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Show I:m PRESENT RATES i on mm t "q Idaho Man Declares That They ( j j Have Built Up the , ' v LONG AND SHORT HAUL lit QUESTION DISCUSSED i jjy Railways Have Made Rates ! ' p; Tli.it Move Products Regard- j :, less of Distance. I li "The long and short hnul clause of ' ' ffl tho railway bill now pending In congress J " -ffj would inatigurato a profound and funda- j v i M' mental chango in our railroad ppllcy, and . I ft It would ho well for tho pooplo of Idaho !, !, to slop and consider Just how It would J ' ; 7 affect them," declared McCready Sykea I j; ,L. to the Bolso (Idaho) Statesman. Con- I i i( tlnulng. Mr. Sykcs said: "Under the In- l , j j tf tcrstaie commerce act of 1SS7 railroads 1 j J fi wore forbidden to charge more for a. J 1 ' l yjt short, haul than for a longer haul, In- i', : m. eluding the same route, unless there were .' ? m dissimilarity of circumstances and eon- ' a ;lj ditions. In great part tho future of all ' ' 1M tllc Unllc1 S'ntes west of Pittsburg was A J 8 Iff involved in the question that aroso In 5 '?J the construction and application of this 8 '71 act. It was a constant struggle on tile 'ii r tj part of the Interstate commerce com- ,' Ijl mission. In which the 'commission was T i. ,i f i tlnally defeated. Tho sultsequenl history I : i 1 of the United States would have been I "j.) '.' very different had the decisions been i 'H I' j other than they were, and tho present l' ) J if.' condition of Boise and of every Industry i j! l'( In this western country Is duo In lnrgo fl y ;.i t ' measure to tho way in which that con- kf ( if.;;: iroversy was decided. It would be well i (1 lor the present generation and for our " l) lawmakers to recall tho history of that '! Jli controversy and to consider It In the , j i' l light of the subsequent growth of our ' i j !f Inland cities and their tributary tcrri- 1 S f. ii tory. before rushing upon a policy that III j s,l reverses absolutely tho historic course of i U J 1 'j development of our western enjplre. !f f j i ' "On this continent thero has been ac- . j ' : ii compllshcd In hardly moro thnn a single I) generation nothingness than tho building 1 !)' up of great and flourishing, highly clvll- j f l i1 Jzod communities from IROo to :!000 miles . t ' . overland from their markets, developing " ! i and satisfying their wants by tho impor- t 1 j tatlon of manufactured goods over llko i y: distances. Nothing of this sort has ever . , ; . i.k been known before, and with tho single 'jiV i! r.xcoplion of Canada It is not wholly 111 , ;) probable that anything like it will ever bo known again. Neither In Europe, nor Australia, has anything like it occurred. Upbuilding of Country. "Fortv years ago it was a commonplace common-place of political economy that wheat could nover be grown on a largo scale In the Mississippi valley, bocnuso of Its great distance from the seaports that led to the markets of tho world, and the prediction that Pittsburg might become the center of the grout steel and iron industry was scouted, because Its distance dis-tance from great bodies of oro forbade any such development except on tho hvpolhcsls of the overthrow of all previously pre-viously accepted theories of transportation. transporta-tion. "And .vol theso things are precisely what happened, and the previously accepted ac-cepted theories were In both cases overthrown. over-thrown. During the last generation the ablest and most powerful minds In a business way have, been largely attracted at-tracted to railroading, and whllo Europe was taking railroads under government ownership and control, and Australia was lllllng the statute books with government regulations. Amerlran managers wore actually ac-tually running trains loaded with fn-lght and solving the problem of moving trains 2000 and 3000 miles to market and bringing bring-ing back the same trains loaded with merchandise to supply tho wants of the original producers. While the Australian system of government railroad rates was concentrating half the population of Australia Aus-tralia In three cities, and whllo Europe was building the slum faster that site built the village. 'American itillroad enterprise en-terprise was dotting tho map with small cities and distributing population and Industry throughout the west. Boise. Spokane. Salt Lake. Denver and the hundreds hun-dreds of cities and thousands of villages In the middle west furnished and yot furnish tho most striking Illustration that, history affords of tho possibilities of social and Industrial-development under un-der a system free from the curse of n paternal government and open to the invigorating touch of private enterprise. Rates to Move Products. "Now tho important thing to remember remem-ber Is that during all this time there was no permanent or effective application applica-tion of the theory of distance tariffs or of specific railroad rales having anything any-thing to do with the cost of tho speclilc service. Whore would Idaho have boun today If railroad rates for the past twenty years had been based on a dlstanco tariff or on cost of service? Tho coast cities, by reason of water competition of the most real and vigorous kind, occupy an impregnable position; we can nover expect ex-pect to have lb ccoast rates, anil no legislation leg-islation of a paternal government can subvert eternal natural laws. What IBolso and her territory needed was a rate that would move her products to market that would move her fruit and sheep and lumber and wool from a part of tho world where they ivero plentiful to a part of the world where thev were scarce. That Is and always has been the basis and the fundamental function of commerce. We could well afford to pay a little more for our furniture- and clothing and wagoim and automobiles so long as we were finding find-ing profitable markets for our produce. LCast-bound ' trains wont out from Spokane Spo-kane loRded with metals and came back loaded with manufactures. The marvelous marvel-ous growth of such cities ns Bolso and Spokane shows whether or not the rates were rates lhat made the trafllc move, and whothor or not thoy v.