The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1870-05-12

4 .
If transportation facilities are furnished,
| it must, for all time, be the granary of
/ the country While it is true that a
quantity of grain is received upon the
immediate shore of Lake Michigan, and
does not require transportation across the
state, and equally true that quantity of
the grain crop referred to is shipped by
the west and south by channels other
than by way of Lake Michigan. With chan
. nels opened and freights reduced, there
by stimulating shipments, it is thought
J the yearly crop is now, and has been for
| three years, suflicien ly large to make
the shipment eastward, from points west
of Lake Michigan, not less than so mil
| lion bushels of wheat and of other grains,
making the total amount not less than
| 100 millions of bushels. This quantity
in weight, estimating for the different
kinds of grain, is about 100000 tons.
The average distance to the Mississippi
river from Lake Michigan by rail is 40
miles. BY the Wisconsin and Fox rivers
| it will be 27S miles. To the distance by
| rail must be added the average distance
to the head of Lake Michigan opposite
Green Bay, which is estimated at $50
4, miles. The charges for transportation
over 40 miles Of railway, at 30 mills
per ton per mile, and over $50 miles of
lake at mills per ton per mile, amount
to $685. per ton, and with the cost of
Itranshipment on the Mississippi, added
to 1921 per ton While the
charges from the Mississippi over the
| 278 miles of river and canal to the same
point on Green Bay will cost over z miles
per ton per mile, amounting to $1.95 per
ton. The saving then, $4.26 per
ton, upon the whole quantity for
shipment, will amount to $l0,650,000,
q sum more than twice the estimated cost
of the proposed work, which will be
ga red in the movement of single grain
crop. 1t may be said that this grain
product would not all go by water
That may be true But whether moved
by water or rail the movement must be
made at the approximate water rates.
The saving to the people is equally GER
tain. In 1869 the wheat crop for export
in Iowa alone was twenty millions of
bushels, making 100000 tons. With the
water route to the east, Iowa alone would
haze saved upon that crop more than
two millions of dollars, which she paid
fM transportation, as has ueen stated by
Governor Merrill.
! desire in this connection to call yonr
attention to the facts and figures carefully
prepared and presented in a memorial to
Congress upon this subject. The tables
and statements | believe to be substan-
tally correct. They are certainly anthem
ticated by the best authorities of the
government. 1888 A3GHJh bt%E
Stat ticS show that where water and
rail transportation come into direct com.
petition the receipts and cost of transport
tation by rail are aoout eight times as
great SIS by water. From the New York
auditors report, for 1866, it appears that
the tons moved per mile on the New
York Central and Erie railways, for
that year, were 800, 561 ,319. and there
was moved on the canals 1,012,44S, 034:
yet the railway receipts amounted to
$40, 1882 493, while the canal receipts
were only $40, l60,651, making the
charges by rail nearly three times as
great as by canal. In fen yearS--1854 toI
1864, inclusive-the total number of tons
moved one mile by the Central railway
was 2, 1872, 073,612 and by the Erie rail-
way 2,587,274, 914, while the New York
canal moved 8,175, 800, 095. The average
charges of the Central were 2 6-10, the
the Erie ,22-100; the canal charged 81
100 cents per mile per ton, making the
average charges by rail nearly three times
as great as by canal Had the freights
which were carried by canal for the ten
years referred to been carried by rail,
the additional freight charges would
have amounted to $122,637 637, 045 g.
If we take into account the sums applied
for the extinguishment of the New York
canal debt, the payment and cost of
repairs and management, and the reduc- |
ton of railway treights caused by the |
competition of the canal, which is amongi
the greatest benefits which the canal has !
rendered the public, and the appreciation
of real estate upon the line of the canal |
in New York, by reason of the const rue I
ton of the canal, and at the west, we are
safe in saying that canals have saved to
the public during the ten years referred
to $17,S50,000 every year. 1t does not
need argument to show that the opening
of the water route to the We st will stimu
late the production OF the west The
commissioner of agriculture, in his re-
port for 1865 page 62, speaking of the
tables which appear in the memorial re
ferred to, says these tables show how
excessive charges for transportation are
ening out the substance of tie west, re L
ducing home prices and farmers profits, 4
and sending corn to the crate or the
furnace. 1t should teach The east and the
west to multiply and cheaper their
M DIES of transportation All the freight
seeking the eastern markets from the
and the Missouri rivers, byi
way of Lake Michigan, whether passing !
over this route or not, will be governed J
largely by the price per ton charged on
this or other water routes 11
l.