The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 26, 1918, Page 5

Belgium and Hungary 10 cents. 6 cents and in Denmark 7 cents. The average for nine countries on- the continent, for 1913, was 7 cents for ‘this three-minute talk. The Bell com- panies charged us 25 cents for the same use of their lines. These Bell toll rates were figured at 60 cents for 100 miles, against a European average rate of 16 cents. For carrying a ton of freight that same distance the American railways in 1913 re- ceived an average of three-quarters of a cent! When it comes to local telephone rates, the Amer- ican companies are at their best-in the gentle art of holding up the citizen. In this department we shall see some of the most remarkable and satis- factory changes when the new scheme of operation has been fully worked out. Among 17 countries, the United States is four- teenth in the economy of the local use of the tele- In Germany it is" b phone as compared with the letter mail rate. For ex- ample, a private telephone call in Norway, in 1918, cost two-fifths of a cent, while a letter cost 2.6 cents. The letter rate exceeded the telephone rate by 550 per cent. In Japan the local phone call cost half a cent, and the letter 1.5 cents, making the excess of cost for the letter over the phone ecall 200 per cent. In Austria the letter cost was 80 per cent above the phone cost. In Germany, Hol- land and Belgium the letter cost was still 33 per cent more than the cost of a phone call. But in the United States the Bell rates averaged 5 per cent more than the 2 cents necessary to mail a letter. In Christiania, Norway, the flat-rate phone serv- ice cost annually is $21.44; in Stockholm, $24.44; in. Copenhagen, $32; in Toklo, $34; in Rotterdam, $36 in Paris, $77.20. But in New Haven, Conn., and in Qakland, Cal., it cost $84 a year; in Chlcago, with competltlon, $84; in Seattle, $90; in Denver, $138; in San Fran= cisco, $180, and in New York, $228. The American average exceeded the foreign average cost for flat- rate service 300 per cent! These figures mean but one thing: The private monopoly of the wires in the United States has been highly profitable to the monopolists. The profit-takers are not going to give up hope of the return of their property to them after the war. They are going to try to make government oper- ation as expensive and unpopular as they can. Just how the government is going to safeguard the postalized wire service from the horde of ene- . mies within and outside the salaried force who will at once begin -their wrecking operations, will be told in another article. It is enough now to say that the government can detect every one of these foes, and that they will be dealt with in short order. Shortest Routes to Water for Wheat Shipment of Grain to the Nearest Port Would Cut Expense of Tranportation by Rail and Dodge Middlemen BY A. B. GILBERT 2 |JHE movement on foot to send farm products to the nearest port, if successfully put across, promises millions in extra re- turns to the farmers of the United States for their labor. It promises not only increased prices for the quantities now produced but a greatly increas- " ed demand on which the same margin of profit can be obtained. By a scientific adjustment of freight routes and charges, made possible by government operation of railroads and shipping, the products of the American farm can regain the place they had in foreign trade in the years up to 1900 and which they had been rapidly losing since that time until the war created an abnormal situation. With the advent of peace, our competitors, such as Can- ada, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, South Africa, will again be in a position to take the European market for farm products away from us unless we begin- now to make' strenuous readjust- ments. GRAIN SHIPMENTS VIA THE PANAMA CANAL Most important of the plans suggested so far is to send the grain raised in Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon to the Pacific coast rather than by the long rail haul east to Minneapolis, Chicago and New York. Helena, Mont., is only 783 miles by rail from Seattle but 1,065 miles from Minneapolis, 1,640 miles from Chicago, and 2,448 from New York City. ' The rates in force on wheat last fall from Helena to Minneapolis were 32 cents per 100 pounds and to Chicagé 39.5 cents. The rate from interior Washington, Idaho and Qregon to Chicago was 50 cents per 100 pounds. The prices the farmers of these states got for their wheat were based on the Chicago price less this absurdly high rate, not only for the wheat If common sense was used, western wheat would no longer be carried by rail across the continent to New York, but would seek the nearest port, whether on the Pacific or the Gulf.” Water transportation is cheaper than land g trmportatmfi By cutting the frelght rates, farmers would : e recelve the dltference as an merease in pnee. B it :JARMERS and experts agree,” declares the Montana Equity i| News, “that the moving of grain west is now an economic necessity.” Operative exchange, is of the opinion that the new route would save 10 to 15 cents on every bushel of wheat for the J. M. Anderson, president of the Equity Co- farmers of the Pacific Northwest. actually sent east but all the wheat used lo- cally. The food admin- istration, of course, made an important cor- rection in this situation after the farmers of these states had