Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1874-06-19
RAIL AND WATER CARRIAGE.

1t may interest our readers to know somc-
thing of the comparative cost of transporta-
ton by these two methods. Of course ca.
mails cannot be expected to reduce rates to as
low figaro per mile as on the lakes and
rivers, for two reasons II costs something
to build and operate them, and their capaci.
ty has its bounds, so that an unlimited COM
petition such as exists on natural waterways
cannot be had.
But freight can be moro Cheaply carried
on canals than on railroads. The report of
the senate transportation committee, to
which wO have had occasion to refer in pre-.
vious articles, gives some facts bearing upon
this point, to which we arc largely indebted
for the figures given below.
On the through line from the Ohio river
to Boston, composed Of the Baltimore Il
Ohio Railroad aud the Boston Steamship
Company, the railroad receives 6S per cent.
of the earnings and the steamship company
80 per cent, making for the actual distance
operated by each a difference in cost of
transportation of to l in favor of water
carriage.
The Erie Railroad has an arrangement by
which its rates from Buffalo to Boston, 60
ing from New York by water, are SO divided
that the steamers carry $50 miles for a sum
the same rs that received by the railroad for
carrying 140.
The Central Vermont Railroad and the
Northern Transportation Company constitute
through line from Chicago to Boston and
other ports in New Englaud. The distance
by water is 1855 miles, the distances by
rail average about 500 miles, and the earn
ings are divided equally between the two
companies.
The gross earnings on the through line
from Chicago to New Orleans, via the Illi-
nois Central Railway to Cairo, 1865 miles,
and thence by tho Mississippi River to New
Orleans, 1850 miles, are so divided as TO
give three-ffths to the railroad and two
filths to the river, making on the charge Of
81 per ton from New Orleans to Chicago,
81 mills ton per mile for the river, and
lis mills a ton per mile for the railroad, or
over to l in favor the river, against the
current.
Tho Improvement Of the natural water
ways and the construction OF canals have
been wholly inadequate to the growing do
mands of trade. Immense grants of money
and lands have been made to railroad lines,
while the railroads, after receiving aid from
the public treasury, securing substantial
monopoly of the transportation business
through the neglect to improve the means of
water communication within easy reach, re-
fuse to acknowledge the power Of that gov
eminent from whose bounty they have been
fed, and through whose protection and fos-
tering care they have achieved prosperity,
to have voice in their management.
Here is case in point The great grain
producing regions OF tho West extend far
inland from the lakes and water communica.
ton. There are railroad iinea extending
across the continent, and their branches ram.
ify among these producers. They have d.
rect communication with Lake ports near by,
from whence tho grain can be brought by
water to the East at lower figure than tho
railroads will carry it for, if it were but
conveyed short distance by rail, from the
producer to the lake port, at a reasonable
rate. But the railroads sec that If this
grain could not be placed on board the boats
they might have monopoly of its transpOr-