| Show ELEMENTS OF THE FREIGHT FREIG fIT QUESTION tom business men of this city complain tint existing freight tariffs give to job g houses in omaha kansas city in in francisco portland and other ages atties ct ties east and west the trade of fontana Kon tana idaho and utah a belt of auntry of which salt lake city is the us tural and ought to be the de facto commercial coutre centre and jobbing point the fine region is claimed to be atu naturally rally tributary to this thio city is a wip strip of country running almost due north jorth and south narrow in proportion to its length and crossed longi tudin rily ally by the utah northern and utah p 10 central litral railroads at present freight freig at from either east or west is laid down at the principal points in this strip of country at the same game rates as to salt lake city for eu mple the rate either from chepa the pacific boast or the missouri river elver to butte is the same as from the same points ate to this city business men here bold 0 d that it is not right to give to a mining town like butt butta facilities as a bobbi jobbing g point for the trade between tut that place and this equal to those givenco riven to a metropolis like salt lake city what business men here say of litte antte in this regard applies to all points on the utah northern many of el which receive freight at toe the same rates which this city pays the chamber of commerce here does matask the union pacific system to raise rates to idaho and montana points but to reduce them to city so go as to allow jobbing houses here to distribute the merchandise destined for utah idaho and montana instead of having it handled by the wholesale merchants of cities on the missouri misso uri river biver and the pacific coast the claim is as a matter of abstract right this city is entitled to this trade the I 1 argument ra ment mainly relied upon to 10 secure the desired concessions from the reads sharing in the traffic of this re gion the union pacific especially may be thus stated it will pay those roads to foster this city in preference to river and coast points for the reason chatan iu increase crease of business dealta mid and population at and near this cl city ity would directly benefit the roads tanning fanning here in a degree incomparably greater that the good that will result to them by working lathe interest of jobbing houses la in such ach places as kansas city omaha portland and san francisco in illustration of this argument it is shown that could the business of say a dozen of the leading jobbing houses of utah be doubled the direct benefit to the roads running here especially the union pacific would be vastly greater than were the same number of business houses of bf similar BiBi ilar capital in coast and river cities to have bavo a like increase of bustness bust eess this isa is x strong argument in favor of the demands of the chamber of commerce were this city to be made the distributing point of the reton region of which it is the cen ue tre and the trade which it claims taken from river and coast cities and given to it there would be a boom here that would give an impetus to te all kinds of mercantile and man enterprises the general prosperity of this city would be immensely enhanced and would spread in a greater or less degree all over ove r the territory such is the scene as viewed from a salt alt la lake k e merchants standpoint but the union may urge as a reason for not complying with the demands of salt lake business men that a reduction of freights to this city might lead the northern pacific to make a similar cut to butte on the other hand the latter body proposes it the union pacific refuses to reduce rates to this city so as to make it a jobbing point to turn the entire patronage of the merchants here to the he 0 ak R G and its ita eastern connections the understanding that the latter roads load in consideration of receiving all the traffic of will reduce rates to this city this state of things would probably or at least might lead the if union nion pacific to adopt a policy of reprisal salt lake capitalists are largely interested in the mines and business enterprises of the wood river country and the merchants of this city have hitherto monopolized the trade of that section the union pacific might if it chose instantly take the wood river biver pa from salt lake city and give it to hence it will be seen that there exists te rather a complicated state of affairs with opportunities for mutual cepris reprisals als in case of war being declared by salt t lake business men joen against the unto union n pacific railroad and it is to be hoped hope d that the coming conference between officials of that road and the chamber ber of commerce committee will result in the making of amicable ar Iange mente |
