The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-01-19
CHEAPER TRANSPORTATION.

which our readers will be interested in per-
using. 1t is as follows:
For the News
The producers of the Mississippi Valley
demand and must have cheaper transpor-
tation to the seaboard Railroads are
numerous, and yet freights are entirely too
high. Railroads are very expensive lux
ury-the first cost is so great, and the ex-
penses of running and repairs are such
that we can hardly hope for really cheap
freight by rail, from here to the Atlantic.
Fortunately this great valley of the Mis-
sissippi river is not dependent upon the
rail and the locomotive for sending its pro-
ducts to the great markets of the world,
An all wise Providence has furnished it
with magnificent Lakes and Rivers, to such
an extent and in such abundance as to
make it shame and disgrace to the peo-
pie of this western country if they longer
neglect to make the little improvements
which the Great Architect designed as
mans share of the work.
The great lakes by a comparatively small
expense can carry to the Atlantic ten times
as much produce each and every year as
all the railroads now running from the Mis-
sissippi to the Atlantic
The Mississippi river, by an expendi-
ture of money in its improvement not to
exceed one quarter the amount wasted by
Government in building railroads to the
Pacific, can float to the Gulf the products
of the country for a mere song in COM
parison to the cheapest possible rate by
rail. In support of these propositions
offer some extracts from very valuable doc
uments furnished me by Col Raiford, a
celebrated engineer of Georgia, who is tax
ing great interest in plan for extending
the Mississippi river by the northern Dor
der of the Gulf and across the Peninsula
of Florida to the Atlantic, or, in other
words, to improve the island or land lock
ed route along the Gulf to the Savannah
river in Florida, thence through the
Okenfnokee swamps into the st. Mary's
river, which empties into the Atlantic
The extract in point is as follows:
I'm this connection, and as this improve
ment proposes the largest advantages fol
inland navigation, [ will make some ex.
tracts bearing upon the subject from late
and very able article, just published, from
the pen of Prof. L. B. Marry, of the Uni
ted States Signal Bureau. He saws:
THE problem of more rapid canal navigation i
speedily approaching solutions and to give up tn
waerline Of the larger sections would be fatal t,
their commercial deyeiODpmCnt' To this
and to show what would be the effect of the alb
boat" he continues to saw which cnna t ESa
with an average cargo from the west is more thai
the average of the New York Central RailroaC
trains III the busy canal season, more than on,
hundred and fifty such boats come daily to tide wa
ter, and the New York Central Railroad traffic new
reaches thirty trains day. Such q canal trIfi
would make more than twenty miles of Uninterrupted
railroad cars, which could not by any possibility
be handled by the largest force of railroad employ
ees with expedition or convenience
If then, the Erie Canal furnishes larg
er trade daily than could be carried by
train twenty miles in length, what shoulc
be expected from an arm of the Mississip
pi river reaching forward, and to within
days passage, by rail, of the Atlanti
cost with all the capacity required 70
transit of steam tugs and barges, withou
limit as to their measurement or number
and when too, this may be done at hal
the coast required to carry freights fror
the same starting points to Atlantic han
bors through the Erie canal?
The immense saving in the cost of waite
carriage as compared with that of ralIroa
transportation is hardly even imagined b
those who only look to the routine of con
mercial transactions. OF course such est
mates are comparative, and must be mad
with reference to the value of freights ;
well as to their bulk and weight. To i
lustrate, however, in very marked wa,
the power OF water routes over that of raj
roads, will repeat here what, in anotht
form, was put in print years ago over N
own signature and was largely copied
the time by newspapers of the Unite
States. The fact stated came within m
observation at Cincinnati, while | W;
there as a delegate to the Commercial Cor
vention in 1870. A steamer with her tow
laden with coal from Pittsburg was pas
ing down the Ohio river, bound to Ne
Orleans, distant from Pittsburg about 2
600 miles. The cargo, or rather cargo,
for the steam tug had quite family
barges around her-consisted of 1886. O(
bushels, weighing Is, 44O tons This Coz
was being transported to New Orleans fro
Pittsburg at cents per hundred pound
and, at this cheap freightage, the dow
trip alone would bring the boat and barge
$13,440, which was regarded by the owl
ers as paying trip. To have carried tn
amount of coal, or other freight of edu
weight and bulk by rail, would have r,
quired More than fifty trains, or !, 344 ca
with ten tons in each. At 5000 car, wit
ten tons of freight to be carried 2, 900 mil,
lower transportation than can be prof
able to railroads-this cargo would hay
amounted to $685. 900, making a differenc
of quarter of million of dollars on tt
transportation of the cargo of one chea
steamboat and her barges. Prof Maur
says, in the article before alluded to, tn,
coal continues to be shipped down the Obi
and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, an
sent thence by sea to New York, where
is sold after it has been carried four thor
sand miles by water, in successful compt
tition with the same coal carried less tina
one-tenth Of that distance by rail. Th
barge system lately introduced on tn
great western rivers has tended and q
experience will produce better models ft
the purposes at the least cost, it will VI
continue to cheaper transportation alon
1odter lines Of sufficient WIDTH and DEPT
to admit the use of powerful thong
cheap steamtugs to propel this charactt
OF boats.
Prot. Maury further states the carrias
OF grain from Minnesota to New Orleal
by this same method costs no more tba
the trelghtage from the same point to Oh
cago by rail. A boat-load of wheat fro
st Paul taking the rivar ro,,to ;e 81 -