The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1874-05-02
THE WINDOW REPORT,

i. THE WINDOW REPORT.
0. AT length the famous Window committee
v which spent all last summer in travelling owe
Y the United State and Canada gathering fact
q to enable them to solve the great problem o
. cheap transportation, has made report Th'
q report was submitted to the U. S. Senate OF
# the Gath and is quite volumnous Aside from
the facts it contains, which, considering the
n pains taken to collect them, are sufficiently
meager and unsatisfactory, the report is quite
= an essay IN its way on the great question in
volved, and comes to suIdry highly satisfac
, tory conclusions, to this effect: 1. That the
}, solution of the problem of cheap Transports
, ton between the east and the west is not to
, be found in Mr.. Hurlbuts double steel track
cheap freight railroad from New York to
, Omaha with lateral branches, &c, or in the
building of any railroad by government
aid 9. That it is not to be found In the west.
ern or grange plan of regulating the freight
and fare charges of railroads by law of con
gress or state legislatures. But 3-that the
true solution of the problem lies in competi.
the opening of half a dozen of water routes
between the west and east to compete with
the railroads. This competition by water is
to be created by
l. The improvement Of the Fox and Wis
consin Rivers, so as to secure "fvc feet of
navigation" from the Mississippi to Green
Bay. Cost, $3,00O0O0
| 2. The construction Of the Hcnnepn Canal,
thereby connecting the Mississippi with the
Illinois by a route from Rock Island to Hen
nepia. Cost, $4,O00OOO.
3. The general enlargement and improve,
ment of the Erie, the Champlain, the Wei.
land, and other canals and WATERWAYS from
the lakes to the ocean. Cost, $12,OOOOOO
4. The connection of the Ohio with the
ocean by improving is channel, as we'll as
that of the kanawha river so as to reach tide
water in Virginia. Cost, $25 100000
s. A route via the Ohio and Tennessee to
Knoxville, and thence by canal or freight
railway to some seaboard in the Southwest
Cost, $35, 100000
8. The improvement Of the mouth of the
Mississippi
The committee estimate that the saving in
transport by the Northern route, from st.
Paul to Green Bay, would be 1916 cents per
bushel over the present rate from ST. Paul to
Chicago; that the cost from St. Paul to Chi
cago via the Hennepin canal would save 6.6
cents per bushel over the cost by rail; that
in general, by the proposed routes, "a saving
can be effected of 20 cents per bushel, or So.
70 per ton, on all the vast tonnage moved be-
tween the Mississippi and the East" which
may have been a reasonable conclusion last
BUTTS absurd enough low, seeing
that the entire cost at present of transporting
corn by rail "bctwcen the Mississippi and
The East" is but "20 cts. per bushel or 1910
per ton"
The committee suggest that the money can
be raised by economy without increasing tax
alton, or without economy, we SUPPOSE by
the tariff on tea and coffee.
The scheme lis the criticism of the Chicago
AailD is magnificent in design. threads like
I tale Of Flush times of 80" 1t is also toler-
, sop to every section of the country. Nor is
he total proposed cost alarming to people
accustomed TO reckon debts by the billion
and to mediate the creation of currency by
he hundred million. But looked ut more
:he.scheme has objections ola mag
litude worthy of the occasion
/. The commercial ccntcrs of the country
ave grown up in II certain relation to rall-
way centcrs, and to railway system; to re-
construct this and substitute water routes,
cutting the country Independent of and hos
lie to these centers, will provoke most eff.
'cctive and persistent opposition. Chicago
could get along well enough Her position
IS beyond contingency; but what would be
come of those tentative commercial ventures,
st. LOUIS and Cincinnati?
9. The early closing of the two northern
routes proposed would leave the railroads
full swing for about six months in the year,
except as traffic might be carried to the
southwark and the effect of an outlet at
Richmond, Savannah, or New Orleans, would
not lower freights materially on railroad
lines running to New York.
s. This system would of itself afford no re-
lief to local railroad extortion or to the Gran
gers far TO the westward and distant from wa
ter courses.
4. 1t would not I've available for a large
tlass of dealers, of moderate means, who re-
Quire returns from shipments more rapidly
than could be obtained By canal shipments,
and who would, consequently be forced to
SEM, BY iaiL and, for that matter, could afford
to- even "a higher charge.
For these and many other reasons 1t Is
doubtful if the report will be accepted either
by Congress or the people as asolution of the
problem of cheap transportation