Railroad freight rates in relation to the industry and commerce of the United States

Contents

I — The Transportation Function

II — Construction and Operation

III— Traffic

Preface

Throughout the general discussion of 1905-06 as to additional Federal legislation for the regulation of the railroads became evident the need for a definite, concrete and fairly comprehensive exposition of the effect of the freight rates of the railroads upon the industry and commerce of the United States. In the desire to set forth the prime factors in this relation, the anatomy and physiology as v^ell as the pathology of the freight rate structure, the writer has visited every part of the country, interviewing principal shippers, the representatives of commercial organizations and the officers in charge of the traffic departments of various railroads.

The steps of the development of the freight rate structures have been largely attained through discussions, of which the records have disappeared, and through correspondence no longer in existence. They remain in the memory of th6 veteran traffic managers who have readily imparted much of the information contained in these pages. Their recollection, however, has confessedly not always been exact as to dates, leaving it possible, in parts of the book, to show only the general sequence of the development.

The mission has been greatly facilitated by the lectureship on transportation which the writer holds at Johns Hopkins University, and by an extended experience in active railroad service. Partial results of this research have been embodied in lectures delivered at Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, Yale University, the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin ; in articles that have appeared in the North American Review, the Political Science Quarterly, Railway Age, Railroad Gazette, Railway World, and newspapers of various cities. These lectures and articles have been freely used in the preparation of this volume,

• • •

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I Introductory

PAGE

Division of Labor — Development of Industry and Commerce— Functions of Transportation — Effects of the Transportation Charge I

Chapter II

Early American Commerce — Its Trend Inland — Railroads versus Canals — Erosion of Traffic Channels by Exchange of Foodstuffs for Manufactured Products — Movement of Raw Materials of Manufacture — Movement of Deciduous Fruits 4

Chapter III

The Grain Supply — Machinery Introduced in Harvesting and Preparation for Consumption — The Meat Supply — Beef — Hog Products — Lamb — Poultry — Eggs and Butter— Truck Farm Products — Orchard Products — Supremacy of the American Apple — Development of the Peach and Grape — The Melon Tribe — Citrus Fruits — The Canning Industry 15

Chapter IV

Involution of Distribution — The Commission Man— Fruit Growers' Associations — The Refrigerator Car — Cold Storage — Elimination of the Broker in Grain Marketing— Direct Methods of the Packing Houses — Department of Agriculture and the Handling of Food Shipments— Work of State Colleges of Agriculture — The Railroads and the Education of the Farmers — Problem of Car Distribution — Good Roads and the Problems of Distribution 28 vi Contents

CHAPTER V The Distribution of Raw Material and Merchandise

PAGE

Elimination of the Middleman — Movement of Cotton, Iron Ore, Pig Iron, Coal, Petroleum, Lumber, Tobacco, Sugar, Woodpulp, Copper and Lead Ores — Influence of Segregation in Production and Manufacture on Distribution by Rail — Relation of Rates to Character of Freight — Necessity of the Middleman in Distribution of Manufactured Products — The Development of the Main Traffic Channels between Distributing Centers 40

CHAPTER VI The Transportation Charge and Prices

The Transportation Charge as Related to the Consumer — As Related to Production — Rates and Prices, Illustrated by Food Products in New York, by Manufactured Products in St. Louis, by Staples in General Use — The Transportation Charge as Related to Materials of Manufacture, Cotton, Wheat, Tobacco, Sugar — Special Instances, Bananas, Hides, Fertilizers, Pulp, and Ores, etc. — Shifting Sources as Influencing Rate Structures — Rates on Foodstuffs not a Factor in Price — A Watermelon Rate Incident — Rates on Raw Material enter Cost of Manufacture — Extensive Transportation makes Low Rates Possible 47

