The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-12-29
TO MISS FARMERS
koOntz Says Reduction in Rate
Won't Reach Producers.
Discusses Rates at Rotary Club
Says Grain Prices Wrong.


! Expressing serious doubts that the
recent reduction of freight rates on
farm products would be passed to the
| farmer, J. R. Koontz, assistant freight
| traffic manage of the Santa Fe rail
road, today told the Rotary club of
| Topeka that basically the price which
! the farmer gets for his grain is
| wrong, and that the hope of the
farmer for correcting the evils with
which he contends is in organization
along lines followed with marked sue
cess by the fruit growers of Califoria.
THE price of wheat at Liverpool,
| less carrying charges, fixes the price
| of wheat at American primary mar
kets," Koontz said. kansas City be-
! ing our principal primary market, the
price of wheat in Kansas City, less
carrying charges to that point. fixes
| the price of wheat at Kansas points.
[ have kept a record of the price of
! wheat paid at Kansas points for the
| period from July / to the end of the
| shipping period November Is, and
there is a noticeabIy wide margin as
terror points, plus the carrying
charges from interior points to Kan
sas City, and the price of wheat in
Kansas City. This fIuctuation in in
stances has gone as high as % cents
per bushel. That is, the price of
wheat as paid at the country station
| in Instances has been 25 per bushel
/ under the price paid at the Kansas
City market. The carrying charge per
! bushel to the Kansas City market
Who Got the Money.
"You can make your own deduction.
but 1 should say that the handlers
of wheat have had extraordinary ex-
| penses confronting them. They have
| had to anticipate the rise and the fall
| of the maAAet, and in their charges
| probably have made provision
! thereof However, on the whole, GER
tainly during the past year, there is
| not much evidence that the grain
| buyer has particularly enriched him
| self 1t goes back to the thought that
| basically the price which the Kansas
| farmer gets for his grain is wrong,
! and the question has been very fire.
quently asked by thinking men, why
| should the price per bushel of the
| Kansas farmers wheat be predicated
| upon the Liverpool price.
THE Santa Fe has a number of very
| substantial alfalfa meal mills on its
| line in Colorado. Almost over night
| the trade of these mills disappeared
| A very substantial portion, in fact APP
| proximately so per cent of the ton
! mage of the alfalfa meal mills of the
west found market in the states
south of the Ohio and east of the Mis-
/
| count of any extensive dairy develop
| ments in that section.
| when the cotton industry revived
! there was at once a noticeable revival
| in the alfalfa meal industry The
| freight rate was reduced prior to this.
| but it did not result in the movement
I of a single additional car OF alfalfa
meal. according to the figures kept by
the railroads.
No Increase in Traffic.
1--WE have any number of Instances
where the reduction of freight rates,
/ in the absence of corresponding re-
adjustment of other factors. has not
! resulted in an increase in traffic"
| The contention that the freight rates
valuation of the railroad properties,
Koontz declared, is not valid.
! After ALL he said. sit makes little
, difference what the railroads are
| worth, because rates are not fixed
! cannot be fixed-with reference to the
valuation per mile of the railroad over
which the freight is transported. AS
between two given points, or as be-
| tween two sections, the line of the
| lower valuation. if the valuation were
/ to be the base for fixing the freight
| rates would fix the freight rate rs
| against the line of the higher valua
ton, for the reason that if the line of
the higher valuation had Its freight
| rate predicated upon its valuation be-
| tween the two points, its freight rate
| would be higher than that of the line
| of the lower valuation. and as a con-
! sequence, everything else being equal,
| it would do no business. Therefore.
| the man who has his dollar invested
| in the line of the higher valuation,
| has his rate of return fixed for him
! by the operation of the line of the
| lower valuation. In the hundreds of
cases as passed upon by the interstate
| commerce commission involving spe-
| cific rates, or, generally speaking, re-
| adjustments of rates Independent of
| the cases where the entire freight rate
fabric of the country is involved, the
| question of the valuation Of the rail-
! roads has never been considered as a
| basis for determining whether the
! rate should be revised downward or
| upward as the issue might deter
| mine."
| Big Attendance.
The attendance at the Rotary lunch
/ con today was beyond any recent fig
| to the parlors of the Chamber of Com
merce from the main dining room. and
standing room was at a premium dur
| ing the speaking.
| Clyde NJ. Reed. chairman of the
state, public utilities commission. who
spoke to the Rotarians last Thursday,
introduced Koontz today
| The program was in charge Of
committee consisting of Roy Bone
chairman; Frank C. Beck. L. C. Hodge,
| G. L. Hooper and Charles L. Mitchell
Before the spea king, Bone offered a
Improvisation of a female mind
reader in a vaudeville act, answering
alleged questions from the Rotarians
present at the meeting in a scream