FREIGHT RATES AND MANUFACTURES IN COLORADO 35 



soon more than sufficient to supply the local market. The owner, Mr. 

 Moulton, sought to sell his surplus in Salt Lake. He found to his 

 astonishment that the freight rate on a car of his products from Denver 

 to Salt Lake was $75 more than the rate on the same products from the 

 Missouri River to Salt Lake. Eastern firms at Akron, Ohio, Peoria, 

 111., and Des Moines, Iowa, were then competing in the Denver market. 

 Since Mr. Moulton's factory was started, the freight rate from the 

 Missouri River to Denver had been greatly lowered. He stated that 

 if the rates had remained the same as they were when his factory began 

 operations, he would be able to compete with eastern manufacturers. 

 The rate then existing on terra cotta products from Denver to Salt 

 Lake was $250 a car. The rate from Omaha to Salt Lake on the same 

 products was $175 a car. This effectually shut out Denver from the 

 market in Salt Lak . Seventy-five dollars a car was a handsome profit 

 according to the testimony of the Denver manufacturer. 1 



Groceries 



The grocery business was so discriminated against by the freight 

 rate that Denver could not become a distributing point for the Rocky 

 Mountain country. It was stated in the evidence before the railroad 

 committee, that the Kansas Pacific Railroad was capitalized at $250,000 

 a mile which sum was vastly beyond the cost of constructing it, and that 

 in consequence of this great capitalization, it was the desire of the rail- 

 road company to secure all the returns in freight that could possibly 

 be obtained. The same was more or less true of the capitalization of 

 the other railroads that at that time terminated in Denver or other parts 

 of the state. It was alleged that the railroads expected the people to 

 pay interest on this enormous capitalization, and hence the high r..tes 

 for everything carried into the state. Mr. Shelby, general freight agent 

 of the Union Pacific, stated that during the preceding year, the Union 

 Pacific fell short of paying expenses and interest on bonds by $623,299.* 

 It was also charged by Mr. Martin, a wholesale grocer, that the goods 

 shipped to Colorado were frequently overweighed. He had brought 

 a suit against the railroad company on this charge and had won the suit. 3 



1 Ibid., p. 171. J Ibid., p. 240. ' Ibid., p. 61. 



