330 TRANSPORTATION. 



ulus given by the rapid development of manufactures. The 

 triple arms of industry mutually support each other with 

 strength proportionate to their nearness. We have a personal 

 interest in the consumer who is also our neighbor. In the farm 

 ers war upon monopolies, it has not always been remembered 

 that before the era of railroads it was estimated that the cost of 

 carriage of a bushel of corn one hundred and sixty miles was 

 equal to its value. Kailroad carriage extended the distance point 

 at which the value was consumed by transportation to fifteen hun- 

 dred miles. Still another element in this question has been over 

 looked by the farmers. Protective duties are in a large meas 

 ure responsible for the present high cost of railway construc 

 tion and maintenance. Mr. Edward Atkinson, of Boston, in an 

 address delivered four years ago, showed that the direct effect 

 of the duty of fourteen dollars a ton of two thousand pounds 

 on railroad iron in 1869, was to tax the industry and trans 

 portation interests ten million dollars; of which amount one 

 fourth went into the national treasury, and three-fourths into 

 the hands of the iron masters. This sum would build four 

 hundred and fifty miles of railroad on the western prairies, 

 where the consumption of iron is about ninety tons, and the 

 actual cost does not exceed twenty-four thousand dollars. 



Believing that no greater service can be rendered to the Ag 

 ricultural classes of the Pacific Coast than to place before them 

 in a condensed form the conclusions which have been reached 

 by National and State Committees upon the vast and com 

 plicated question of Kailroad Transportation, I have, in the 

 following pages, summarized the more important documents 

 which treat upon this subject. 



The railroad legislation in own State is so recent, and the 

 means of obtaining full information concerning it so accessi 

 ble, that I have chosen to give all the space allotted to this ob 

 jective point of the great farmers movement to Eastern author 

 ities instead of our own. 



The report of the Select Congressional Committee on Trans 

 portation,, appointed during the session of 1872-3, consisting 

 of Boscoe Conkling, T. M. Norwood, N. G. Davis and John 

 &quot;W. Johnston, fills nearly fifteen hundred octavo pages. They 

 were authorized to sit at such places as they might designate 

 during the recess; had every facility at their command; and be 

 ing empowered to call for persons and papers, were able to 



