602 THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 



six years ago, that even at that time the men who con- 

 trolled the four great trunk lines between New York and 

 Chicago, could, * by a single stroke of the pen, reduce the 

 value of property in this country by hundreds of millions 

 of dollars. An additional charge of five cents per bushel 

 on the transportation of cereals would,' they said, 'have 

 been equivalent to a tax of $45,000,000 o;. the crop of 

 1873.' No Congress would dare to exercise so vast a 

 power, except upon a necessity of the most imperative 

 nature. ' ' 



At the rate coal is carried, 3. 2 mills per ton per mile, 

 railroad cross ties could be shipped from Hardy, Arkan- 

 sas, to Kansas City, for 1 1 cents apiece, and from Jonesboro 

 for 13 cents; the present rate is 29 cents. Within the past 

 five years there has been 3,000,000 ties taken from the line 

 of the Kansas City, Springfield and Memphis railroad, 

 between the Missouri State lyine and Big Bay. 



There was an average overcharge of, at least, 10 cents 

 per tie, indicating a loss to the people along the line of 

 $300,000 on the single item of railroad ties, and on a 

 territory of less than 100 miles in extent. A Philadelphia 

 merchant stated, that a car load of corn had been shipped 

 to him from Iowa; the freight and commission charges 

 were $233,70; and the grain brought only $233.07; leav- 

 ing a deficit to the shipper of 63 cents. 



Another man went out to Iowa and bought a lot of 

 corn for 13 cents a bushel, shipped it to Springfield, Mass., 

 where he sold it for 69 cents', and made just i cent a bushel. 

 The writer remembers having once shipped a car load of 

 flour from St. Louis, a distance of 226 miles, for which he 

 paid only $22, but at this point it was transferred to another 

 road, that charged $28 for hauling it twenty-three miles. 

 At another time he paid $16 for a car load of hogs a dis- 

 tance of seventeen miles, and at another $10 for a car load 

 of wood nine miles. By unjust and inconsistent charges 



