80 



When we enter on a period of lower prices, or 

 smaller profits, we have every ground to anticipate 

 that it will be a serious matter to our farmers, and if 

 they find in high freights an obstacle, their opposition 

 to the railways will steadily increase. It behoves the 

 railway companies to do all they can to reduce the cost 

 between the farm and the market: not only in carriage 

 but also in the saving of cost in handling, expenses of 

 bags, wastage and the loss through vermin and dam- 

 ages by weather. 



The present system undoubtedly seriously affects 

 the purchasing power of the agriculturalists, thereby 

 adversely affecting the general traffic of the railways. 

 In the United States, at the present time, there is far 

 less waste between the agriculturists and the consum- 

 er, and the amount of money the farmers receive is 

 much closer the price which the consumer pays than 

 in any grain raising country of the world. This is due 

 in part to the progressive policy of the railwavs, which 

 take an active interest in the welfare of the chief pro- 

 ducers, to the encouragement offered to all that fav- 

 ours their interests, to the establishment of grain de- 

 posits, and .to the providing of every class of facility 

 for the economical running of their business. 



That this country has developed rapidly under the 

 present system, that the area sown and the output of 

 grain has been continuous in spite of the absence of 

 anything like what other farmers need to help them, 

 is not a conclusive argument in favour of perpetuating 

 the present obsolete and extravagantly wasteful me- 

 thods in transport, especially when other methods exist 

 which would put twice as much into our pockets. 



It must be kept in mind too, as I observed previ- 

 ously, that the investment of foreign capital, especi- 

 ally by England, in our Railways was undertaken for 

 the express purpose of obtaining food and raw mate- 

 rial to meet their needs. 



Any policy which tends to make these investments 

 less attractive must, too, in the long run, affect our 

 produetitm. By affording a market to our producers, 

 the investors in our railways, have been amply supplied 

 with food and raw -materials. Only a decidedly unfav- 

 orable or unprofitable turn in business will make 

 either side throw up the sponge. Apart from the idea 

 of bad faith, the chief reason foi* no' longer viewing 