Chapter VII

Determining Causes of the Freight Rate Structures: (i) The New England Rate Structure — Preservation of Manufacturing Interests Dictates Adjustments in Rates. (2) The Trunk Line and Central Traffic Territory — New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore in their Relation to Chicago — Rate-Cutting — The Trunk Line Association— The Evolution of The Percentage System — The Central Traffic Association — The Differential — Basing Points — The Interstate Commerce Law, 1887, and the Long and Short Haul — The Percentage System and Local Rates — Ohio Rates. (3) Trans-Mississippi and Trans-Missouri Territory — The Mississippi River as Basing Line — " Fixed Differences," as Affecting Chicago and St. Louis to Southwest, to Missouri River, to St. Paul, to far West — The Colorado Common Points Rates — Water Rates and the Denver Differential — "Jobbers' Rates." (4) South of the Ohio and East of the Mississippi — Influence of Water Rates and Water Points — Norfolk Differential— Virginia Cities Rate — Erection of Basing Points — The Atlanta Rate. (5) Texas — Intrastate Maxi-

Contents vii

PAGE

mum Rate— Common Point Territory— Judge Reagan's Theory of Distribution for Texas — Houston Differential— The Water Rate Again — Texas Railroad Commission— Weakness of the Common Point System and effects of Decentralization of Distribution — The Emergency Rate and the Texas Commission. (6) The Pacific Coast and Trans-Continental Traffic — Exports to the Orient — General Character of Trade with the East — Clipper Ships and Trans-Continental Rates — Effect of Mode of Transportation on Merchants' Stocks — Development of the Trans-Continental Rate — Back Traffic in Fruits, Fish and Lumber — The Interstate Commerce Commission and the Lumber Rate — Inter-Regional Traffic — Regional Gateways and Proportional Rates 67

Chapter VIII

(i) Grain and Grain Products — Export Trade and the Through Rate — Attitude of Boston and the Differentials— Duluth in the Grain Trade — Competition for Back Traffic in Wheat — Grain Export by the Gulf and Resulting Rate War — The Gulf Ports Differential — Flour Rates. (2) Livestock and Dressed Meats Rates — Transportation " on the hoof "_ and the Cattle Rate — Rates on Livestock and Packing House Products. (3) Cotton — Development of Cotton Milling and Elimination of Excessive Rates — Texas Rates — Compressing in Transit and the Compress Fee. (4) Lumber — Shifting Rates due to Shifting Sources of Supply — Effect on Manufactures. (5) Types of Commodity Rate Structures — Adjustment Necessary between Production and Consumption — Difficulties of this Adjustment Illustrated by Coal, Brick, Glass, Cement. Import and Export Traffic — Through Rates — Instability of Steamship Rates — Ruling of Interstate Commerce Commission 117

Chapter IX

The Wagon Toll the First Basis of the Railway Rate— r Rates in the South Carolina and Georgia Charters — The [' Distance " Tariff—Bulk and Weight Merged in Classifications — Classification in South Carolina, 1855 — Diversified Manufacture Separates Tariff and Classification— Freight Charges Finally Based on Weight, According to Class — Carload Rates 148

CHAPTER X Early Rivalries and the Beginning of Through

Service

Modification of the Distance Tariff — Introduction of the viii Contents

PAGE

** Basing Point " — Military and Postal Necessities Pave the Way for Interstate Traffic — Removal of State Restrictions and Allowing Act of 1866— Development of Fast Freight Lines and General Through Traffic . 156

Chapter XI

Water-Forced Rates — Multiplicity of Junctions — Excess of Transportation Facilities — Competition for Traffic — Resulting Rate Wars — Growth of Rebating — Pooling Traffic — Adoption of the Trunk Line Percentage System — Beneficial Effects of the Traffic Associations — Freight Rate Structures Given Form by Development of Freight Traffic 165

Chapter XII

Switching — Spurs — " Belt " Lines — Lighters — Private Industrial Tracks — Tap Lines — Elevation and Warehousing— Special Equipment Cars — Private Car Companies — Refrigerator Cars — Icing — Palace — Livestock Cars — Tank Cars— Coal Gondolas — Mileage on Private Cars 174

