1 8 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



He told the committee that he could make whips more cheaply in Denver. 

 This was because factory workers were cheap in Colorado as so many per- 

 sons had come out from the East in search of health and while they were 

 not fitted to do the heavy work of the building trades or mines, were never- 

 theless able to do the lighter work of the factories. 1 He also stated that 

 there was no reason why he should not make whips in Denver and sell 

 them to the entire tributary country save only the adverse railroad rates. 

 He had previously had considerable trade in Trinidad but of late it 

 had greatly fallen off. The merchants there said that they could get 

 the goods more cheaply by shipping them in from the East than they could 

 get them from Denver. 



The general conditions in Denver in 1885 were not encouraging to 

 the manufacturing industries. Such industries were at that time declin- 

 ing according to testimony before the special railroad committee. The 

 cause of this decline was said to be the railroad pool. The discrimi- 

 natory rates against Denver and in favor of Cheyenne, Ogden and Salt 

 Lake, are evidence of the injury to the manufacturing interests of 

 Denver wrought by the pool. It was affirmed before the committee that 

 in the days when there was only the old Kansas Pacific to bring in the 

 goods from the Missouri River, it was possible to have the commodities 

 come in more reasonably than in 1885 when the city had four railroads. 

 It was charged that the classification of freight was almost constantly 

 changed and the rates raised in this way every time the traffic would 

 bear a higher charge. The railroad companies were said to have had 

 an inspector at the freight house whose business it was to open boxes 

 and ascertain if freight was properly classified. If a few first class 

 articles were found in a box of mixed freight the whole box was charged 

 up as first class freight. The railroads regarded it as smuggling. 2 

 This was especially the case in the matter of saddlery. If ten dollars 

 worth of harness rosettes were placed in a $300 box of saddlery hard- 

 ware, the whole shipment would be put up to first class rates, that being 

 the class to which harness rosettes belonged. In the East harness rosettes 

 were third class freight. 3 



1 Evidence, Special Railroad Committee, p. 84. 



3 Ibid., p. 85. Improper freight classification is a serious fraud practiced on railroads. An inspector 

 may have been necessary. See Report 0} the United States Industrial Commission, Vol. IX, p. 288, 1902. 

 3 Ibid., p. 84, 1885. 



