The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1921-07-29
WHY PET THE RAILROADS?

enough to loan the railroads $500 ,OOO,-
900.
The question is pertinent, and it is
time for the public to be Informed as
to Just what pull the railroads have
at Washington, that their demands
should be first, to meet with favora-
BILE consideration by the government.
The enquiry is especially forceful,
coming as it does in the face of the
prevailing prohibitary and arbitrary
freight charges, in force by the roads
with the consent and at the sugges-
ton of the Interstate COM
mission.
Montana people are not informed as
to facts sufficient to justify their
~loaning money to the corporations chat
are now bleeding them with extortion-
ate freights. The people do not see
the justice of keeping in power the
theorists who have built up a fabric
of visionary conditions, that u
them to lose sight of actual facts; to
forget the needs of the producer and
remember only the fantastic pleas Of
the railroads in an effort to keep con-
troll of transportation.
Perhaps the railroads are in hard
luck, but that the Panama canal was
built was a contingency which they
should have reckoned with; that the
automobile and the aircraft has in
terferred with their business, is no
reason that the producer should be
held to paying double rates of the
day when they had not the compe-
tition which these developments have
made. The producer is entitled to the
benefit of invention and advancement,
and there is no reason why the rail-
roads should hold the business of the
country back to transportation by
the sole use of rails. What must be
the mental condition of the board,
that is this day and age requires the
Montana farmer to pay on his ship
ment of wheat to Minneapolis, a rate
from coast to coast, plus the local rate
to Minneapolis? As viewed from a
common sense standpoint, there is nc
more reason for the government in
| ~terposing to advance the railroads tt
: a paying basis by artificial rates
than there is to legislate for the re
t lief of the old time stage driver, o,
= liveryman, each of whom has beer
swept aside by the onward march Of
civilization and invention.
The railroads are up against new
conditions, and must reorganize tc
meet them, and furnish t%ransporta.
ton at a fair rate as compared witt
the market, and the cost Of produc'
ton. They must realize that a new
era of transportation is at hand.
The Montana farmer has two alter
natives, these are failure, and thi'
means the failure of the state, or re
sort to the Missouri river as a water
way " iiid hel, anu " lhc duto-liuSi
for short hauls at home.
The arbitrary freight rates and tn
patent attitude of the Interstate Com
MERGE Commission, in backing up tn
I railroad contentious, better even thai
" the railroads themselves, are illus
e trated by the Saturday Evening Post
l. which last week contained the fol
lowing among other things in a lette
: upon this question:
n 81 put this problem up 10 Frank
Renwick, "a large dealer in sand
and gravel-the main elements in
road building so far as quantity
: and tonnage are concerned. Here
e is his answer:
# LET me illustrate this situation
from my own experience. From our
pit to the loading station at Plain
y field, Illinois, is just nine-tenths of
II construction. The freight rate from
the pit to the station was fifty-siX
: cents a ton. Poor's Manual gives
lie freight per ton mile as less than
one Cell. lHe oIlSlldi IdIt was
~ twenty cents. l appealed to the
railroad for relief, and the freight
lie officials agreed that as this mater
s. ial was for public Improvement
t one which would materially reduce
the cost of moving foodstuffs from
the farms-the rate should be re-
l. duced to twenty-eight cents as ar
X emergency matter. OF ourse il
10 had to go up to the Interstate Com
MERGE Commission for approval
That BODY quashed it as quickly as
N you could swat a mosquito.
lie "The sand and gravel business
Ia presents this strange paradox: The
- actual sale price of this building
commodity has beer reduced by the
Of producers, while it has greatly in
creased in price delivered to the
in If we gave our grave
- away, mined and loaded at the pit
ne to-day it would cost the average
n consumer more delivered than i
used to cost him before the bi!
freight raise. delivered at the poin
of consumption and paying TIL
gravel producer a fair profit
We can see how the railroads mig
Il" want to impead the road building or
ny gram, but no reason for the attitu
of the Commission. The farme
III problem is different. for TIE farmer
not the railroads competitor but o
Of the best customers the transport