CHAPTER XIII Incidental Developments of the Freight Service

Bill of Lading, Ordinary and at Carrier's Liability — Demurrage— " Reciprocal Demurrage " — Track Storage Charge — Reconsignment — Diversion en route — Milling in Transit — Carload and less than Carload Rates- Effect of Enlargement of Freight Cars — Rate Basis Established on the Hundredweight — The " Spread " in the _ Carload Rate — Increase in number of Carload Ratings — Resulting Decentralization of Distribution — Increase in "Jobbing" — Origin of the Chain Stores . 188

CHAPTER XIV The Freight Traffic Department of Railroad

Administration

Association of General Freight Agents — Freight Solicitors and Rate-Cutting — Freight Traffic Managers — Indus-

j> trial Agents — Pernicious Legislation — Healthy Effect of Law Against Rebates, Passes, etc. — Freight Officers and Extension of Markets — The Claim Agent — Joint Weighing and Inspection — Bureau of Explosives . . 206

Contents ix

CHAPTER XV The Basis for the Transportation Charge PAGE

Primitive Tolls, for Use of Road and Motive Power — Cost of Roadway and Maintenance — Of Equipment and Administration — Consumption of Fuel, etc. — Cost of Transportation — The Ton Mile — Heterogeneity of Freight Traffic — The Classification Basis — Experimental Rates — Raw Material Rates for Back Traffic — " What the Traffic will Bear " — Relation of Capitalization to Rates — The Cape Cod Ship Canal Project as Illustrative — Current Valuation and Rates .... 216

CHAPTER XVI Public Sentiment and Legislation to 1887

The Passing of the Canal — Encouragement of the Railroads — Early Traffic Small in Volume and Variety — Evils of too Rapid Construction — Rate-Cutting and General Business — Progress Toward Uniformity of Rates — Long and Short Haul Rates — The Granger Laws — The Birth of the Railroad Commission — Interstate Commerce Demands Federal Supervision — The Cullom Report — The Interstate Commerce Law, 1887 . 235

CHAPTER XVII The Interpretation of the Interstate Commerce

Law

Provisions of the Law — Proscription of Pooling — Seligman's Prophecy of Railroad Amalgamation — The Interstate Commerce Commission and the Long and Short Haul — The Supreme Court and the Commission's Ruling in the Summerville Hay and Danville Cases — The Import Rate Decision — The Freight Bureau Cases — The Rate-Making Power — Judge Cooley on Large and Small Shipment Rates — Failure of the Commission to Abolish Rebates 250

CHAPTER XVIII Further Development in Public Sentiment and

Legislation

The "Midnight" Tariff— Traffic Agreements— Advantages of Pooling and the Evils of Unrestrained Competition — The Anti-Trust Law — Dissolution of the Trans- Missouri Freight Association— Procedure of the Joint Traffic Associations— The Elkins Act, 1903. Effect of Panic of 1893 on the Railroads— The Unpreparedness

X Contents

PAGE

for Demands of Sudden Prosperity of 1899 — Amalgamation of Railroads — " Community of Interests " — • Cassatt Employs this Agency in Abolishing Rebates — The Carnegie Steel Co. and the Pennsylvania Lines — Renewed Prosperity and Congestion of Traffic — Improper Use of Freight Cars a Primary Cause — Increasing Revenues of the Railroads and the Senate Investigation 261

CHAPTER XIX Public Sentiment and the Hepburn Bill

Review of Cases Before Interstate Commerce Commission — Prominence Given Rates in Senate Doc. 257, 1904 — The Esch-Townsend Bill — The Hepburn Bill — Its Provisions— The Commission and the Rate-Making Power — Complaints to Commission Based on Hepburn Bill — ■ Classification of Hay — Grouping of Cases and Decisions of Commission — Brick Rates — Emergency Coal Rate and Indiana Commission — Oil Rates — Car Distribution, Bituminous Coal, Citrus Fruits — Switching Charges and Elevator Service — Carload Rates — Community Complaints — Review of Number and Character of Complaints 275

