Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1919-12-05
CONCRETE EXAMPLES OF
SHIPPING COSTS

In discussing the long and short |
haul" amendment to the Esch bill
now pending in congress, Congress
man French in addressing the house |
recently gave many illustrations to |
show the inequality practiced against |
Idaho by reason of the present cheap |
err rates to the coast. Mr.. French
said in part:
In 1917 a steel bridge was built |
at Priest River, Idaho, that required |
/ in it's construction thirty five and
! half tons of steel. The steel was
/ sh pped from Jacksonville, Illinois
and the freight charges amounted to
$1,547.41.
Now, if instead of building this
bridge at Priest River, Idaho, it had
been built across some river in west
ern Washington, the steel being pur-
chased at the same place, being
( shipped over the same line that it
was shipped over to Priest River on
west a distance of 400 miles the
county in western Washington build
ing the bridge would have been ask
ed to pay not 81 ,547.41 but $966.38.
In other words the freight charges
would have been $500 less than they
were to the Idaho people, although
the distance carried was 400 miles
greater"
Congressman French placed before
the house a map showing that few
hundred miles removed from the Pa
cific coast and beginning few humid
\ dred miles west of the Mississippi
river was a region of 100000 peo-
pie as against 100000 along the
Pacific, yet the government allowed
these 100000 people to pay enor-
nous higher transportation rates
than the people of the Pacific coast
are asked to pay.
Mr.. French said that few years
ago two merchants were engaged in
the wholesale and retail business who
were good friends, and one of them
was conducting his business in Port
land, Oregon and the other in Boise,
Idaho. The stock that was carried
by these men was practically the
same and the capital invested the
same. Through the friendship of
these men they arranged to go to the
eastern markets in New York and
Boston and buy their supplies of cot
ton and wooden goods at the same
time. True the Portland merchant
travelled a day and night before he
came to a point in south Idaho where
the Boise merchant Joined him on
the trip east, but they journeyed on,
and as they compared notes they
found that their wants were identi-
I cal and that. they could be supplied
by the same manufacturing and
, wholesale concerns of New York, and
other eastern points. They made the
3 tour of industrial centers together
When either one purchased quanti-
ty of goods the other duplicated the
order. The only difference was that
lHO 6OOuS VI Ou6 were OTu6T6u SHIP
ped to Boise, while the stock of the
other was sent to Portland. The
merchants returned home and await
ed the arrival of the goods for fall
and winter display.
Now it happened that in the same
train were the cars carrying the
goods to Portland. l have said
that the orders purchased were iden-
teal, but when the Boise merchant
received his goods and went to pay
his freight charges he was asked to
pay $500. The Portland merchant
a few days later, after the railroad
had hauled the goods 500 or 500
miles further, paid not as you might
naturally imagine $4,000 or $4,000 or
even as you might reluctantly sup
pose $500, but only $4,000"