FREIGHT RATES AND MANUFACTURES IN COLORADO 27 



Powder 



Some years previous to 1884, a company was formed for the manu- 

 facture of powder in Denver. Much of this article was then used in 

 the mining operations in the districts tributary to that city and it occurred 

 to the men promoting the company that the cost of transporting it to 

 Colorado from the East might be saved if its manufacture was begun in 

 Denver. The company secured a patent by which it was claimed that 

 powder could be made for nine cents a pound cheaper than it was then 

 made in the East. The mill was accordingly started. At that time the 

 price of powder was thirty -seven or thirty-eight cents a pound. Immedi- 

 ately after the factory was in operation, the price was put down to twenty 

 cents a pound for powder brought from the East to Denver. It cost 

 more than twenty cents a pound to manufacture powder at the Denver 

 mill. The mill was operated for about six months when the lower 

 prices of powder from the East made it apparent to the stockholders that 

 the enterprise was not likely to be in condition to pay any dividends and 

 the mill was accordingly closed. The stockholders sold out for about 

 35 cents on the dollar, losing about $20,000 of the cost of the plant. 



It is said that DuPont did not want the mill in Denver to manufacture 

 powder. He wanted the powder to be made in his mills in the East. 

 Mr. Bosworth, who was superintendent of the mill, told the committee 

 that he understood there was a rebate given by the railroad companies 

 as powder was sold in Colorado during the time the mill was in operation 

 for less than it could be made in the East. * 



Just after the Denver factory had started and when the price had 

 been put down, the president of the company, Henry R. Wolcott, went 

 East to investigate the low price of powder. He found that powder 

 making in the East was in the hands of the DuPont monopoly, and that 

 this monopoly in combination with the railroads was too strong for the 

 Denver firm. By lowering the freight rates to Colorado and also the 

 price at which powder was sold in the state, and by recouping itself by 

 higher rates and prices elsewhere, the combine could give away all the 

 powder used in Colorado and still not lose. When this state of affairs was 

 understood, it was felt by the stockholders that it was idle to fight the 



1 Ibid., p. 66. 