CHAPTER XX The Influence of the Commission Toward Uniformity of Procedure

Accounting Systems — Association of American Railway Accounting Officers — The Statistical Difficulty in Uniform Accounts — Uniformity of Classification— The Official, Southern and Western Classifications — Efforts Toward a Practical Uniform Classification — State Classifications— Federal versus State Rate Regulation — Development of Interstate Traffic and the Freight Rate Structures— The Correlation of Rates — Local Interests and Interstate Rates — Conflicts Between State and Federal Authority 30i

CHAPTER XXI Traffic Experts in the Employ of Shippers

Development of the Intermediary— Far-Reaching Effects of a Rate Change — Sensitiveness of Rates on Commodities— Necessity for Specialization in ^ Rates Affecting a Corporation or Firm — City Freight Traffic Bureaus— Traffic Representatives, Good and Bad — Improper Exploitation of " Paper " Rates— Railroad Encouragement of the Expert Traffic Representative- Traffic Clubs— Beneficial Effects in Service ... 314

Contents xi

CHAPTER XXII The Commerce of the Cities PAGE

Production, Consumption, and Distribution in Cities Affected by Rates — North Atlantic Seaboard, Boston — Buffalo — Pittsburg — Cleveland and Columbus — Southeastern Rates Complaint — Cincinnati — Louisville — Chicago— St. Louis — Kansas City — St. Paul and Minneapolis— Denver — Helena and Butte — the South and Southeast, Richmond, Charleston, Memphis, Montgomery, Mobile, and New Orleans — Oklahoma — Texas, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Galveston — Pacific Coast, San Francisco, Spokane — The Situation at Indianapolis 325

Chapter XXIII

A Comparison of the Railroads with the Agricultural AND Manufacturing Industries

Capital, Profits, Expenditures Compared in Agriculture, Manufactures and Railroads — Wages Similarly Compared 374

CHAPTER XXIV The Progressive Achievement of the Railroads

Operating Revenues, Expenses, and Income of Railroads — Capitalization — Mileage and Equipment — Traffic — Ratios of Increase, 1875 to 1905 — Intensive Growth — Progressive Efficiency — Over-capitalization and the Interstate Commerce Commission's Report on Inter- . corporate Relationships — Traffic Conditions as Explanatory of Popular Criticism — Problems in Demand of Future for Increase of Facilities — Probable Increase in Capitalization 384

Conclusion

Lack of Precedent in Construction of Freight Rates — The Freight Rate Structure Complicated by Multiplicity of Products and Manufacture — The Competition for Capital — Rate Criticism Coincident with Interstate Traffic — Complaints of Conditions, 1886 and at Present — The Existing Freight Rate Structure a Resultant of Needs of Industry and Commerce . . 397

I:

I

Chapter I Introductory

As we are told, even in the schoolbooks used by children, our present civilization could not have been attained except through the division of labor. In the typical early community the tailor made the clothes, the carpenter built the house, and the smith fashioned the tools, each with his own hands from material obtained near by. Each exchanged his handiwork for the product of the other and with the farmer for the product of the soil. In time, perhaps, the tailor, the carpenter, the smith, the other artisans of the community, and, likewise, the farmer, enlisted the help of one or more apprentices, or wage workers, as the case might be. Then it was not a simple exchange of the direct handiwork of one workman for the direct handiwork of another. The men employed by each artisan had to be supplied with portions of the products of the others. At a later stage the material used by different crafts was brought from distant places, often passing through more than one process before reaching the artisan who wrought it into its final form.

