13 



From the foregoing it will be seen that the rate on canned goods per car- 

 load in 1880 was $300 per car to the Missouri river, to St. Louis, to Chicago, 

 to Cincinnati, to Pittsburg and to New York. This rate had descended in 

 1889 to $200 per car to these six principal centers of distribution. In a com- 

 mercial sense, therefore, the distance to all these places became equal, not- 

 withstanding the difference of distance from Sacramento to the Missouri 

 river as against New York is 2,000 miles. Thus a distance of 2,000 miles 

 is absolutely ignored, and New York has exactly the same commercial 

 relation to Sacramento as the Missouri river. It will not be unprofitable 

 here to reannounce the principle that economy of communication is the 

 equivalent of physical contiguity, for in the instance above recited, we see 

 that the cost of reaching New York with the products of this State is exactly 

 the same, or no greater, than the cost of reaching a point two thousand 

 miles nearer to us. 



Glancing at the entire list, we find that canned salmon was carried in 



1880 at the rate of $300 per car to the six cities named, and that the rate 

 last year was $200 per car; that the rates on dried fruits in 1880 were $600 

 a car to the Missouri river, $650 to St. Louis, $724 to Pittsburg, and $800 

 to New York, and that they descended in the year 1889 to $280 a car to 

 the cities named. Green fruit (deciduous) was shown like favors. The 

 rate on raisins to the six cities named in 1880 was $600 a car to the 

 Missouri river and $800 to New York. In 1889, the rates were equalized 

 to $280 to each of the cities named. On vegetables, the rate in 1881 was 

 $910 a car to the Missouri river, and in 1889, to the same point, the rate 

 was $200 a car. Taking this last instance of vegetables, and the rate in 



1881 was about five times the rate charged to-day. Thus the vegetables 

 produced in California are carried to-day at about twenty per cent of 

 what was claimed to be the proper rate eight years ago. If the above 

 comparisons had been instituted between the rates of 1870 and 1890, the 

 decrease would have been much more significant and startling. But the 

 other side of the fact is equally significant. The rates on articles of 

 import have experienced a corresponding decrease. 



The chief significance of all this is in the question of the elimination 

 of distance. When the rate to Chicago in 1881 on vegetables was $5 per 

 loo pounds, or $1,000 per car, the commercial distance to Chicago was 

 five times greater than in 1889, wheu the rate was $i per 100 pounds, or 

 $200 per car. The actual distance to Chicago in miles is 2,275 miles. The 

 rate in 1881 was $5 per 100 pounds, or $1,000 per car. This rate having 

 descended in 1889 to $200 per car, or one-fifth, removed Chicago to 

 within 455 miles of the gardens of California, thus eliminating and 

 ignoring 1,820 miles of transportation, on the basis of the rate in i88r. 



These facts disclose a tendency in transportation to base all rates upon 

 the relation of markets to each other rather than the distance" in miles be- 

 tween them. It is within the bounds of reasonable probability that within 

 a few years, this tendency will have so far asserted itself that the only 

 question will be the relation between the points of production and points 

 of consumption, with scarcely a reference to the distance in miles which 



