National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-12-11

running on this canal, both Of which were
rerlete with interest
We are on the eve of a great revolution
in the transportation business. There are
now ten or fifteen steamers running regu-
larly between Buffalo and New York city
via the Erie canal and the Hudson river,
and their success may be represented as
thorough. The Erie canal, with its horse
boats and despite the enormous tolls eX
acted by the State, has been able to hold
its own against the energy and enterprise
of the New York Central and the Erie rail
roads. Those roads will hardly be able to
compete with it at all for heavy freights,
now that the time on the canal between Al
bany and Buffalo has been reduced one
half, and that wheat is transported from
Buffalo to New York in these steamers for
from five to seven cents bushel The
charge by the old boats has been about
twelve or thirteen cents.
Another important development in con-
neCtion with these canal steamers and
which will be fully appreciated by canal
men, is the fact stated by Mr.. DObbins be-
fore the Cheap transportation Convention,
that the steamers were passed through the
locks in from three to five minutes-the
horse boats requiring ten or fifteen. In
other words, as only a given number of
boats can be passed through the locks in
day, the capacity ofthe canal, with steamers
substituted for animal power, will be
doubled, and without enlarging the canal
or the boats the Erie canal will be equal to
the movement annually Of 10000 900 tons.
The actual running time between Buffalo
and New York Excluding stoppages) is
now about five days. \ cargo can be de-
livered by the way of the lakes and the
canal in New York from Chicago in ten
or twelve days, which is equal to the rail
road time. Indeed, as matter of fact, the
time by rail between these points is stated
by Mr. Franklin Edison, president of the
New York Produce Exchange, to range
from ten and twelve to twenty and thirty
days.
This increase in the rate of speed on the
canal has at once produced a marked effect
in the transportation of a class Of articles
general merChandisc-whichh has heretofore
been mOnopolized by the railroads. The
steamers thus secure "baCk-load' from
New York, which contributes largely to
their ability to reduce the rates of freight.
1t has been stated by those familiar with
the subject that the enlargement of the
Erie canal so as to admit boats of 600 tons
would reduce the cost of transport fifty per
cent. The original boats on the canal had
q capacity of 20 tons, and it was suggested
that the boats should be enlarged
so as to give them their present
capacity of 80 tons, and it was predicted
that such enlargement would diminish the
rates fifty per cent. This turned out to be
the fact, and it is reasonable to suppose that
q further increase in the tonnage of the
boats will have a similar effect
There is no doubt that grain will soon
be carried from Chicago to New York for
ten cents a bushel, and when the Henne-
pin canal or the Wisconsin and Fox rivers
improvement is completed the rate from
the Mississippi to New York need not ex-
coed thirteen or fourteen cents.
The significance of this is enormous. as
may be readily appreciated when we state
that the present charge on grain from the
Mississippi to New York is from forty to
forty-five cents. There will be a saving on
each bushel of at least twenty five cents,
or So SO on every ton of produce moved
between these points. Putting the tonnage
from West to East and from East to
West at $1,000, 900, (the grain moved
from the West equals 1000, OOO,) the an
nual saving, if the charge can be brought
down on all routes from forty or forty-fve
cents, would amount to 1926, 100000.
The cheap transportation convention
adopted the platform of the Senate Trans
portation Committee-the four great water
routes indicated in the report of Senator
Window, viz The lakes and Erie canal
route the central water line, via the Mis-
sissippi, the Ohio and the James river and
Kanawha canal the Mississippi river, and
the Atlantic and Great Western canal, via
the Tennessee and Savannah rivers. They
recommend to Congress also the consider
alton" of the construction of trans CONT
mental freight railway.
The Erie route labOrs under a serious
as compared with its future
rival, the central water line. 1t is obstruct-
ed for four and half months by ice, while
the Virginia line will be open at least three
hundred and thirty -fve days. This, of
course, will exert powerful influence on
the rates of transportation. 1t will operate
in another way. The steamers on the Erie
canal, when the ice embargo sets in there,
will move South in November and operate
on the central line, thus securing full en-
plOyment for eleven months. This will
enable them when they move back in the
spring to work at cheaper rates on the Erie
We are glad to see that this great subject
has now become one Of the regular heads
in the executive messages to Congress, and
we hope that this latter body will call at
once for the reports on the surveys ordered
last session, and take some decided step TO-
wards inaugurating the improvements we
so much need.
THE POLITICAL FUTURE.