Chapter II. Testimony of Manufacturers and Merchants 



Paper 

 In 1884, a plan was matured to build a paper-mill in Denver. Mr. 

 Woodworth, a gentleman who was familiar with the manufacture of 

 paper in the East and who had been spending the summer in Colorado, 

 saw the possibilities in the manufacture of paper in the city and decided 

 to set up a mill. He convinced some of the local capitalists that the 

 enterprise would pay. A lot was selected and he went East to buy the 

 necessary machinery. The capital of the establishment was to be 

 $250,000. When the railroad officials learned of the scheme they 

 informed Mr. Woodworth that in case a paper-mill was started in Denver 

 they would put the freight rates on incoming paper so low that he could 

 not afford to manufacture. z 



Saddlery and Hardware 

 Mr. E. B. Light who was engaged in the saddlery business in Denver 

 in 1885 explained to the committee the effect of the freight rates on 

 leather manufacture. It appears from his testimony that the rate on 

 raw material was generally higher than on manufactured goods. There 

 was at that time a combination in the saddlery hardware business and 

 the trust would lay down the same hardware any place east of the Mis- 

 sissippi River at the same price. The dealer at the River got the goods 

 therefore at the price paid by the dealer in Newark, N. J. The freight 

 on one hundred dollars worth of such hardware from the Missouri River 

 to Denver was about one fourth of the value, so that the Denver dealer 

 had to pay $125 for what the dealer at the River secured for $100. 2 The 

 same rate on raw and manufactured goods was a loss to the railroad 

 according to Mr. Light as the amount of money invested in a harness if 

 invested in the raw material and this shipped in from the River would 

 yield a large amount in freight as the raw material was three or four 

 times as heavy as the finished product. This was true of either leather 



1 Evidence, Special Railroad Committee, pp. 13, 14, 1885. 

 ' Ibid., p. 84, 1885. 



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