Show ri = NEWS OF THE NATION Cullom Pressing the InterState Inter-State Commerce Bill I THE APPROPRIATION BILLS The TVorlt of tho Senate Slapped Oat for Several Weeks to Come General Notes American Affairs WEHINGTON January 3In the Sen of the ate tomorrow aft r the reading journal Senator Cullom will formally announce the death of hs colleague aod the Senate will adjourn as a mark Wednes to his memory On of respect earlier Cul at 2 oclock possibly day to Senate to proceed lom will ask the consideration of the InterState the Dill and there is a general Commerce that the measure will be impression the chief topic and will form tiken of discussion up thereafter until it is disposed dis-posed of BUSINESS OF TUE SENATE THE UNFINISHED is the bill providing for the establishment establish-ment of agricultural experiment stations sta-tions while the bill to prohibit members attorneys from acting as of Congress over with the accrued for railroads comes of the longpostponed crued rights that order It is improbable special especially the latter measure these portion of the will command some morning hours c f the Senate and one or of during both may thus be disposed the week It 13 not expected that any till be ready for consideration appropriation by the Senate this week It sideration expected that legislative week in the is discus House will be consumed by a sion of TUE APPROPRIATION BILLS the Ieported from and the measure committee on agriculture providing for the creation of a Department of Agriculture Agri-culture and Labor There are four appropriation ap-propriation bills now upon the calendar the Indian military academy diplomatic dip-lomatic and consular and pension None of these measures is likely to give rise to an extended debate except possibly pos-sibly the diplomatic and consular billOwing bill-Owing to its radical change as com pare with the former bids and its In creasine annropriations this measure lay become anobject of attack Nearly all of the measures which have been made special orders are likely to be pressed for action at the first opportunity oppor-tunity that may offer when the House is not engaged in consideration of the appropriation bills In addition to the bill lor the creation the Department of Agriculture and Labor already mentioned men-tioned this list includes the Dunn free ship bill the Pacific Railroad funding bill Oklahoma bill and the bill for I reorganizatioa of the Navy Department Depart-ment Towards the later part of the week it is expected that the conference on the electoral count bill will report an agreement and request the House to take final action which will probably he granted Senator Aldrich chairman of the Senate committee on transportations ROUTES TO THE SEABOAED authorizes the publication of the report re-port of that committee upon the subject sub-ject of railroad freights in the United Mates and other countries the study which forjthe purpose of settling certain questions pertaining to interstate commerce com-merce has long been in progress by this committee The appointment of the Senate committee upon interstate coiiimerce somewhat modified the work originally mapped out by the committee < on transportation routes to the seaboards and that committee has decided not to take testimony as it was authorized to do but to conduct the special line of inquiry in-quiry tonscertain it possible the relative rela-tive progress of the various grainpro ducing countries The complete report makes 500 pages of printed matter and contains many valuable tables and much information on the subject of transportation gathered from nearly every country in the world lhe first table presented indicates the progress of the United States for a generation Thirtythree years ago we produced 10000 > ODO > bushels of wheat and about 600000000 busnela of corn Twice in recent years we havetrfacbed oUO 000000 bushels of wheat and in 1H85 the corn crop reached 1800000000 a fivefold increase in wheat and three old increase in corn The increase in-crease in other cereals has not been so rapid nor are they regarded bv the committee as so important an increase as in wheat and corn In export trade I the committee says wheat has already ranked farst in value and in fiftveight years bus added f 2GOO000000 to the value of our national productiona > um equal to four times the value of exported corn and corn meal during the sme friHnrTT period It IS shown bV the tables Sw during the ten years ending with wLhSf average annual receipts of Km of all klnds at these ports have been m round figures UVd 260000000 ViihPk An attempt was made by the COtl1l1ttee to ascertain the rates of rfiMP from the principal intermediate Iom i to the seaboard and also from intermediate points to the principal I Cities Of various States The investiga tb0 wa conduct 1 in the hope of as I galIllllg the facts in regard to the ILtuls difference and oi rates charged for long abort hauls nT and to throw hht n u Tn upon the vexed question of the lang thi5 and short haUL In relation tot to-t iaqniry i the committee says If e rP s unim returs from which the above SUmmary IS constructed may be relied ona w the committee inl i has been care that selecting only the returns the rSSfareluPpn their lace correct are ev ra dee PharKl i for local freight dently Y levied on the somewhat gener5 ier principle of what traffic will nnnic n asachnsetts when the ter mlna are taken into consideration tne re t ot transporting bushel or whW h < m ItiJt more neftrly equable thanhn itny State rePrt Sente i in h r the summary I alssachuctts in W it tfaWG cents to transport a bushel of wheat I sixtyfour miles the cost in Connecticut Connec-ticut for transporting the same quantity quan-tity of grain sixty tO mile was 7 2 I cents in Pennsylvania sixty miles 42 cents and in Ohio sixty miles 5 cents I Of course the conditions mav not have been the same farther west we find Kansas paying 42 cents per bushel for tranbpoi lng a bushel of wheat sixty miles and Masachusetts for the same service thirtysix miles 22 cents while California pays 33 per bushel for fifty miles Excellent work has been done in all that appertains to through rates but heretofore no attempt has been made to collect comparative statistics of local rates A glance at the above summary also brings out the fact that the same gratifying reduction reduc-tion has not taken place in loca rates during tho years covered by this inquiry as in through rates In some cases there has been a reduction but in a majority of instances rates have remained substantially the same Continuing on the subject of local freights the committee says In Massachusetts the rates have steadily declined since 1874 on every road included in-cluded in the table In Wisconsin Missouri Minnesota Nebraska and California the same general facts are brought out and reference to all the published tables in the 1 appendix is necessary in order to obtain a correct idea of the extent of this reduction and te roads on which the reduction has been most satisfactory Reliablestatistics on local rates of freight are generally needed to aid in an intelligent understanding un-derstanding of this important