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About The independent. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907 | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1905)
ft mmm Vol. XVI. LINCOLN, NEB., MARCH 2, 1905. No. 41 -fife Iter - I " A s i ; i f ; t ' 1 . 1 1 , J j j 5: ' , T HOSE REASONABLE RATES They Have no Relation Whatever to Cost of Carriage or the Distance Freight is Hauled. TAKE ALL THE TRAFFIC WILL BEAR That is the Only Principle Recog nized By Any of the Freight Making Experts. In our last article we shipped a car of stoves from Chicago, 111., west to the coast and intermediate points through the Omaha "gate way." We will now ship it from Chicago north west and west through the St. Paul "gate way." As in the former article, we - will name the freight on a 24,000 pound carload of stoves, which takes the fifth class rate and in some cases we will name the rate on one stove, or less than carload, which takes third class rate, which stove we will suppose to weigh five hundred pounds. -.The' car to Janesville, Wis., 100 miles from Chicago, will be $31.20 and the one stove will be $1.20. If it origi nates in common point territory east - of Chicago, the rate will be the same to Janesville" as though sent on west to Winona, Minn., or to St, Paul. If .from' Milwaukee to Janesville, 71 miles, the rate is $24 and the rate on the one stove will be $1. Milwaukee, on short haul, ' where nearer than Chicago claims its right under the ton per mile rule to a lower rate than from Chi cagowhile for long hauls, the two cities are placed on a parity. Another thing is noticeable. At times we hear much of water rates being cheaper than all rail, but it is evident that conditions west of Lake -'Michigan and south of Lake Superior are tied up in such a manner as to eliminate the influence of water com petition; We find that an interior point, like Channing, Mich. (Northern Penin sula) takes a rate on thi3 car of stoves of $42 and a 500 pound stove takes a 2 rate. The same car will take a i;M2 rate from Chicago, all rail to Du- lith, Minn., at the head of navigation on Lake Superior, and the one stove will take a $2.20 rate, in-other words, if there is any truth in' the theory that water transporta tion is cheaper than all rail, those con ditions have been wiped out by combi nation and agreement between lake and rail transit agencies, Madsion, Wis., is 82 miles from Mil waukee and. .40 miles from Chicago. The car rate from either city to Madi son is $33.60 but the one stove' (500 pounds) will be $1.20 from Milwaukee and $1.28 from Chicago. At Portage, '.Vis., 178 miles from Chicago, the car is .'36, while from Milwaukee it is $33.G0. To LaCrosse, 283 miles from Chicago, :;.he car is $43.20 and the stove is $1.65. '..he rate is same to Merrill, Wis., 335 wA'.es from Chicago. Up in the north central part of Wisconsin to Chippewa : 'alls, 400"miles from Chicago, the car ' is !36 and the stove is $2." . To St. Paul i. -d Minneapolis, Minn., 420 miles from Chicago, "the fifth class rate would i..ake the rate on the car $48, but a spe cial rate makes te freight $36. If 10 Winona, Minn., 308 miles from Chi cago, the car is $43.20 because class rates govern, and the one stove is SS1.C5. if we ship from Chicago to Duluth, all rail 570 miles, the car rate is $42 and the stove rate is $2.20. ' When we get to St. Paul and Min neapolis and go northwest, the roads make through rates to points west, from the S't. Paul "gate way" on a combination of the through rate to St. Paul and local, rate west, but they use the class rate and not the special rate. This is done to favor the "gate way" point in its wholesale business at the expense of the consumer in towns west. For instance, the car of stoves take3 fifth class rate where a special rate does not make it lower. - The special on stoves from Chicago to St. Paul is 15 cents per hundred pounds, while the class rate is 33 1-3 per cent high er, or 20 cents per hundred pound3. A car of stoves going from Chicago to Brainerd, Minn., 138 miles northwest of St. Paul, the rate is the sum of $48, class rate to St. Paul from Chicago and $43.20 St. Paul to Brainerd, or a total of $91.20. The shipper that is on to his job can save $12 on the car by billing to St. Paul and re-billing to Brainerd on the local rate if he is not "non grata" 'with the railroad. Where it is desired to construe the tariff strictly, the shipper is up against the sum of the two local rates. Another thing, the rate to Brainerd, 138 miles of a haul from St. Paul on a level prairie is $43.20, while the same goods are hauled from Chicago to St. Paul on a special rate, 410 miles, for $36. Eastern peo ple wonder why western people, many of whom used to be moss-back repub licans, have become 4 populists. The railway man tells us the true princi ple of rate making should be based on the ton per mile theory. This is a sample of conditions west of the Mis sissippi "gate ways" and we could cite every town on all the western lines to show the application of this" principle did space permit. To Moorehead, Minn., from Chicago, the car rate is $100.80, a haul of 250 miles from St. Paul. This means a charge of $64.80 on the west oT S't. Paul haul as against a charge of $36 that is made locally for 410 mile haul from Chicago to St. Paul. This proves that rates are based on the theory of all the traffic will