Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-03-31

But, as chairman of the committee on the
of the Mississippi river, ap-
pointed by the st. Paul convention. repre-
senting some fifteen States, and more than
twelve millions of people, have duty to
perform, and having performed it as best I
can under the necessarily limited time afford
ed me, shall be able, whatever NAV be the
result, to 60 back to those who sent this
committee with clean hands, and saw that
we, as a committee, did our duty as best we
could, and that if the appropriation here
after to be made by your committee, and
passed upon by Congress, is not common
surate, or in accordance with the wants and
needs of that great river and its tributaries,
then the fault is not with us, but with the
Congress of the nation, which has seen fit
to neglect the improvement of the greatest
artery of commerce known to the world, and
chose rather to spend the nations money on
comparatively unimoortant and local i'm
provements.
1t is true that some four and half mill
ions of dollars have been spent land well
SPENT in the construction of canal to the
Des Moines rapids, by which depth of five
feet is secured to cross the rapids at the
lowest stage of water, and there has been
appropriated some five and half millions of
dollars for the deepening of the channel at
the mouth of the river; there has also been
annually expended from one to two hundred
Thousand dollars in the removing of obstruc-
lions in the shape of snags and other i'm
pedlments to navigation, which amounts
may seem very large to those not acquainted
with the vastness of the country lying ada
cent to the Mississippi and its tributaries
but when l tell you that these embrace an
area of more than twelve hundred thousand
miles of territory and twenty thousand miles
of navigable water, much of which floats
steamers of equal capacity with those of the
ocean, and that the commerce of the
Mississippi river and tributaries is much
greater than all the other coasting trade
combined and that there is situated on the
banks of this great river, exclusive of its
tributaries or inland towns and cities de-
pendent upon it, ninety-seven towns and
cities, with from two to five hundred thou
sand inhabitants in each-and yet, in view
of all this, the eastern rivers and harbors,
some of them of the most insignificant kind,
have been receiving large appropriations
ever since this has been government, and
in the aggregate to the extent of hundreds
of millions of dollars. Indeed, it seems to
have been the policy of the government in
the past, rather to seek to create navigable
highways out of impossibilities rather than
to improve the great natural highways al
ready in existence. Il
FROM ST. PAUL TO NEW YORK.
Take for example the average cost of
transportation of bushel of wheat from
ST. Paul to New York by railroad, lake and
canal, and it will run from forty to fifty
cents. but when there is a fair stage of wa
ter in the Mississippi from st. Paul
to New Orleans, it can be placed there
IN barges at about one-third of that
price. But the misfortune has been that
when the crops of the Northwestern States,
such as Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, and Ne
braska are ready to be moved, there is not
more than Mirtg inches on the bars, and the
result is the farmers and merchants of those
States are entirely at the mercy of the rail-
roads during the fall season, and even if the
railroads were ever so well disposed they
cannot compete with river transportation at
a good stage of water, for experience has
shown that grain can be successfully and
proftably carried at one-ffth the cost of
railroad; or, to be specific, grain can be car
rled in barges at profit at two mills per ton
per mile, or less, while railroads cannot
carry it at profit at less than ten mills-or
one cent-per ton per mile, SO that if the
navigation of the river was improved so as
to secure depth of five feet at low water
grain could be carried from st. Paul to New
Orleans for less than ten cents per bushel by
barges, instead of forty cents, and often fifty
cents per bushel as at present, by rail, during
the fall season, when the river is too low to
be of any practicable use.
The extent of this possible saving in
is impressively shown by the fact
that this year the five States of Minnesota,
Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri, will
be able to export 1O0,COO,OOO bushels of
wheat alone! In 1876, the corn crop of the
States contiguous to the Mississippi, includ-
ing Kansas and Nebraska, was more than
78O,O00,O0O bushels, and its value was over
1928, 100000. From it's bulkiness, corn is
water freight, and the lower the
cost of water transit, the further farmers
could afford to send their products to market.
Every reduction in river rates would bring
to the Mississippi the tribute of a broader
empire, and enlarge its commerce by in
creasing supplies of freight. The economies
of an improved channel, saving twenty cents
a bushel on all grain exported by the Gulf
route, would give an immense impulse and
expansion to the commerce of this valley,
and it is probable that the economy on the
heavy freights which would naturally seek
exchange by an unobstructed Mississippi
would pay sor the proposed improvements
in single year.
After citing the testimony of various par
ties as to the amount of the carrying trade
and the facilities for handling grain at st.
Louis and New Orleans, Mr.. Brown says:
These extracts are taken from interviews
had with several well-known merchants,
steamboat and barge transportation owners
and agents, living and doing business in St.
Louis, and within the last few days, and
shows that the carrying trade has not only
not left the river, but is immensely on the
increase, and that all that is needed to null
tiply it a hundred fold is to foster and as
sist it by an appropriation of liberal
amount of money, which, properly expended,
will give an impetus to the grain production
of the West that would give this country the
monopoly of the grain growing trade of the
world. Therefore, in compliance with the
instructions of the st. Paul convention, this
committee asks congress to grant an appro-
priation for the improvement of the Mlssis-
sippi, and to authorize the expenditure, un
der the supervision of government engi-
neers, of definite sums upon specific por-
tiona of the river. as follows.