HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1920-10-15, Page 6•
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Before the Privy Council at [ Ottawa protest against
the New • 'Railway Rates :,had been made on the ground
that the giving of the New .Rates would raise the cost of
hvmg by a :percentage many, times higher than the per -
centage 'actually charged by the Canadian Railways.
It, was pointed out that the numerous middlemen
who act as the distributors of goods. would each add his
percentage of 'profit to the freight rate, so that although
the railways :might receive say only 40 cents additional
freight charge on a shipment, the public would be forced,
by the distributing middlemen, -to pay many. times that
amount.
The 'Managements of the various Canadian Railways
desire, through this their association, to draw the atter-
tion of newspaper readers to the highly significant fact
that the recent increase in United States Railway Rates
an increase similar to the increase in Canada—HAS
ACTUALLY BEEN FOLLOWED BY A DECREASE
IN THE COST OF LIVING IN THAT COUNTRY.
Furthermore,
A great Canadian manufacturer recently . made public-
without any solicitation ,and without the previous knowl-
edge of the Railway :managements -figures which proved
that the retail selling price of a yard of plain white cloth
in Winnipeg, after being hauledfrom Montreal to Toron-
to and Toronto to Winnipeg, would be increased onlywl/2 a
cent, EVEN AFTER THE' WHOLESALER HAD ADD-
ED 20 PER CENT. PROFIT TO THE NEW FREIGHT
RATE AND THE ' RETAILER ANOTHER- 50 PER
CENT.
Ile showed that these distributors, whether rightly,
or wrongly, added 15 'cents to his mill -price of 16 cents
per yard. •
Yet the railways carried the raw cotton for this yard
of goods from Teras to Montreal, and the finished goods
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from, the mill to Toronto and Toronto .to Winnipeg for
one -and -one-half cents.
One -and -one-half cents as against fifteen,_ cents.
We venture to believe that whatever the explanation
or the justification may be, the same serious additions to
cost by the distributing trades will be found in relation
to almost every 'article of `common household use.
,.
This is not to attack distributors. They may them-
( selves be victims of a bad system or of an overcrowded
.
trade. But it is to point out that if they add whatever
percentages they, as a trade, find . convenient ON TOP
of the freight rates the Railways cannot help either
themselves or the public:- The oppressive results of
these practices shou,dnot be charged against the Rail-
way-- managements, nor cited as reasons for holding
freight rates down—merely because railway rates CAN
be held down—while other prices soar as the various
trades find necessary.
Railway charges always must be a---sefrious ' item in
a
determing cost- of production, but 7 the management of
your Railways urge upon your attention this fact: that
antiquated, overloaded and wasteful systems of .distribut-
h g `goods are much more properly a subject for public
anxiety.
CANADA CANNOT PROSPER WITHOUT
PROSPEROUS RAILWAYS. CANADIAN
RAILWAYS CANNOT , PROSPER UNLESS
CANADA PROSPERS.
In all sincerity let us suggest that, the people of 'Can-
ada beware of those who would restrict and even strangle
the railways, SIMPLY BECAUSE CONTROL EXISTS
THERE ---AND .IS NOT SO CONVi NIENT IN OTHER
DEPARTMENTS OF COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY.
the Railway Association of Canada
263 ST, JAMES ST., MONTREAL, P.Q.
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