22 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



Chicago to Denver. On August i, 1884, the rates were restored and 

 the plan of the railroad companies was to exact from all shippers the 

 same rate. It was found, however, that Kirk and Company had a con- 

 tract which ran till the end of the year by which one of the railroads 

 running from Chicago to Council Bluffs agreed to ship their soap below 

 the published tariff. Over this railroad the Union Pacific had no 

 control. After the expiration of this contract Kirk and Company had 

 to pay the same rate as anybody else. It was the practice of Kirk and 

 Company to sell soap in Denver and Salt Lake as cheaply as in Chicago 

 as they wished to break up the manufacture of soap in the West. In 

 this the committee was told Kirk and Company were usually successful. 

 In case the soap makers of the West were not ruined by this competi- 

 tion, they were at least made sufficiently tractable to make a contract 

 according to which the profits were divided and a share given to Kirk 

 and Company. In 1885, there were very few soap factories between the 

 Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean. 1 



Iron 

 Of all manufactures, that of iron is the most important and its devel- 

 opment usually takes place first in order of time in all places where such 

 industry attains much magnitude. The attitude therefore of the govern- 

 ment or of those in control of the forces affecting the iron industry toward 

 the manufacture of iron is a clear indication as to whether or not it is 

 desired to make that particular section a manufacturing centre. In this 

 respect, the attitude of the railroads is important as showing their desire 

 for manufacturing to develop in any particular place. They constitute 

 certain powerful causes in aid of or injury to manufactures, and it is 

 only necessary to ascertain whether or not they make the freight rate so 

 as to discriminate against the infant manufacturing industry struggling 

 to get started in the newer points reached by the road. The attitude of 

 the railroads therefore toward the growth of the iron manufacture at any 

 point is an indication of their general attitude toward the development 

 of the other manufacturing industries at that place. What was the atti- 

 tude of the transportation companies toward the iron industry in Denver 

 and Colorado generally in the earlier period ? 



1 Evidence, Special Railroad Committee, p. 225. 



