ILLINOIS STATE DAIEYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 59 



partially understood and still less acted upon. They are now engaging and 

 will continue with increasing power to engage the best energies of .our best 

 minds, in their solution. 



To the producer, this is of the greatest moment. Every reduction 

 adds to the value of land and the result of labor, an^ enables products to 

 be removed to markets hitherto inaccessible. Every such reduction renders 

 more abundant and cheaper the necessities of life, alike to the rich and to 

 the poor. A few years ago and the millions of bushels of cereals, tons of 

 meats, and dairy products of this great valley, now supplying cheap food 

 for vast populations in both hemispheres, could not have been sent to them. 

 And to-day the same may be said in regard to a large share of our vast 

 product of Indian corn, though so cheap as not unfrequently to be used for 

 fuel, and which if we could find a cheaper proscess of marketing, could be 

 increased almost indefinitely. What then is to be done in this direction ? 

 How can we promote this great interest ? What do we need ? What 

 difficulties are there in our way? These are questions of the greatest 

 moment but to which time will only permit a hasty glance. What do our 

 pruducers need which they can in justice ask for ? I answer : First they 

 need more regular and fixed rates of transportation. Without this the 

 producer is in a sea of uncertainty — ever in doubt in what to engage his 

 labor and capital. At the rates of to-day, he has a fair margin of profit, 

 but what of to-morrow ? An arbitrary advance when he is ready to ship 

 or sell, may result in a prohibition or a loss. 



You have no doubt all had or seen an experience like this. The evil 

 bears with equal force upon middle-men, who are obliged to protect them- 

 selves from this risk by paying reduced prices ; or in case of loss, seek to 

 recover it in the future, and thus sooner or later to obtain it from the 

 producer, who must pay for all these extra hazards or losses. So that if he 

 gains this year, it is but to lose it the next. 



There are no doubt, points, where owing to water competition or other 

 causes, it would be difficult to secure always fixed reasonable rates, but not 

 so in most cases. Most of these rapid fluctuations are the result of the 

 arbitrary will of a few or the incompetency and reckless management of 

 men seeking purely selfish ends, depressing to-day in order to monopolize 

 and extort to morrow. 



Second, again the producer needs, and should have, more equal rates 

 in proportion to distance. It is most natural that a man should feel 

 aggrieved and complain of unjust discriminations at being charged fifty 

 dollars per car, while at a more remote point but thirty or forty dollars is 