The development of these processes has resulted in the industry and commerce of to-day. The food, the clothing, the implements, the buildings, of every community are of material that may have been brought frbm the field or mine or forest within a dozen miles, or it mav have been conveyed a thousand or two thousand miles or more. It therefore follows that there must not only be mechanism for carrying raw material from the source of supply to the various places where, through various processes, it is finally wrought into ultimate form, but there must be mechanism for conveying these finished products to the widespread communities where they are consumed.

Broadly speaking, the processes through which material passes from the source of supply into the finished product are those of industry; and the processes through which the finished product passes into the hands of the consumer are those of commerce. There is, of course, much buying and selling of material as it is transformed from one phase of manufacture to another, and, therefore, the function of the merchant is still prominent in industry, but this is apart from distribution to the final consumer.

Throughout all industry and all commerce the function of transportation is conspicuous. Products may be carried by dray or wagon for short distances from the field, or merchandise of various kinds to and from the factory, the warehouse or the retail store, and certain of the waterways take part in this function ; but the overwhelmingly preponderating transportation agency in this country is the railroad. The railroads carry raw material from farm and forest and mine to the places of concentration, to the places of preparatory process, to the places of intermediate process, to the places of final process. They carry products from these places of final process to the warehouses in the great distributing centers, to the storehouses in the smaller cities and towns, to the shops of the retail merchants, and, in no inconsiderable degree, to the homes wherein they are used and consumed.

Entering thus into every process of every industry, and into every process of distribution, the transportation function affects every person who is concerned either in the production or the consumption of any commodity of industry, of any article of commerce. That is, it affects the entire population. The charge for transportation enters into the cost of production of every article; the charge for transportation enters into the cost of distribution of every article.

A survey of the effect which the charges for trans-

Introductory 3

portation have upon the various industries and the varied commerce of this country must, therefore, include a study of the extent to which they further or hinder the movement of the materials and the products of industry ; of the extent to which they advance or retard the progress of commerce. Those immediately engaged in industry are the producers of raw material — the owners of and workers in the fields, the forests and the mines, the owners of and workers in the factories and the mills ; those immediately engaged in distribution are the owners and salesmen of the mills and factories, the wholesale merchants and their employees, the retail merchants and their employees. As every farmer and farm-hand directly or indirectly consumes the products of mill and factory, and every manufacturer and worker in mill and factory consumes the products of the farm, and so on throughout industry and commerce, every producer is a consumer and every consumer is a producer. The workers in the arts and the professions, while not engaged in material production, consume material products.

It is also necessary to consider the effect of the transportation charge upon the maintenance of the railways and upon their capacity for extension and enlargement to meet the needs of the industry and commerce of the future. The railroads must adequately perform their part as an integral factor in the material activities of the nation, and they must receive the consideration and the support which will enable them adequately to perform that part.

As the first subject to be considered is the relation which the railroads bear to the movement of commodities, there must be a clear comprehension of that movement and the directions which it takes.

CHAPTER II i

I

The colonists who settled on the Atlantic seaboard '

were dependent for many generations upon the fatherland for all manufactured articles except the crudest handiwork. The commerce which slowly developed was '

in the products of agriculture taken by wagon or by stage to the seaboard to be sent to Europe by the sailing vessels, which, in return, brought fabrics, firearms, house- . I

hold utensils and even brick and other building material. The more important settlements were naturally, therefore, on the harbors, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, | Baltimore, Richmond, Wilmington, Charleston, Savan- i nah. Even until the time of the Revolution there was i very little commerce between one colony and another, but the area from which agricultural products were received for export and throughout which manufactures i from Europe were distributed increased as the pioneers i fought their way into the interior. During later years, as they penetrated beyond the mountains, at places nat- j /urally adapted to become bases of supplies, arose clusters of cabins that formed the nuclei of the present cities of Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Chicago, on i the Lakes; of Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. j Louis, St. Paul, and Memphis, on the rivers; Mobile, \ New Orleans, and Galveston, on the Gulf; of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Portland, on the Pacific.

