26 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



an engine and boiler; he said, 'I can't ship that; it would burst my 

 arrangements up;' he said he had a special contract with them to ship 

 his goods at a special rate but they must be goods shipped in here." 1 

 This transaction occurred some time previous to January, 1885. Mr. 

 Davis began the preparation of a lawsuit against the Santa Fe on account 

 of this discrimination maintained by it, but found that at that time there 

 was no existing law against it. 



Another foundry had started in 1880, but failed as the rates were 

 so high that coal, coke and pig iron could not be brought in to enable 

 the manufacturer to compete with machinery brought in from the 

 East. 2 



In 1883, the Union Pacific began a fight against the Colorado Coal 

 and Iron Company by lowering the rates on manufactured iron goods. 

 The cut began in Utah and by September 11, had extended to Colorado. 

 This cut affected the company disastrously. 3 



The same situation confronted other iron industries as was the case 

 with the boiler manufacture. In a new country that was doing so much 

 development work as was being done in Colorado in the decade from 

 1880 to 1890, much iron to be used in bridges was needed. The roads 

 were being improved in all directions and this meant a great need of 

 bridges. Iron had been found to be the best material of which bridges 

 should be made and it was therefore natural to expect the development 

 in the state of certain bridge manufacturing plants. This did not occur 

 as the rate on bridge iron brought in from the eastern manufactories 

 was so adjusted that the eastern manufacturer could make the bridges 

 and ship them to the Rocky Mountain region more cheaply than they 

 could be made in Colorado. As late as 1884, no iron bridge had ever 

 been made in Colorado. The freight on the raw bridge iron from the 

 Missouri River was $1 . 00 per hundred weight, while the freight on the 

 finished bridge was only seventy-five cents. The iron manufacturers 

 stated that twenty-five cents a hundred was a very large profit. 4 It is 

 thus very clear that as long as this condition prevailed, bridges would 

 continue to be made east of the Missouri River and shipped to Colorado. 



1 Evidence, Special Railroad Committee, p. 78. 3 Ibid., p. 218. 



* Ibid., p. 50. * Ibid., p. 168. 



