Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1914-06-04

5 per cent out of the consumers dol
lar. Out of the same dollar the farmer
averages a fraction over 90 cents, the
intermediary channels Of distribution
about 44h cents, and the railroads
about s cents.
When we start looking for the cul-
prit who Is to blame for the high cost
OF living We will have to look further
than the railroad offices or yards. He
is not hiding in a box car or behind
a big mahogany desk. His name is
Legion. He is not a a He is a
family. They constitute the unnum-
bered army of middle men who Car
take a bite out of the biscuit. as it
passes from the producer 20 the con-
sumner. They are warehousemen, the
brokers, the draymen and the retail
ers. In short, they are the agents
whom the producer and the consumer
must pay about As per cent of the
cost OF things for their services. The
railroads collect S per cent. Whether
this is too much or too little, it GER
tainly is not oppressive and seems a
bagatelle in comparison with some of
the other charges w pay without
grumbling. l heard, for instance, of
a man who shipped four bundles of
iron rods by a rail a distance of $50
miles. They had to be handled four
times by railroad employees, changing
cars twice. They weighed 1865 pounds
and cost for freight SO cents. The
owner had them delivered to his home
by truck, three-fourths of a mile from
the depot, and paid the carrier so
cents and did not think it too much,
though it was at the rate Of 65 cents
a mile, while he had paid the railroad
SO cents for hauling the same ship
ment 365 miles. We farmers take a
notion to visit the annual stock show.
We pay So to ride 100 miles in a
steam-heated, upholstered coach, which
on European roads would be consid.
cred too good for anybody except
grand dukes and imperial majesties.
We alight at the big granite walled
station and give u trunk check to
the taxi man, who whirls us across
town with our baggage, and pay 81
for that Commute two-mile ride, and
don't holler, because we don't want
to look cheap. But If we have to pay
$3.50 a head for shipping a thousand
pound critter a thousand miles and
sell him for $50, we sic our legisla-
lures on the railroads and try to tie
them into bow-knots and threaten to
tear up their tracks. 1t is mostly be-
cause We lend open ears to our long
haired, lop-eared politicians, who worm
their way into office many times on
the so-called railroad ISSUE. They
will accept free rides from these same
roads while they are berating them
for overcharges. They don't tell us
that; neither do they tell us that the
railroads of England, where all other
living expenses are cheaper and where
labor is paid about one-half what it Is
here and where population is about
ten times as dense to the square mile,
charge for freight 2.32 cents per ton
per mile, instead of TAI mills, as
here, and charge passengers 1.53 cents
per mile to ride in cars which run on
four wheels and look about as much
like a passenger coach as our better
live stock cars look like a Pullman.
The fact is, we demand of our rail-
roads services such as are given in
no country of the globe, and wherever
such service is Appropriated the pre-
MUM charged is about 3 cents or A
cents a mile extra. The ordinary pas
senger wagon" as they still call it
on foreign roads, weighs about as
much as a moving van, and a string
of them could be pulled, we'll loaded,
by a good pair Of Percheron horses.
1t requires only a go or s0-ton loco
motive to move these trains so miles
an hour. American coaches weigh