The domestic tranquillity and solidarity of interest brought about by the Revolution gave a stimulus to do- j

mestic manufacture and to the interchange of products ;

between the colonies. Although this was enhanced by |

the War of 1812, and it was recognized that there was .

need of an extension and enlargement of the means of communication between the Atlantic seaboard and the interior, the situation had not greatly changed within the dozen years that elapsed before the time when experiments were made with the building of roads of rails. The first railroads led from the seaports into the interior for but short distances, but they extended the area tributary to each seaport, bringing products of the soil over greater distances to the seaboard, and furnishing a regular and certain means by which the residents of the interior could obtain the supplies which they did not produce. That is, an early result of the building of the railroads was a furthering of the division of labor, the residents of the towns giving less attention to the growing of food, and the farmers not being obliged to turn their hands to the making of so many things.

The period from 1830 to i860 was one of contest between the railroads and between the canals which had been built largely by aid of the various States. Toward the close of this era the superior efficiency of the railroads was generally recognized, and the canals, with but few exceptions, gradually lapsed into disuse.

The railroads that had been built westward from Massachusetts Bay extended through Massachusetts and Connecticut to Albany and to New York. Lines from New York had extended to Bufifalo; from Philadelphia to Pittsburg; from Baltimore to the Ohio River. By the time of the Civil War certain of these railroads had reached Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, and from these cities other lines had been built radiating, not only throughout the interior States, but reaching toward the West and South, the Northwest and the Southwest. The lines from the ports on the South Atlantic and on the Gulf had penetrated to junctions at various places in the southern interior. There was direct communication by rail between Chicago and New Orleans, and lines of rails extended from the Gulf toward the interior of Texas. Along these various routes traffic had increased both in volume and in diversity.

The Civil War, interrupting the industry and commerce of the country in general, naturally brought a cessation in railroad building. Immediately after its close, however, construction was resumed and railroads were rapidly extended. They wound a network over New England, the North Atlantic and the Middle States: they stretched farther into the West, sending out branches that covered the region from Missouri and Kansas to Minnesota and the Dakotas ; they reached down into Texas from St. Louis. In 1869 was driven the golden spike that marked the completion of the first through rail route from the Missouri River to the Pacific Coast. The railroads of the States south of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi Rivers had resumed active operation and were also being extended, although less rapidly than in the North.

Every section of the country was thus connected by rail with every other section and the main channels of traffic were then outlined. In the last forty years railroad building east of the Missouri River has been intensive rather than extensive ; sections that theretofore were not supplied with railroads have now been traversed by these agencies until it is an exceptional State of which every county is not crossed by one or more lines. Instead of one rail route to the Pacific Coast there are now half a dozen, and cross lines are gradually extending over vast areas of a once barren West that irrigation has coaxed into fertility.

The stimulus to manufacture given by the Revolution naturally made Boston the early industrial center. The commercial currents set in motion by the exchange of the handiwork of the domestic artisans for the products of the soil deepened the traffic channels already grooved by the barter through the seaports of the products of the soil for the manufactures of Europe. A pronounced step in this development occurred many years later when the building of railroads throughout the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys led to grain from those regions being brought to the East in exchange for the diversified manufactures of industrial centers that increased in the North