bear, and on the principle of "let him get who may and keep who can." To Fargo, N. D., the rate is the same as to Moorehead. To Jamestown, N. D., 343 miles from St. Paul, the car rate from Chicago is REPUBLICAN EDITORS They all Turn Populist and Denounce the Nebraska Political Pass System. DOBBINS SCORES THE PERJURERS. To St, 8129.60 and the stove rate $4.85. Riomnrrir N D.. 445 miles from Paul, the car rate from Chicago is $146.40 and the stove rate $5.35. To Miles City, Mont., 745 miles from S't. Paul, the car rate is $223.60 and on the stove, $6.25. To Billings, Mont., 892 miles west of St, Paul, the car rate is $324 from Chicago and on. the one stove, $9.90, Billings is the competitive (?) point on the Northern Pacific where the C , B. & Q. makes junction- for western-point business. By a peculiar coincidence the rates . are exactly the 3ame if freight goes via the Omaha "gate way" or via the St. Paul "gate way." Billings is 1,300 miles from Chi cago via the St. Paul "gate way" and 1,390 miles via the Omaha "gate way.'. If we take the car to Livingston, Mont, the rate is $336, the haul, being 1.C07 miles from St. Paul. The dis tance from St. Paul being 2 1-2 times the distance from Chicago to S't. Paul and the rate being over 9 times the Chicago to St. Paul rate. And -they tell us rates are reasonable. To Mis soula. Mont., 1,255 miles west of St. Paul, the freight on our car will be $360 from Chicago and on the stove $11.25. To Spokane, Wash., 1,512 miles from St. Paul, the car is $408 because of a. commodity rate which happens to fall exactly on the class rate to that point. ' If figured on the special and local back principle, which governs too many inter-point rates, it is $444. The car rate to Portland, Ore., and other coast common points, 2,462 miles from Chicago, hauled through Spokane, is . $300, which haul is 540 miles fur ther than to Spokane where the spe cial rate in $407. And they tell us rates are reasonable. In a later letter we will maite tnis smpmem via me Kansas City, Mo., "gate way" and the southern route over the Santa Fe. We will then take other articles illustrat ing, the several class rates from first class to "D" class to show the rela tions or rather the want of relations, between commodities. One who can catalogue and label present rates and make them appear reasonable can show anarchy in all its disorder and make it look beautiful and make a chart for freedom in autocratic Russia. A. J. GUSTIN. Kearney, Neb. Every Office Holder Takes an Oath Not to Accept Any Valuable Thing From Corporations. A Retvl Ballot ' A real ballot is what the people should unite in demanding. The kin dergarten, picture book, crazy quilt, political and typographical monstros ities which are now thrust upon a fool people in most of the states no more resemble the genuine Australian ballot than a Chinese paper joss resembles a Japanese man-of-war. After we get a fraud-proof ballot we want an effective ballot with the bulwarks of support be ing direct legislation and proportion al representation. Pittsburg JCansan. The Nebraska Editorial association, composed very largely of republican editors, met at Kearney last week and passed the following resolution: "Resolved, That the Nebraska State Press association in convention as sembled at Kearney declares it3 inter est in and support of the question before the legislature for a direct pri mary law, and such legislation as shall speedily destroy the political pass sys tem that exists in this state." ,' In advocacy of the abolishment of the pas3 system, many strong populist speeches were made by these republi can editors They could be duplicated almost word tor word from populist speeches made ten yeasr ago by the men who organized the populist party in this state. Perhaps the strongest speech of the occasion was made by Mr. Dobbins, editor of the Lincoln Evening News, a republican daily, of long standing. Among other - things Mr. Dobbins said was the following: "Have you ever stopped to consider why it is that in a state so purely ag ricultural as is Nebraska, a state where the prosperity of each of us is de pendent entirely upon the prosperity of the farmer, that six lawyers and two bankers represent us in congress, and not a single farmer? What influence i3 it that brings about this condition? It can all be traced back to the use of the free pass and railroad favor, which makes fish of.one man's ambitions and fowl of another's." Why is it that in the legislature now sitting at Lincoln it is impossible, notwithstanding the fact that more than a majority of the members are farmers, to secure the passage of bills compelling railroad companies to furnish the same facil ities to farmers' elevator companies that they do to old line owners? Why is it that earnest, honest men in the legislature have struggled for years to secure a reduction in freight rates and been unsuccessful? In 1902 the Nebraska farmer received four, cents less per bushel for his corn, six cents less for his wheat, five cents less , for his oats and nine cents less for his rye than did the farmers of Kansas. These figures are from the government re port and the explanation lies in the fact that there is just that difference in the railroad tariffs of the two states. "Why is it that you and every other individual taxpayer in this state must list with his local assessor at its full cash