But I think most importantly, our objective is to 

 maintain thie lowest possible transportation cost tor 

 the grains grown in the upper Midwest and here in the 

 Northwest, to move those to export in the most efti- 

 cient manner possible. Today, we are doing that 

 through a device that we call a unit train. We are now 

 engaged in moving large quantities ot grain via these 

 52-car trains, 100-ton cars loaded all at one origin 

 and moving as a unit to an export terminal. 



In so doing, we have maintained, and in fact, have 

 cut the cost of moving a bushel of grain, let's say 

 from central Ivlontana. If you use 1960 as a base, and 

 in terms of 1960 dollars, we have cut the cost of 

 moving that bushel of wheat by about half today. That 

 hasn't done the farmer all that much good with world- 

 wide depressed grain markets, but it's our contention 

 that this will be the efficient way to move grain, and 

 we believe that it is beneficial to farmers. 



"If you use I960 as a base, and in 

 terms of I960 dollars, we have cut the 

 cost in moving that bushel of wheat by 



about half today J' 



That IS not to say that in the process of doing so, 

 there is no trauma involved. Our friends here, Al 

 Olson and Ted Schwinden, know that when we boost 

 the movement of grain via the main line and have to 

 abandon branch lines, that always causes some 

 trauma We're well aware of that. But we are still 

 committed to our ob)ective and that is to be the low- 

 est-cost and most productive mover of grain to the 

 Northwest ports. And that's our commitment. 



Let me conclude by saying that I'm also an opti- 

 mist. I think, like governors these days, businessmen 

 have to be optimists. I guess otherwise you wouldn't 

 get out of bed in the morning. But I see that US. 

 agriculture, and particularly markets for American 

 grain, will revive because I believe we are the low-cost 

 producers and we will continue to be. And, we'll see 

 great movements of grain again. Hopefully, it will 

 come sooner rather than later, so that we don't have 

 many more months of the kind of trauma that farmers 

 and some of the rest of us are going through today. 



Thank you. .v 



22 



