FREIGHT RATES AND MANUFACTURES IN COLORADO 20. 



amounting to not less than $100,000 for the preceding ten months. Mr. 

 Burdsall also discussed with the railroad officials the matter of bringing 

 in soda from Morrison and establishing a glass factory in Denver; they 

 told him that if his company started a factory in Denver, they would put 

 the freight rate on glass from the East down to nothing so as to kill his 

 company's business. 1 They charged Mr. Burdsall $14 a car to ship 

 some soda, silica, kaolin and so forth from Morrison to Denver. Lime 

 and other products for the Grant Smelter were brought to Denver from 

 the same place for seven dollars a car. The materials near Morrison 

 were so abundant that if the rate from there to Denver could be lowered, 

 glass and sulphate of soda could be made in Denver and sold in the 

 country tributary to that city in defiance of anything the railroads could 

 do. At the prevailing rate east, the product might be shipped to the 

 Missouri River and sold there. 2 



The general freight agent of the Union Pacific, Mr. Shelby, told the 

 committee that the rates on silica, soda etc. were not fourteen dollars 

 a car if several cars a day were shipped. He said lower rates were not 

 given the Grant Smelter. 3 The explanation would seem to be that the 

 Grant Smelter was at that time consuming enough of the material to 

 get a cheaper rate in consequence of larger shipments. Mr. Shelby 

 also stated that at that time the Union Pacific would be glad to encourage 

 a glass factory in Denver and would haul in the materials at as low a 

 rate as four cents a hundred as it was then (1885) doing for the glass 

 factory that had recently started. 4 



Mr. John P. Epley began the manufacture of glass in Denver in 1884. 

 His factory turned out bottles only. These he attempted to sell in the 

 territory tributary to Denver, but had encountered difficulties. He 

 received an order for bottles to be shipped to a point east of Denver on 

 the Burlington, but as soon as the customer ascertained what the freight 

 would be, he canceled the order. The freight rate for bottles made in 

 Denver and shipped to points in the territory adjacent was too high to 

 allow such manufacture to develop. After the factory had been started, 

 the freight rates on bottles from the East were lowered. In consequence, 



1 Ibid., p. 147. 3 Ibid., p. 248. 



2 Ibid., p. 149. * Ibid. 



