same time, by moving this wheat more cheaply than flour the railways were encouraging the location of flour milling abroad and rendering it impossible to manufacture flour for export at a profit in the cities of the Middle West. In these export cases it does not appear clearly why the rate on flour for export might not have been reduced somewhat. The Interstate Commerce Commission finally rendered a decision to the effect that the existing difference in rates constituted an undue preference in favor of the foreign manufacturer, adding at the same time that these discriminations seemed to be due primarily not to a desire of the railways to aid the American farmer in disposing of this surplus wheat, but to the bitterness of competition between the Gulf and trunk line railways.[110] They decided that any discrimination greater than two cents per hundred pounds in favor of wheat for export as against flour was unreasonable. This difference was permitted, however, on account of the greater cost of handling the manufactured product. It is significant of the then state of the law that the railways paid no attention to this order, and, although conditions improved somewhat, there is still great complaint. The relative rates on wheat and flour, even when for domestic consumption, illustrate the same difficulty of commercial competition--the necessity of adjusting the rate on raw materials to that on the finished product.[111] The rate on wheat from Wichita, Kan., for example, to California is fifty-five cents per hundred pounds, while the rate on flour between the same points is sixty-five cents. Is this difference in rates economically justifiable? California wheat is soft, so that flour produced from it is much improved by the admixture of hard wheat, such as may be obtained in Kansas. California, formerly a large wheat exporting state, has of late years relied to a considerable degree upon the Middle West for part of its supplies. Kansas flour sells for seventy-five cents a barrel more than California wheat flour. Shall this Kansas wheat, to be consumed in California, be ground in Wichita or in California? Here is material for controversy, not between one particular railway and another, but in reality between the millers in Kansas and the millers in California. It is quite analogous to the issue raised over export wheat and flour between the miller in Chicago and his rival in Liverpool. In this instance, if milled in Kansas, the railways enjoy the carriage of flour; while, if ground in California, the railways carry the commodity in the form of wheat. Owing to certain practical conditions, such as the percentage of waste and relative differences in labor costs, the Kansas miller appears to enjoy a certain advantage over his far western competitors. At this point the interest of particular railway companies appears. The Rock Island, if the milling industry in Kansas develops, obtains the haul not only of the flour but also of the fuel and of supplies