The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-03-23
MILLION A YEAR.
(contil.ued from Page one.)

Fe Railway company, declared that as
result Of Investigations made by his
department, the freight rate was not
the factor which a great many people
claimed it was with reference to the
ultimate ~JnSumer.
In support of his declaration he sub
mitted an exhaustive array of figures
covering 80 towns in Kansas where
the prices, as ascertained as late as the
14th of thu present month, were the
same at many of the points where the
Quotations in freight rates were us
much as 80 cents per hundred pounds
In the course of Mr.. Koontz's testl-
nony, Commissioner White, as cross
examiner, injected an inquiry as TO
whether the articles which the VII
ness was dealing with were not so
called trust goods. Mr.. Koontz very
quickly replied by asking Commission
err White if he considered, as trust
goods, such articles as navy peahs,
canned goods, cheese, coffee ana a nan
a dozen other standard articles entering
into the household consumption MI
White did not reply.
The Trust Question.
1t was apparent that Mr.. White was
trying to have the witness ADMIT thdI
the uniformity of prices, without re-
gard to the freight rates, was on &C
count of conditions created by So
called trust goods regulation. The tes-
timony OF the witness clearly 1ndlca-
ted that the prices to the consumer OF
standard brands of canned gooos
throughout the state were approximate
" the same whether the freight rate
at one point was 30 per cent higher
than the freight rate at another point.
The examiner said Mr.. koontz,
has tried to indicate that the goods IN
volved are of trust regulation, ana II IS
true that the prices, even on the goods
referred to as trust goods are the same
1cl7n ST AnnaFRntlV-
admitted by the cross examiners cues |
lions that there will be. as contended
by me. no reduction so far as prices 20
the consumer are concerned. Then, why |
should the authorities of the state be |
using their offices in the direction of
pulling down the freight rates of the |
raflroads-which are Kansas inStitu- |
tions, and which have built up the |
state, more than any other industry |
taking ava. their revenues and giving /
them to parties beyond the confines of |
the state, who do not, as indicated by |
the cross examiners questions, give the |
benefit of the reduction to the people |
for whom it is Intended
Mr.. Koontz was quite clear in saying
that he did not feel there should have
been injected into the hearing reference
to so-called trust goods, as he felt that
the manufacturers of such commodi-
ties, as might have been labeled by the
cross examiner, as trust goods, were
AASO NOAAS q great "OIh lOT tie coz
sumner, having made it possible on ac-
count of economies to make standard
prices lower than those which have
ever heretofore prevailed.
Mr.. KoontZ's testimony was in con-
firmation of the testimony of w. N.
Todd, wholesale grocer of LeaVen-
worth, who has been in the business
for over forty-five years. Mr.. Todd
stated that on at least so per cent of
the commodities handled by his firm
by reason of the prices being the same
without regard to point of delivery, the
freight rate was not a factor. The tes-
t1mony of these two witnesses, one the
general freight agent of a great rail-
road, the other an extensive jobber of
commodities in general use, clearly
made record which is new in freight
rate hearings.