The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1889-08-03
GREAT LAKES COMMERCE.
From the P!oeeer Press ofssth.

Of railroads, whereby ii pronounced
that the Lake Superior route is the
true route for freight traffic between
the East and the Northwest, was
brought about by the early recognition
by the railway company that deep
water is the only successful competitor
of the railroad. Tine has demon
strated, to the grief Of several well
known vessel men who were at one
time largely engaged in river steam
boating on tie Mississippi, that shall
low vessels cannot carry cargo sufii-
eient, n9r make the time requisite, to
enable them TO compete with the loco
motive and steel rail. The numerous
defunct river towns" are daily and
notifying witnesses to this well es-
taDiishad theory, ana the Eastern
Railway Of Minnesota in its magnifi-
cent terminals, transfer grounds,
elevators ANA coal and merchandise
docks at West Superior, has simply
recognized that other now viii es-
tablished commercial theory, that
railroads cannot successfully compete
with tie Geep-draught screw propeller
And for manifest reasons tie Eastern
has celebrated what it recognizes IS a
dogma in transportation problems by
thus early making an independent
freight tariff, based upon its exclusive
allegiance to the great internal deep
water highway Of this continent
Steam enables the Eastern to send a
a freight train, made up of forty loaded
cars, from St. Paul to SUPERIOR in ten
hours, or at the rate Of seventeen miles
per hour Bet it also enables the
Northern Steamship company to send
cargo N sIe up Of $50 car la Is from
Superior TO buffalo in seventy-eight
hours, Or thirteen miles per hour. Bat
had the Eastern to send It's trains
through the Chicago and Toledo or
indianapolis transfer yards, TO Buffalo,
it would take them not less than ten
days to make the trip. And yet the
Northern Steamship line beats are not
the model Of tie coming lake vessels
They draw sixteen feet of water, and
the coming lake vessel will draw
twenty-five feet, width a speed to cor
respond. Navigation routes Will be
established on the great lakes, so that
the increased speed viii bring no in
creased dangers of collision. The
down" boats VIII take one route, the
"up" boats another route, and the two
routes viii be far enough apart to
prevent all liability of collisions in
fogs The fast going ocean vessel of
eight miles an hour. The flst lake
vessel in 1909 viii make twenty five
miles an hour, and viii carry 200 tons
of freight.
The waterways convention to be
held at Superior Aug. also tends to
call public notice again to the neces-
sites Of the lakes in order that the
greatest efficient aid to the ship builder
in his efforts to promote the cause OF
cheap transportation. Lake ship
building and Lake commerce are five
years ahead Of government work in
the canals, channels and harb0rs Of
that great WaterWay-the Northern
steamship line, which has set the rates
on frei@bts on the entire chain Of lakes
for 1889, losing enough in vacant space,
through not being able to load to the
full capacity of its boats, TO pay 6
per cent interest on the cost of the six
vessels
The people Of tie Northwest have
had their noses on the grindstone of
Chicago railroad rates for fifteen years,
bat the competition of an independent
line from Lake Superior to Sioux Falls,
with a distinctiyely Lake Superior
system of 3 900 miles Of road in Mn
nesota, Dakota and Montana to sup
port it renders them peculiarly sen
sitive TO the Importance Of lake navi-
CATION, The magnitude of lake com
merce, as it exists today, is not SO
thoroughly known in the Northwest.
but the desire is so general and so in
tense To be forever rid OF that night
mare Of tribute to Chicago and her
railroads, that the public will take
down at one gulp the full significance
of any figures presented to them going
to show that they are to be benefited
by the new discovery Of d nearer sea
port than Chicago.
Conventions are great ciyilizers.
They reach the newspapers, the magaz-
ines and the people. Through them is
filtered into the public mind properly
coIl4borated tables of facts, worked
out only fer rare occasions, and which
fall upon the general ear like thunder
elaps from 4 common storm center.
And one Of the prime objects Of the
coming convention should be that Of
reaching the congressman from the
interior through his direct canstit-
uency The disparity between the
lake commerce and the river commerce,
IL the past IS the truest prognostica-
ton of the still greater disparity that
is to exist in the future. II can be no
better understood than by z hasty
comparison of the course Of the two
kinds Of water navigation as they have
existed in this country, on the Chic
and Mississippi and on the great
Lakes.
In 1859 the estimated total value OF