun
dred pounds, or q 6-10 cents per
bushel as against 10 cents per bush
ell from Wichita to Galveston; the
ocean charge per bushel from the At
lantic ports to Liverpool is 1900
cents per bushel The terminal and
other warfage charge at the Atlantic
ports would be approximately 1 1-3
cents per bushel, or a combined
charge per bushel on wheat from
Wichita exported via the Atlantic port
of 20 6-100 cents per bushel.
Can it be said that if the charge
per bushel on Kansas wheat, using
Wichita as a base, via the Galveston
port to Liverpool the market of the
world, is 31-100 cents per bushel
less than it would be via the At
lantic port to Liverpool, the freight
rates to the railroads leading to the
Gulf are menace to the movement
of the Kansas farmers grain to the
markets of the world?
The truth is that the domestic re-
quirements of the United States are
taking practically the entire yield of
the grain fields of this country.
There will be, as the figures show
for the year 1909 and 1910, in the
course of the next year or so, prac-