End of the Free-Ride Speculators
Northern Pacific moves to stop speculators from using rail cars as free storage sheds, prioritizing the legitimate lumber and shingle business.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The practice of Eastern speculators ordering carloads of shingles shipped to junction points on the Northern Pacific and holding them until they could find a sale will end May 1. This practice used the railroad's station yards as free storage, giving speculators an advantage over legitimate lumber houses who had to pay for storage. Assistant General Freight Agent C.J. Fulton announced that all shipments must now be consigned to an ultimate destination to prevent yard congestion and allow for the efficient movement of freight.
“It enabled them to do a wholesale shingle business without any capital, using the cars and station yards of the railroad company for their shingle yards and sheds without paying anything for it.”
Much like the 'just-in-time' logistics and land-use debates in modern Seattle, this story shows how public infrastructure—in this case, rail capacity—was once exploited by speculators at the expense of local industry.
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