vig- orously protested, by setting a local price of $1.90; and the price set for the 1918 crop varies from $2 to $2.05, but with the return of peace conditions the old un- fair system will be re- stored unless steps are taken to head it off. By using the short haul to the Coast cities such as Seattle and Astoria the grain and other farm products of a nonperishable nature can be put aboard ship and taken directly either to our Atlantic coast .cities or to Europe via the Panama canal. The long and costly rail haul across the whole United States can thus be saved. The prices in the far Northwest will then be the world market price less this much cheaper freight charge. So obvious is this route that it would have been used as soon as the canal was opened had it not been for the fact that the privately owned railroads forced long hauls as a means of getting more rail- road income. Now, however, the growth of the country has so outstripped railroad development that the railroads can not handle the necessary traffic and there is no longer any possible excuse for forcing long hauls. Going direct to the sea- board, as is proposed by this movement in the extreme Northwest, is not only dictated by all experience elsewhere in the world as necessary for producers, whether on farm or in factory, but it is and will be absolutely needed to take the over- load from our railroad system. . Again, the old trail of western grain to the Atlantic seaboard is crowded with profit- mongering institutions: the grain combine and milling trust which con- trol the Chicago and whole. the terminal and coun- try elevators, and the grading of grain. The new route is not yet developed in these hard and fast lines. The farmers of that “section are rapidly tak- ing over the country elevator business, the city of Seattle has con- structed a splendid system of city-owned terminal facilities which are run at ‘cost. The state governments there can easily add state-owned termingl elevators as needed and 3 ’ they can superintend PAGE FIVE - Minneapolis markets, ~ Chairman Hurley of the shipping board declared recently that with the completion of our great shipping program we should have 25,000,000 tons of shipping, as contrasted with 2,400,000 tons on July 1, 1916, not merely under our flag but under government control and operation. “It was before the formation of the present shipping board,” says Mr. Hurley, “that Secretary McAdoo of the treasury insisted that our pioneering upon the seas must in the future be done by an interest of boundless resources, an interest not compelled to concern itself with dividends to stockholders or returns to bondholders; an interest -that has a single purpose—the general welfare of the United States as a-’ Obviously there is but one such interest and that is the gov- ernment of the United States.” By being sufficiently wise to keep the railroads also under the con- trol of the government, farmers and other producers will be able to get efficient transportation and with that, world markets after the war. the grading of the grain for export on European standards. The grain can thus move direct from the fafm to the Liverpool market without being touched by a profiteering interest. THE SHIFT TO GULF PORTS One of the first steps taken by Director General McAdoo after the railroads were taken over was to order grain ready for shipment from Omaha shipped to New Orleans rather than east to New York City. Here had been one of the most absurd railroad traffic conditions in the United States. Louisiana lumber was being shipped north and the cars were going back south empty. The grain was being shipped to New York, 1,400 miles away, whereas New Orleans is only 1,062 miles away, and these cars also were coming back largely empty. By McAdoo’s order the formerly empty cars were available for other necessary uses. Kansas City, Mo., is 879 miles from New Or- leans and 1,357 miles from New York City. The grain centers of Colorado and Oklahoma are much nearer to the Gulf ports than to any Atlantic ports or Great Lakes ports. Good business sense for the farmers -demands the development of trunk lines running north and south to carry the farm products to these nearest ports All disinterested traffic experts have been urging this development for years, but railroad power interested in the long haul has prevented it. Terminal charges, which play so important a part in traffic costs, will be much lower at the Guilf ports than at the big ports on the Atlantic sea- board. The cities there are more progressive, Houston, Texas, has built canals to make itself a seaport and is developing city-owned docks ‘and a state-owned and operated terminal elevator with a capacity of 1,000,000 bushels. In fact, a marked: competition in the development of city-owned or. state-owned port facilities has sprung up on the Gulf coast. ’ The .great Atlantic ports, on ‘the other hand, through private exploitation exclusively, have be- come the most expensive ports in the world. It costs more to get many of the farm products, for instance, aboard ship at New York City than it costs to get them the rest of the way to Europe. The same interests that dominated the railroads also owned the available property sites in New York City and they forced traffic to that port to increase their-profits from land rentals, dock rent- als, and the operation of transfer facilities. Every- (Continued on page 14) |