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A STUDY IN STOVES AND RATES
The fact that the stove manufac
turers at a recent meeting in Chatta
nooga put up the price of their prod
uct another 5 per cent has been pro
ductive of no little concern, especially
in view of the fact that the freight
rates on stoves have recently been so
materially reduced:
A correspondent of The Constitu
tion saysj.
Atlanta, Ga., September -23, 1907.
Editor Constitution • You made a
tremendous howl in your paper when
the railroads raised the price of coal
five cents per ton recently, but your
paper had no flaring editorials in re
gerd to the rates on stoves being
raised, as agreed upon at the Chatta
nooga meeting of the stove manufac
turers. WHY ?
A SUBSCRIBER.
Tn truth, the prices of stoves to the
consumer have been increased with
such lightning-like rapidity that it
has been practically impossible to
keep up with the procession!
Prompted by the fair promises that
reduction in the freight rates would
mean lower prices to the consumer,
freight rates were reduced to the
tune of about 33 1-3 per cent
When it was discovered that not
only did the reduction in rate not go
to the consumer, but the price was
immediately increased, The Consti
tution entered a protest, even demand
ing that the legislature appoint a
committee to find out why the peo
ple had not been given the benefit
of the large rate reductions already
made, as had been promised them.
But the “reform” administration,
unfortunately, did not see fit to take
up The Constitution’s protest.
And now comes the announcement
of another increase in the price of
stoves —five per cent more, making
10 per cent in a few months.
While we have a remedy for un
due exactions made by the railroads,
the stove trust is subservient to no
one but its own sweet will.
Thus the stove manufacturers have
not only absorbed for themselves the
33 1-3 per cent reduction made -in
the Georgia freight rate, but have,
within the period in which agitation
for reduction of rates has been going
on “in the name of the people,”
added nearly 25 per cent to the sell
ing price of their
Between January, 1905, when the
agitation for lower rates began, and
May, 1907, the price of stoves was
increased 12 per cent. In June last,
simultaneously with the decision of
the Georgia supreme court confirm
ing the 33 1-3 per cent rate reduc
tion made by the Georgia railroad
commission, another increase of 5
per cent was announced. Now that
the freight reductions are actually in
effect, the announcement comes Trom
Chattanooga of another 5 per cent
raise, making the price of the stand
ard stove that sold in January, 1905,
for $11.70, approximately $14.33.
Possibly another 33 1-3 per cent
reduction in the rate will send the
price of the same stove to $lB or
S2O.
The stove manufacturers went be
fore the railroad commission and de
manded a reduction in the rate on
their product. The rates were too
high, they said, and a burden upon
the consumers as well as upon the
manufacturers. The railroads agreed
that they could not stand the reduc-
tion, because the price of iron, steel,
coal, lumber and labor, of all of
which the railroads are large con
sumers, had materially advanced, and
their expenses were far greater than
ever before. They really thought the
rate should be raised in order to
better enable them to meet these in
creased expenses, but they did not
ask it; they only asked that the ex
isting rate be left undisturbed.
“That makes no difference. The
rates are too high; they have always
been too high. They must be reduced
or we can’t do business,” was the
reply of the Stove manufacturers.
The rates were ordered reduced,
but before the reductions went into
effect, one Georgia stove manufactory
made profits of 100 per cent net on
the value of its plants as returned
for taxation!
Then came the lightning-like in
creases in the price of stoves to the
consumer, and when the consumer
protests he is met with the reply:
“The price of maetrials has great
ly advanced. We must pay more for
iron and steel, more for coal and
more for labor. Therefore it is nec
essary to advance the price of our
product. ’ ’
They have borrowed the argument
of the railroads against a reduction
in rates, to justify an increase of
nearly 25 per cent in the price of
their product to the consumer.
The materials are the same which
enter into railroad construction and
operation; the only difference is, the
quantity consumed by the manufac
turers of stoves is insignificant in
comparison with that which the rail
road companies are completed to use.
Yet in one instance the argument is
employed to justify the increase in
the price of a product to the people;
in the other it avails nothing in main
taining the price of transportation
where no increase had been sought
or asked.
It is not the justice of the rate re
ductions which we question; it is the
injustice to the public who, after be
ing promised lower prices as the re
sult of reduced rates, are compelled
to submit without recourse to the ex
actions of a trust which has not
only pocketed the rate reduction, but
adds one-fourth more to the price of
its product, because it has the power
to do so and there is none to restrain
it.
It would seem that the stove trust,
in its effort to hold onto that 100
per cent net profit, has determined to
squeeze out of the public whatever it
cannot wring out of the railroads.
And the public is continuing,
meekly, to foot the bill. —Atlanta
Constitution.
ANOTHER 014) LETTER.
New York, August 12, 1906—The
World to-morow will publish a
signed statement written by T. E.
Watson, the populist nominee foi
vice-president. Mr. Watson says in
part:
“When the national convention of
the People’s party adjourned after
the nomination of Mr. Watson, as
a setoff to that of Mr. Bryan, there
was an interval of several days in
which it was difficult to see whose
triumph it was. Had the democrats
absorbed the populists, or had the
people’s party halted the democrats
when they were half way over the
fece?
