Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 April 1910 — RAILWAY RATES ON FREIGHT. [ARTICLE]

RAILWAY RATES ON FREIGHT.

Bow Coat of Shlpplnar to tke Pacific Coast II na Been Hemulated. Originally the railway rates to the Pacific coast from eastern cities not on the Atlantic ocean were more than from New York City and other Atlantic ports. But the steamship lines began “absorbing” the railway rates from cities such as Pittsburg and Buffalo, to the Atlantic, thus making the rate by r*il and water from these places the same as by water from New York. The railways met this competition by also making their rates from places 400 or 600 miles west of the Atlantic seaboard, Scribner’s says. The manufacturers and merchants at cities in the middle west demanded the same rates to the Pacific coast as were given Pittsburg, Buffalo, etc., and the Atlantic seaboard. It was to the interest of the roads extending from the middle west to grant their demands. When a manufacturer or jobber in Pittsburg shipped goods all-rail to lh9 Pacific coast, the roads west of Chicago got only part of the rate. When a competing manufacturer or jobber m Chicago shipped them, the roads west of Chicago got all of the rate. Consequently in 1894 the rates to the Pacific coast were “blanketed’.’ —that Is, made the same —from all points in the United States east of the Missouri river. Corresponding changes seldom have been made in the rates from the east or the middle west to points in the western interior. The rates to these places are not directly affected by Ihe water competition, and therefore on traffic moving to them the eastern lines commonly exact their usual local rates to the end of their rails, and the western roads from there on. The distance to Seattle, Wash., from St. Paul, Minn., is 1,900 miles; from Chicago, 2,300 miles, and frojn New York, 3,200 miles. But the first class rate to Seattle, whether from St. Paul, Chicago or New York, is $3 per 100 pounds. The distance to Spokane, Wash., from St. Paul is 1,500 miles; from Chicago, 1,900 miles, and from New York, 2,800 miles; but the first class rate from St. Paul to Spokane is $3; from Chicago, 83.60, and from New York, f 4.35.