188 MONTANA 191Jt 



was to increase the revenues of their railway hnes. "A railroad can increase 

 its profits only by increasing its receipts," said Mr. Hill. "Since 

 Carrying the rates cannot rise above a certain level without becoming pro- 

 Message of hibitive. the proceeds must be increased by increasing the 

 Thrift to volume of business." 



Thousands. The Great Xorthern kept steadily increasing its mileage 



and making acre after acre more accessible to the markets, 

 while carrying the message to hundreds of thousands in the Middle West 

 of the opportunities "out here in ^Montana." 



The amount of money expended, the means employed, the number of 

 miles of new road constructed, are of little consequence compared to the 

 results of railroad activity. Tlie main facts stand out: millions of new 

 wealth have been created for the State of ^^ontana; the tonnage has been 

 multiplied by ten ; r"iilroad sen-ice has been made better and lower rates 

 made possible for moving the crops. 



Little or no Montana grain moved to the primary miarkets of the world 

 in 1907. The Great Northern received for shipment in the State during that 

 year but 469,000 bushels of wheat. Five years later it was given for ship- 

 ment to primary markets either in the east or west, 6.760,394 bushels of 

 wheat. 



One of the most remarkable increases in business ever recorded by a 

 railroad is the new tonnage of flax created in JMontana. 



The linseed crushers on the Great Lakes have never been able to 

 secure enough flax. Following the work of the Great Northern they in- 

 creased their tonnage from a miserable 79,000 bushels in 1907 to 3.924,498 



bushels in 1912. 

 New Ton- New wealth wdiich comes to a state following the creation 



nage Shows of "an eas}^ means for the transportation of men and commod- 

 a Wonder- ities" may be realized when it is known the Great Northern 

 ful Increase, hauled not a bushel of grain from Montana for years, and six 



years ago secured but 1,747.000 bushels in the entire State. 



live years later shipments from stations in Montana aggre- 

 gated 11,340,502 bushels of grain, and when the 1913 crop is moved it will 

 show a total of iS.oco.cco bushels on the lines of the Great Northern alone. 

 •With the creation of this tonnage railroad rates have been decreasing 

 at a corresponding ratio, however much the public may doubt that rates 

 decrease as a country settles. This is not a brief to show that the present 



rates are reasonable, but only to demonstrate that the trans- 

 Rates Go portation situation in Montana is on a satisfactory basis and 

 Down As will permit every industry proper to this territory to be carried 

 Tonnage on at a profit. 

 Increases. It has been many times said that if the railroads should 



charge today the rates which they collected a few years ago, 

 they would actualh^ confiscate property in Montana; that if they should col- 

 lect for the hauling of the present business the rates they charged when 



— The men who knoic declare Montana will be the greatest tarming state in the union. 