branch of the transportation question Turning from the United States to foreign countries the committee shows the production and consumption of cereals in Europe and brings out the fact that the increase in population has been relatively much greater in proportion propor-tion in the great giainproducing countries coun-tries than It has been in the grainbuy ing countries The United Kingdom appears tohave purchased about two thirds of all the wheat the United States exported during this period and therefore there-fore special attention has been given to Englands supply of wheat For this purpose a table was prepared giving a summary of the wheat imported im-ported into the United Kiugdon of Great Britain and Ireland from the various countries during the period of seven years from 1836 to 1842 inclusive and the decades from 1843 to 1882 inclusive in-clusive showing total importations of wheat and proportions furnished by the United States Russia Germany British North America Egypt France Denmark Den-mark and all other countries In commenting com-menting on this table the committee jays A glance at this huinmary not only shows the rapid agricultural growth of the United States and its importanc as a foodexporting country but it also presents some of tue fcoHomic changes that have taken place in Europe In the first period the Uiiited States supplied less than 1 7 per cent of the wheat imported into the United Kingdom King-dom in the last period it supplied nearly 51 per cent Fiona less than 1COOOOO bushels it increased by a series of leaps and bounds to about 303000000 bushels Excepting the rapid growth of imports of wheat from India which does not appear in this table India being classified under all I other countries there is no instance in economic history of a growth so rapid as the imports from Russia I Rus-sia during this period Though they have increased in amount 1 they have not advanced greatly relatively In the first period they were nearly 10 per cent in the second they had somewhat increased in the third they had receded again in the fourth they advanced considerable and in the fifth period they had receded more rapidly than the increase between the third and fourth periods Imports from Germany have decreased from the second period actually as well as relatively re-latively while relatively the percentage of decrease has been a steady sinking from 63 per cent to 33 per cent next to 24 and IS per cent and lastly to 6 per cent The rapid increase of population the change from an agricultural condition to that of diversified industries all suggest themselves as reasons for this decrease I Germany the population is overtaxing 1 overtax-ing the foodproducing capacity of the country The committee reproduces tables from what s known as Ithe Windom report which is a summary statement of the amount pfywheat including in-cluding wheat and flour imported into the United Kingdom from 1860 to 1872 inclusiv ndl adds thereto a table of its own showing the same facts from 1873 to1883inclusive Commenting on this table the committee com-mittee says An examination of the table shows that i Russia still retains the second position and Germany third but the rapid changes in eleven years of British India from the thirteenth position the fourth is the most noticeable feature of the summary In the next decade Germany will be practically out of the race and it is more than probable tha India will contest with i the United Stales for the first position Elsewhere in the report this phase of the question is discussed at length and many important facts relative to the 1 cost of producing wheat in India and I other competing countries the rates of freightchargeJ the prices important points the rates of ocean transportation trans-portation etc are referred to It will also be observed that comparing the two portions that the supply from Russia Germany and France has decreased actuallyand relatively though of course it must be borne in mind that the Windom committee com-mittee took a period of thirteen years and this committee a period of eleven years but after due allowance for this difference there would still be a steady decrease One important feature the report is the showing in tabularJorm of the prices of wheat for a series of years in the principal countries of the world These tables show that the average yearly price of wheat is lowest in India ranging from 85 cents per bushel at Calcutta to 102 at Bombay between 1878 and 1883 Russia comes next the average for the decade being 121 per bushel at Warsaw 171 per bus lei at St Petersburg and 115 at Odessa Austria ranks third in the following order Budapesth 118 per bushel VJenna129 Trieste 146 and Prague l33 pep bushel The averago price of wheat at Algiers was for the entire perioci covered in tho inqnify j 128 per bushel and at Bierut 141 I In Germany the prices vary somewhat some-what according to the location The free port of Bremen appears to enjoy the lowest price 136 per bushel and curiously enough Stettin on Baltc the highest 170 per bushel Next comes the grain centre the Rhenish and Westphalia manufacturing regions Aachen and Cologne with 160 per bushel and 150 respectively for eleven years The difference in price is not marked between Breslau in the eastern part of the Empire Leipsic in the central cen-tral and Stuttgart in the southern 149 per bushel 142 per bushel and 145 per bushel respectively The central position of Berlin together with the excellent railroad facilities which extend on all sides Into the grain regions tend to give that city cheaper wheat the average price being for eleven years ending 1883 138 per bushel The average price of wheat at the principal grain port England was exactly 150 per bushel but in the appendix ap-pendix there are tables which show in detail the average price of alljgrains in the Kfnglish markets Rouen and Nautes are the cheapest wheat ports in France namely 154 per bushel and Marseilles 161 Imj or ant facts are brought out in relation to ocean transportation and the comparative cost of freight from India RussiS and the United States to Great Britain and a table is given showing in comparison the rates of freight for cereals during the series of years from three principal portsBritish India the great northera and southern ports ports of Russia and the Atlantic and Pacific l ports of the United Stated toGreat Britain Of this table the committee says in part A general fact and onebf the greatest importance im-portance to the United Statesis the steady decline in the cost of transportation transporta-tion and the probability that with increased in-creased freight to carry rates4between Europe and the most important and nearest ports of India Kurrachee and Bombay will continue to decline Should this tendency continue it will not be long before the cost of carrying wheat from India Continental Europe and the United Kingdom will be as low as between the Atlantic pprt and those markets Tables are also appended showing the ocean freights of grain from nearly r every important country England and also the comparative com-parative rates of freight charges from the various countries of the w0rld |