-er loo hlgn to permit tho growth of groat and thriving thriv-ing communities. "Now. against all this natural and normal nor-mal development tho Intorstnto commerce commission twenty years ago was making mak-ing tho most stubborn light. In this obsession of paternalism and rate regulation regu-lation thai has come over the American people we nre apt to forget the history of that controversy. What Railroads Wanted. "The Interstate commerce commission never got quite free of Its notion of a distance tariff, or rather, of a tariff based in tho main on distance and tho cost of sorvlc. The rnllroAds of this country, on the other hand, have never framed tholr rates on any such basis NoltluM- capitalization, fixed charges nor specific cost of service has anything to do with railway rates. What the railroad rail-road Is after Is to make the wheels go round, to run Its trains loaded rather than empty, to run them loaded in both directions, and most of nil. to develop territory. With comparative freedom, hitherto, lo do this, they huvo built up n territory 3000 miles across and have brought tho avcrago freight rate below eight mills per ton-mile lower than In nnv other country on earth. Wo In Boise can hardly lie hoard 10 say thai tholr rates have been Inconsistent with building build-ing up the country. "The Interstate commcrco commission ropeatcdlv set osldo rates greater for a short haul than for a long haul including includ-ing the same route when thero was not present the element of water competition. competi-tion. The commission long contended that water competition wns tho only thing that could cause dissimilarity of circumstances and conditions under tho law. The uestlon came tlnally before tho courts, and was set at rest by tho supremo court of the United States, which held that In the absence of bad faith It wns primarily for the rallroadu to determine whether or not there wore dissimilarity of circumstances and conditions, con-ditions, and that this dissimilarity need not bo confined to tho snglo Instance of water competition. Theso decisions are among tho most Important that have ever been rendered, and if they had boon the other way wo should nover have had any such development of tho west as thero has been and tho Union Pacific would very llkolv still be what It wan less than twenty years ago. 'two streaks of rust across the sagebrush.' "What the American railways did was to build up through tho country's smaller cities Jobbing ccntors that contributed steadily toward a greater diffusion of population and that to some extent counteroctod tho tendency to concentration concentra-tion in the fow very Inrgest cities. The basing point system of higher freight rates for Intermediate points was never confined to points with water competition, competi-tion, but was applied with salutary effect ef-fect throughout the Interior. Without It theso Jobbing centers would never have competed with the great wholesalo centers cen-ters for the trade of tho smaller towns "Now what Is sought by the pending bill? Its purpose Is startling, dangerous and revolutionary, for it puts this power right in tho hands of the Interstate commerce commission and completely subverts the policy which for nearly twentv yoars nas boon attended by our era of unprecedented building up of the country. Nothing but the most shortsighted short-sighted policy on the part of our people can make us assent for a moment to this radical and destructive measure. So far from benefiting Boise and other Inland cities. It would curse and blight them nnd dangerously imperil their growth The pending bill shifts the burden of proof; It compols the railroads to obtain the approvnl of the commission before Initiating Initiat-ing a rate charging more for u short haul than for a long haul. Including the same route, and the history of the Interstate-commerce Interstate-commerce commission's persistent efforts of twenty vears ago shows nil too plainly that llko so ninny other governmental bodies having power without responsibility. responsi-bility. It is dominated by scholastic and popullstic theories of social progress. Its particular obsession Is of thoorles of rales based on cost of service. These theories have been a blight on the growth of commerce com-merce nnd Industry wherever applied, and have long been pretty well discredited outside of official circles and the political politi-cal platform. They have been tho curse of continental Europe, with Its high freight rates, congested population and hampered Industry. Just as they havo been of Australia, with Its long experiments experi-ments In rates based on cost of service nnd with nearly hnlf of Its population concentrated In tho three cities of Sydney. Syd-ney. Melbourne and Aukland. , "Wo must not forget that taking each railway system as a whole Its rates must be remunerative. Distance tariffs are not and never can bo remunerative In' creating densltv of traffic, and density of traffic Is the llfeblood of remunerative remunera-tive railway transportation. Lower westbound west-bound rates Into Interior cities, such as Boise. If forced on the railroads by an administrative body Incnpoble In the nature na-ture of things of ndeciuato familiarity with the Infinitely delicate and complex mechanism of th rates of the svstem as a whole. logically lead by way of recoupment recoup-ment to higher enstbound rales. Ann our low eastbound rates are the very breath of our lndustrlol life. The westbound west-bound rates ar not. Can we nfford to make such a disastrous exchange?" |