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
“Would the populist nominee be
able to hold the rank and file of his
party as against the fusionists, or
would he be swept off his feet by the
tide? As the third week has passed
away it is now quite clear that the
populist nominee has not been swept
away, and that the position grows
stronger daily. Feeling that the rank
and file of his party would look to
him to maintain the populist organi
zation in this hour of its danger,
Mr. Watson plainly and promptly
stated that he was in the fight to
stay.
4 * This statement carried encour
agement with it, and removed all
doubt on that point from the popu
list mind. In Florida the St. Louis
ticket was indorsed, also in Georgia,
Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.
Tn Nebraska, the home of Mr. Bryan,
the Populists have thus far demanded
Watson as Bryan’s running mate.
In Kansas the ‘leaders’ have ap
parently traded off the electoAl vote
to Sewall in return for the state
house officials.
. “It remains to be seen whether
the people of Kansas will ratify the
trade. Tn lowa, General Weaver’s
state, the people’s party declined
fusion offers, and put out a straight
Bryan and Watson ticket. Indiana,
Wyoming and Washington have done
likewise. As a matter of, fact, the
great fusion movement thus far car
ried but four states, while straight
populism carried thirteen, and is
fighting its opponents to a stand
still in the others. If the rank and
file can be heard from in all the
conventions we are in no douht of
the result, and the rank and file will
probably be heard from.
“Mr. Watson asked the national
committee to send him to the West.
He believes that he should appeal to
those people face to face in this
crisis. The West sent her Weavers
and her Simpsons and her Mary El
len Leases to the South in 1890, ask
ing that the South break away from
all parties and meet the West in a
new organization, whose aim should
be to unite the West and South in
political brotherhood. The South
responded, and the Congressman
from Georgia who took his life in
his hands and stepped forth to meet
Simpson and Davis and Peffer, of
Kansas, now wants to meet the brave
men of the West and ask them
whether they wont stand by South
ern populism in this day of its
peril. He believes they will. Se
wall is the ' chain of the Bryan
wheel, the brake to his car. The
money power dictated his nomina
tion as a counter move to BryanS.
Tn no other way can any one ex
plain why the entire South has
passed over in the choice of a vice
presidential nominee.
' “Gorman, the gold bug, and pro
tectionist, is controlling Brvan’s free
silver campaign, and Sewall, the
typical Eastern plutocrat, is Bryan’s
running ma|e. What does this ar
gue? That if .Sewall remains ion
the ticket and Gorman continues to
pull the campaign wires, the whole
country will see clearly enough that
Mr. Pendleton, of Georgia, was right
when he said he was going to sup
port the Chicago ticket for the rea
son that no free silver law would be
passed.
“We can not be guilty of the ab
surdity of choosing a national ban-
ker as our leader in a fight against
national banks. We can not hope to
escape ridicule and just reproach
if we choose an Eastern plutocrat
to lead us in a contest against plu
tocracy. We can not believe that
we can keep our own forces straight
if we should start on a crusade
against corporations under the com
mand of a corporation king.
“Hence we can not under any cir
cumstances vote for Sewall electors.
“Any policy other than the St.
Louis policy means death to popu
lism, and we ought not to be asked
to kill our own party.
“The South furnished the electoral
vote which elected, but she dared
not write the platforms nor dictate
the nominees. It was the voice of
the people’s party which united the
South and West, transferred the bal
ance of power to the West and com
pletely relieved the South from the
necessity of sitting at the footstool
of that twin brother of republican
ism, Northern democracy. Populism,
having accomplished these good re
sults while out of power, has at least
earned the right tu live. Hence ns
the third week of the campaign since
the St. Louis convention has passed
away, it becomes more and more ap
parent that the people’s party will
stand by its nominee, and that the
Southern democrat of the rank and
file if left to his choice will vote
for Bryan and Watson rather than
for Bryan and Sewall. The South
ern democrats feel that Watson is in
accord with their principles, their
platform; their sectional pride and
their material interests, while Mr.
Sewall is not.”
WHISKY ADVERTISEMENTS.
Since State prohibition has become
a law almost all of our hire dailies
have come out fair and square for a
strict enforcement of the law. They
have promised their aid in every way
to make the law as effective as pos
sible. In order therefore for them
to be consistent will they not have
to strike hands with the Atlanta Geor
gian and agree not to publish in their
columns the advertisements of out
of the State whiskey dealers? In oth
er words, if our papers are to lend
their efforts towards a strict enforce
ment of the prohibition law of the
State can they consistently carry in
their columns advertisements telling
the citizens of Georgia where they
can get all the liquor they want by
express? It appears to us, therefore,
if these papers are really in earnest
when they say prohibition should be
given a fair trial, tney should do no
act that will in any way neutralize
or annul the good effects that should
come from prohibition.—The Cannon
(Ga.) Echo.
If the man who invented the piano
that whistles should run for public
office he would get an idea how hard
it is for a candidate to overcome an
unfortunate record.
Several Michigan Indian hunters
used a for a tar
get, and it is hardly necessary to add
they went to the happy hunting
grounds.
The government authorities con
tinue to try to make the oil trust offi
cials display a colossal amount of ig
norance as to how the business of
the concern is run.
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