National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-05-23
4 MOVE IN THE RIGHT DIREC.
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resolution in the Senate last week reciting
the action taken by the Senate Select Com
mittee on Transportation, and instruoting
the Committee on Appropriations Ito re-
port amendments to the river and harbor
bill, making appropriations for completing
the surveys and estimates for each Of the inn
provcment recommended by said select COM
mittee upon the four routes indicated in their
report" These four routes are: /, The Mis-
sissippi river; 2, A.continuous water line Of
adequate capacity from the Mississippi river
to the city of New York via the northern
lakes; 8, A route adequate to the wants OF
commerce through the central tier ofStates,
from the Mississippi river via the Ohio and
Kanawha river to point in West Virginia,
and thence by canal or slackwater, or by q
freight railway, to tide-water; 4, A route
from the Mississippi river via the Ohio. and
Tennessee rivers to q point in Alabama or
Tennessee, and thence by canal or slack
water, or by freight railway TO the ocean.
We have, at last, something tangible.
The least that Congress can do at the pres
ent session is to make beginning. The
Committee on Transportation, in their very
able and exhaustive report, express the
opinion that the completion of this system
of improvements will effect reduction of
fifty per cent. in the cost of transporting
fourth-class freights from the valley of the
Mississippi to the seaboard, and a similar
reduction in return freights. The grain
movement alone to the Eastern and South
ern States from the West for 1872, amount
ed to 213, 900, 900 bushels. Twenty cents
on the transportation of each bushel would
be saved by the opening of the four great
routes recommended by the committee
which would amount annually to the enor-
nous sum of $4,000. 900. Nor is this all.
There were at least 200, OOO 900 bushels
more that, owing to the high charges of
transport, were never moved. Nor is this
all. With the reduction in freights which
would be effected by these improvements,
the production OF the West would be stimu-
lated far beyond the present figures to meet
the demand of the European markets; and
it is within bounds to say that by the time
this great system was thoroughly inaugu-
rated, the annual benefit to the country
would amount to $3.50, 900, sufficient
to cancel the entire outlay on all of the
proposed routes-largely more than sufi-
cient to meet the interest on the national
debt. 1900.
Why does Congress pausef Does it
want more Ightf The Senate committee
have made the circuit of the whole country
east of the Mississippi river, spending
months in collecting information, probing
this question to the very bottom, confer
ring with the ablest commercial minds in
the great cities of the States visited, and
maturing an elaborate and careful report,
covering the whole field of this discussion.
The resolution of the Senator from Mime
sofa only asks an appropriation to make
examinations and surveys.
Do they shrink from expanding $780,
600, DOOR That Is not asked for by the reso-
luton. If it shall hereafter follow, why
should we waver when Great Britain guar
anteed the interest on $40, 600, 900, to be
expended on the construction Of railways
in India, when the whole sum, as we have
seen, would be returned to the country in
a single year, or, to exclude all cavil, in
two years?
The condition of the Mississippi river is
g national disgrace. England sent out her
means to clear the channel of the Danube,
at the other extremity of the continent of
Europe, in the limits of foreign State.
The Government o. the United States per-
mits river running through the heart of
the Union, nayigable for two thousand
miles, to have its mouth blocked up with
mud, and its channel obstructed through
out Its whole length by sunken wrecks,
snags and sand-bars, so that large vessels
cannot come up to New Orleans at all,
while for three months in the year naviga-
ton Is suspended from ST. Paul to Cairo.
The Ohio-another magnificent stream,
as long as the Danube, nayigsble for one
thousand miles, is in no better plight Dur
ing the fall many of the boats running on
it have draught of only eighteen to
twenty inches. -.
The Erie canal whose benefceHt in
fuence has been felt from New York to
Chicago, and which has nourished all that
mighty region as the Nile was the source
of the fecundity Of Egypt has q capacity
of only some three millions seven hundred
thousand tons, and is navigated by horse
boats Of two hundred tons, running at the
speed of one and q half miles per hour, as
it was thirty years ago. It Is capable Of
being enlarged so as to increase It's capacity
to twenty million tons, and so as to bear
steamers of six hundred and ninety tons,
running at three or four miles per hour,
with reduction Of from fifty to sixty per
cent in the present cost Of transportation.
But the Northern routes, the lakes, the
st. Lawrence. the Erie canal. the Hudson
are locked by ice four and q half months in
the year; and the great Central Water-line,
recommended by the committee, on the
latitude Of st. Louis and Richmond, Is open
eleven months, and would offer highway
for the grain of the West at season when
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