| OCR Text |
Show FOR JUST SHIPPING RATES Washington, D. C, Jan. 2 4. The right of the farmer and manufacturer in the middle west to make the nearest near-est and most convenient port for their export business free of any rate discrimination dis-crimination has been recognized in a bill introduced by Senator William M. Butler, of Massachusetts, chairman of the Pepublican National Committee. In this measure it is provided that the railroads without discrimination can only charge the lowest established establish-ed rate to all ports on the seaboard also provides that the steamship lines will have to pursue a similar course. For years farmers and manufacturers in the great interior portions of the country have in many cases been obliged to ship their products to in- J convenient ports becai of the rates. Ostensibly the actual rates were lower low-er than what they would secure by reaching their nearest and most logical logic-al port. When they have protested the inequality of rates which they were obliged to accept for their shipments ship-ments they were met with the information infor-mation that this was necessary because be-cause of the law of "differentials," a phrase impressive and confusing to the average mind. As a result we have had congestion at certain ports created by the lower differential arrangement ar-rangement with consequent increase of the storage and wharfage charges. The Butler bill recognizes, to put it broadly, that we have two great seaboards sea-boards and that the farmer and the manufacturer is entitled to ship to and from the nearest and most convenient con-venient port and on a rate basis which gives him a parity of rates with other shippers no matter where located. Certain now favored ports will protest; pro-test; that is to be expected, but the Butler theory is that the United States is a great unit and that all the people are entitled to trade on an equal basis. |
