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Show PRESIDENT HILL ON RAILROAD RATES. When President James J. Hill of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific takes the pains to express himself on railroad iuestions, his talk Is always worth listening to. he knows his subject sub-ject so well, and can put forth his side of the case with Bitch strength and plausibility, that his opponents always kn)w without further argument, that they have something to meet. In his testimony before the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce, President Hill showed the necessity of special rates, of discriminating rates, and of adapting railroad charges to the upbuilding of name. He showed how-it how-it paid him to bring back from the northwestern coast, carloads-of lumber at" w hat seemed ruinously cheap rates, but he made It pay. because otherwise his cars might return empty. He mude a special rate on a big shipment of locomotives to Japan. He made rates which permitted large shipments of flour from Minneapolis to Japan until the Interstate Commerce Commission compelled him to make the rate public, and that at once killed the transportation. transport-ation. That is a powerful plea for the retention re-tention in the hands of the managers of the railroads, of the power to fix transportation trans-portation charges. It shows that greut transportation business can be built up in unpromising fields, with Judicious nourishing and encouragement. But il does not show that the same results could not be attained by the same meuns, by the Interstate Commerce Commission. working to the same ends in harmony with and through hearty support from the railroads. It would merely require re-quire hearty co-operation from the railroad managements to reach the same results, though that Commission were empowered to hae control of the rate-making. And there Is no reason to bellee that the Commission would in the least be reluctant to foster traf"c by precisely the same means that President Pres-ident Hill would foster It. But the large view of this Question President Hill presents Is not the real matter of complaint That real grievance griev-ance can easily be Illustrated. It Is not an Injury to the general public, let us say. for him to give a special rate on coast lumber that will nut it down In SL Paul to meet the market there. But suppose that he gave the advantage of this special rate to St. Paul alone, and not to Minneapolis, or to certain Arms or establishments In one or the other of the "Twin Cities." Or. suppose that he gave secret rebates on the shipments to favored houses. What would be the situation then? Obviously, those thus favored would be made rich; the city thus favored would thrive and enhance Its trade, and the other city would languish lan-guish Or. suppose that In making bis rate on flour shipments to Japan, he had allowed al-lowed only certain mills to have these rates, or pretending a low rate for all. had given certain mills a rake-off on the rates0 Is It not evident that the faored ones would have had such an advantage that their competitors would be driven out of tho trade? With the rates made so as to develop traffic, and to foster freightage that would riot otherwise be handled, there-is there-is a building up of business that Is commendable. President Hill's position posi-tion as to that Is unassailable. And with this In a rate whieji does not discriminate dis-criminate against any city or dealer, there would certainly be no complaint, but every one would praise It AN hem howeer. this discriminating rate is allowed to the railroads, It is oftener applied to staple freights than to those that otherwise could not be handled; and Instead of being open to the public and to different cities on equal terms, it too often happens that the discrimination works against certain cer-tain cities and In favor of others; helps some dealers and ruins others. And it Is because of this unfair discrimination in details, that the public Is exasperated, exasperat-ed, and loses sight of the side of the case so ably and so plausibly presented by President Hill, but which does not strike the real trouble at all. |