Atlantic States. This exchange of food products for manufactured products is the primary force that has eroded the traffic channels of to-day. This force, manifested in diverse ways, has led to a multiplying and ramifying of the channels. Foods of various kinds are brought from remote sources of supply to widespread markets. Raw material of one kind may be obtained at the factory's door, while another must be brought from across the continent. As the population has spread throughout the country, the industrial area has extended, certain manufactures tending to segregate at a few centers, while others have become more widely diffused. Central and southern New England, southern New York, eastern Pennsylvania, and northern New Jersey, are still the principal places of manufacture of the finer fabrics and articles of apparel, of carpets, rugs and various wares, of the smaller tools and more delicate bits of mechanism, and of countless articles of personal use and adornment. From this region this merchandise flows not only to the communities of the New England and North Atlantic States, but throughout the interior, the South, the Northwest, the West and Southwest, and up and down the Pacific Coast. This merchandise goes through Buffalo or Pittsburg to the interior States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, and by way of Chicago or St Louis to the valleys of the Mississippi and the Missouri. It goes over the rail lines that extend from the Northern Atlantic seaports throughout the South and is also carried to this region by the coastwise steamers that connect at the South Altantic and Gulf ports with the railroads leading from these ports into the interior. This merchandise goes by rail to the ports on Lake Erie, thence by vessel to the head of the Lakes, and thence by rail throughout Minnesota, the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming; or, it may go to this section over the all-rail routes via Chicago or St. Louis or through Canada. To the region between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains that lies to the south of these States this merchandise may go by all-rail routes via Chicago or St. Louis; or via coastwise vessels to Norfolk, Newport News, Savannah, New Orleans, or Galveston, and thence by rail. To the Pacific Coast this merchandise may go over the rail lines through Canada, by way of St. Paul, or Chicago, or St. Louis, or Memphis; or it may go by vessel to Norfolk, Newport News, Savannah, or New Orleans, or Galveston and thence by rail ; or it may go by vessel to Tehuantepec or Colon, thence by rail across Mexico or Panama, and by vessel up the Pacific Coast; or it may go by vessel over the entire route through the Straits of Magellan, or around Cape Horn. This merchandise not only may go from the Atlantic seaboard to these various regions via any one of these routes, but it does go in large volume over every one of them; except that the all-water route around the Cape to the Pacific Coast is falling into disuse.

In reverse direction the grain and grain products of the Mississippi Valley flow throughout the East and Southeast. From the Dakotas and Minnesota they go to the East, either entirely by rail, or across Lake Michigan by car ferry; or via Duluth and vessel to the Lake Erie ports, and thence by way of the railroads or by way of the Erie Canal. From Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, these products move by way of Chicago or St. Louis ; from the region south of Kansas by way of St. Louis, Galveston or Memphis or New Orleans. Livestock and meat products move to the East and the Southeast, over the same all-rail routes as the grain, from the ranches and farms that reach on the north to the Dakotas and on the south to Texas. This does not mean that all of the grain and all of the meat come from this western interior. Wheat is raised in nearly every State, and corn in many of the States of the Union, but in quantities that, except in these surplus grain-growing States in the Mississippi and Missouri Valleys, are usually not more than adequate for home consumption; and so, also, with cattle and hogs.

Those who live on the farms, in the villages, and in

The Channels of TrafBc 9

nearly all of the smaller cities and towns, obtain butter, eggs, milk, cheese and chickens from near by. But the growth of the larger cities has compelled their inhabitants to draw upon more remote sources for these foods which, in commercial parlance, are known as dairy products. Eggs are shipped in carloads from as far as Texas and Arkansas on the south and the Dakotas and Minnesota on the north, from Wisconsin, Tennessee and the Middle States to St. Louis, Chicago, Pittsburg, and the populous seaboard. Butter, cheese and chickens come from an area almost as extended. These products, of course, are supplemented by the surplus production of near-by farms. The larger cities draw milk from considerable distances, the milk trains that supply New York starting as far as four hundred and even four hundred and fifty miles from that city.

The concentration of population in the large cities has also necessitated the going far afield for fruits and vegetables, and therefore has led to the production of these edibles on a large scale on truck farms and in orchards. The populous region from Boston to Washington obtains vegetables, not only from near-by gardens, but from great truck farms in western New York, eastern Maryland and southward along the Atlantic iToast to Florida. From the Southeast and from the lands along the Gulf, and even from Utah and California, vegetables and melons are sent in the spring to Pittsburg, Chicago, and St. Louis; while in the autumn this southern region obtains vegetables from Wisconsin, Michigan, and other parts of the North and from California. Akin to this widely originating and widely circulating traffic is that in berries, peaches, apples, and oranges.