Page:The truth about the railroads (IA truthaboutrailro00elli).pdf/158

Rh how low the rate is made for the first ten miles, or for one mile of railroad transportation, when the haul is one thousand or two thousand miles and the mileage basis is used, the rate will be so high that the business will not move.

On a mileage basis of rates the business of the commercial centers west of the Mississippi would be destroyed. Cities on the oceans and the Great Lakes would have advantages, but the inland cities and agricultural districts would be depressed. When the agricultural and manufacturing population in the great States between the Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains realize—as they will sooner or later—what a set of rates based on distance will mean to them and to their children, there will be a real rate agitation compared with which the present stimulated demand will be as nothing.

Far better the difficulties existing under the present system of commercial freedom than to turn to a rigid governmental plan for fixing railroad rates. Rh