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Show v HIGH PRICES BLAMED TO FREIGHT RATES OM RAILROADS Speakers at . National Ship-pert Ship-pert Conference Do Some Plain Talking CHICAGO. March IB. RionI-bllity RionI-bllity for the high prices of foodstuff was ascribed to railway rates by speakers before the national shippers ship-pers conference. ' called with a view to hrinaina about a reduction of railroad rail-road rates. Speakers said: . "Cabbfl selllnir In ChioBiro for 7 CMitu per pound Is sold for $3.59 a ton In Texan, and oranges are rotting: in California under slsrna readine: Too cheap to sell; help yourself.' The conference, representing farmers, far-mers, manufacturers. miners and others, rejected a proposal that a permanent organization be formed to be known as the National Ora-anlsa-V . tion of Shippers and Consumers, but L Indicated resolutions of protest would be sent to congress and to the imtt-' imtt-' road executives. Livestock men, railway officials and men representing the railroad brolher- ARE PROHIBITIVE. "I am a farmer, but I can't produce unless I can transport." said J. R. Howard, president of the American Farm Flureau federation, who was chairman. "I am a consumer, but I can't consume urile thin are transported to me. The schedule of transportation charges is prohibitive. They must come down. "To send a bushel of corn from Omaha 'to New Tork costs as much as the farmer gets for it on the Missouri river." K. H. Cunningham, representing; the Towa Knrm Bureau federation, declared de-clared "farmera are helpless and agriculture Is flat on its back In the utter.M w..f: MUST TAKE LOSSES. Towa com, he said cost the farmer 22 cents a bushel to Chicago, where he gets 38 cents, notwithstanding that it cost ?3 cents a bushel to produce. Judge 8. H. Cowan of Ft. Worth, Tex., representing lives took shippers, said: , "Th railroads must take their losses to get business started. Abolish the Increased rates and business busi-ness will boom." Luther Walter, Chicago, railroad attorney, recommended abolishment of the system of agreements regarding regard-ing railroad labor. Glen Plumb, author of the Plumb plan, said twenty-three officials of the Pennsylvania railroad received 100 pr cent more In salaries than the twenty-thre higheat government officials, including the president |