The Washington times., 1920-08-03


There is the soluuon 10 the whole
problem.
The American people have built up
an elaborate living fabric without ap-
preciating its meaning and lis eco
nomic burden. Few men who eat an
orange at breakfast realize that or
snge has Travelled much farther 10
reach the breakfast table than they
are likely to travel on a months va
cation. That orange has come all the
way across the continent from cam
foTnia or up the coast from iar
Florida
There are a large number OF com
modities which come long distances
paying high freight rates (now
twenty-five hve to forty per cent
higher stilD to get onto the tables
or the backs Of the Washingtonian.
That Is an obvious angie. One less
SO to the man on the strap relates
to commodities which he does not
buy directly.
There is a rubber tire factory, let
us say, at Akron and another AT
Boston. The Akron company sells
tires in Boston and the Boston com
pany sells some In Akron and more
in Cleveland. These sales are made
because both companies have per
suasiye statesmen In the opposite
cities. But railroad transportation
must be utilized to send the Boston
tire TO Akron and the Akron tire to
Boston and the amount OF the freight
charge will be added TO the price or
the tire. with the usual percentage
trimmings of proft added).
HOW TT WORKS OUT.
still, another angle. There are
..aA al II
mills at Pittsburgh. IL is much
farther from the ore beds at the top
of the Great Lakes to Pittsburgh
than II is to Cleveland but the rail-
road men. who formerly were anxious
to get the traffic. and the steel men,
eager for advantageous rates. dick
cred, and Cleveland and Pittsburgh
got about the same rate
Both cities were anxious to sell
steel products in Philadelphia and.
although Pittsburgh Is much nearer
that city than Cleveland, further
dickers resulted in rates being made
effective which put both the near and
the distant city on something near II
competitive basis. The justification
for-this was the statement of Clevc-
land that 1t was not fair to give
Pittsburgh a monopoly of the Phila-
utipnid VI any oitltI n'''
The same rule holds as to coal.
brick. road building material. live
stock, fruits, vegetables. cotton, oil,
nearly everything listed in rail-
road tariff. Rates have been made
to enable distant places to compete
in the market near to industries III
the same business.
To do this in many cases, rates for
the short distances have been raised,
rather than the rates for the long
hauls lowered. There are not a few
instances in the country where the
rate for hauling goods long distance
is lower than for hauling the same
goods a shorter distance.
MUST EAT DOMESTIC FOOD.
But now the big rate increase piles
on top of all these rates. and there is
good reason to think the practice
must come to a definite halt The
business must fall to the nearby man
with a short haul.
The vast fundamental change in
American life which will result is
this: Communities must consume
those things which they produce in
their immediate neighborhods and
must deny themselves the far-fetched
products of other places. Washing
ton must give up California oranges
and content itself with the apples,
peaches plums, grapes, and many
other rich and palatable fruits which
grow in the orchards and vineyards
of Virginia and Maryland. Califor-
MIA must eat her oranges herself.
If there is cement plant near
Philadelphia, Philadelphia must buy
it's cement from that plant and not
from the one in West Virginia. II the
nearby plant can't supply the demand,
then the next nearest plant will get
the overflow trade. So on all down
through the long list Of thi?h;5 which
people use.
Thus. vast tonnage of railroad
Il ansportation will pc cut out. The
long haul will be greatly diminished
excepting. of course. articles of a
unique nature produced at only few
places in the country. Cars will not
be tied up for so long time. The
whole freight traffic turnover Will be
faster and in the aggregate morr
freight will be moved. The amount
of money spent on freight rates will
be reduced to minimum but the in
crease in the traffic will be tre-
mendous so that the railroads in the
end will make more money ami the
people Will nave more tnlnyS 10 use,
though the variety will not be SO
great as it now is.
OFFER SOME PROTECTION.
further effect of such change
will be that where now a busine IS
man is discouraged from building a
canning factory in the vicinity of
Washington because those at Trenton
are getting all the trade, he will see
an opportunity for a fairly open field
and will prepare to serve his own
community, knowing that the freight
rates bar competition. They consti-
tute his protective tariff.
Thus, every center will have
grouped about it the manufacturing
and producing agencies necessary to
it's life. A more generally distribut-
cd development of the whole country
will take place and larger supplies for
every one at lower costs will result.
One thing more. All the money in
the world is not going to help the
railroads unless the workers buck
up and do fuller days work. /
watched six men, the other day, At the