12 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



In reply to this the committee having the matter in charge adopted 

 the following resolution: 



Resolved, That the reply of Col. Fisher to the request of the shippers of Denver 

 relative to freight tariff over the road of which he is superintendent is perfectly 

 satisfactory, and our thanks are due for the prompt and cheerful compliance with 



our request. 



Fred Z. Solomon, Chairman. 

 F. A. McDonald, Secretary. 



After publishing this correspondence, the editor of the Colorado 

 Daily Tribune remarked that this was an auspicious beginning as it 

 proved that the railroad company and the merchants were dwelling 

 together in unity. He thought this was a forerunner of what might be 

 expected in the future. 1 



It is true that this looked like an auspicious beginning but there were 

 certain conditions that made it to the interest of the railroads apparently 

 to keep the prices for transporting freight to Colorado high. The roads 

 had been built in advance of the needs of the time. There was no popu- 

 lation along their line to furnish them with any business. If their stock 

 was to become at all valuable, they must do their utmost to secure as 

 large a revenue as possible from all shippers who patronized them. 

 Therefore, there was every inducement for them to raise the rates and 

 keep them high. There was also the inducement to keep new manufac- 

 tures from locating in Colorado so as to supply the home market. This 

 would reduce the revenue of the roads from hauling in freight. 



There was also another cause operating to prevent freight rates favor- 

 able to the establishment of manufactures and that was the leading 

 occupation of the country. Manufacturing is a routine industry; it 

 takes time and patience and does not furnish the opportunity to " strike 

 it rich" suddenly. Wealth made in manufacturing comes slowly as 

 the result of years of patient attention and devotion to the details of the 

 business and to the development of a large market by advertising' and 

 so forth. This industry, therefore, requires a different type of mind from 

 that needed in such an industry as mining. After the railroad had 

 reached Denver, the people that came for the next ten years or more were 

 very largely persons interested in one way or another in the mining 



1 Colorado Daily Tribune, June 29, 1870. 