value every dollar of property you own while the railway property in the entire state is valued by a board of Kstate officers who owe their nomination almost as a rule to the favor of state conventions controlled by railroad pol iticians holding and distributing rail road free passes? What was it, do you think, that only last Friday, impelled the lower house of the state legislature to vote down overwhelmingly a propo sition that it be made mandatory for this state board to value railroad prop erty at the market value of its stocks and bonds, a method pronounced by the supreme court as just and fair on the theory that a property is worth for purposes of taxation whatever it is worth as a means of producing in come? ' "What dry rot has seized upon the morals of our executive and judicial of ficers, of our legislators, that permits them complacently to violate the con stitution and decency by accepting free passes from the railroads? Section 16 of the state constitution requires and every executive and judicial officer and every member of the legislature dora take this oath: "I have not accepted nor will I accept or receive, directly or indirectly, any money or other val uable thing from any corporation, com pany or person," etc., the latter cover ing his official acts. They evade the effect of this by insisting that the tak ing of a valuable thing in the shape of a pass from a railroad company does not influence them, but I feel sure that if you had a case in court against a railroad company you would be very much disinclined to submit it to a jury, every member of which had a pass worth several hundred" dollars a year to him. There is a very promi nent gentleman down at Lincoln who has been frequently heard to say that the fact that a member of a jury which, tried his damage suit against a rail road had a round trip ticket to Wash-, ington which cost him, the plaintiff in the case, tea thousand dollars. He found out about the ticket after the case was tried. "As a result of the use of the free pas3 in the creation of an overlord ship, we have this condition of affairs: No man can be nominated and elected to any high office in this state over the active opposition of the railroads; we can not get through the legislature of the state measures that provide for a square deal; we are impotent to com pel the railroads to serve the public so as to promote Industry by insuring to all shippers equality of Bervlee and like rates, to grant all cities the same facilities that they do to one, to treat Nebraska farmers as well as they do Iowa and Kansas farmers; they die-, tate what taxes they shall pay and what rates shippers shall pay; they permit political manipulators to ride free and charge the business man and the farmer, without whose patronage they could not exist, a rate high enough, to cover the cost of transporting all three. And what are we going to do about it? How long are we going to permit an irresponsible boss In an Omaha rail road office to force men, in whose breasts ambition stirs, to come and see him , first before announcing their candidacy for office? . How long ara we going to sit supinely by and Be our legislatures tied hand and foot by a clique of manipulators that has ita center in the person of a railroad lob byist? How long are we to allow tha railroad companies to sit in judgment upon who shall conduct our public af fairs to act a3 toll collectors on our highways, to "shirk their just share of taxation in short to say how fast shall be our pursuit of life, liberty and hap piness? We, as editors, ought to use every means at our command to assist in the restoration of the control of the state government to, the hands of the people, and the first great step in this work is the abolition of the free pass. We should help wrest from the hands of the railroad its most pow erful weapon, and we can accomplish this only by presenting the facta to the people and to keep agitating, agi tating." The readers of this paper will re member that the editor has frequently said during the last three or four years that it was impossible for the govern ment to endure and things go on in the same manner as they had for the last ten or twelve years, that there was certain to be a revolt again3t the tyranny of corporations and trusts, and now from almost. every state there comes evidences of such a revolt, and it comes from republican legislatures, republican editors and the rank and file of the republican party. All these. men are saying exactly what-populists were saying ten and twelve years ago. Populism is sweeping onward with the irresistible force of a tidal wave. . The men who run the republican nartv have retired from office, whetner it was that of United States senator or road supervisor, every man wno naa shown the least indication of disloy alty to the interet3 of the great trusts and corporations, at the first oppor tunity. Such men never served but one term, while the men who have stood by those interests, like Allison, have life situations and inside infor mation when to buy and sell stocks. The question remains whether theso republican editors who so gallantly as saulted the pass system will, after the next republican convention, which will be called, togethej: by the railroads in the same manner that all the republi can conventions have been called dur ing the last twenty-five years in Ne-