Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-28
from these four ports will reach at least
| $50 600 tons this season.
MILLIONS SAVED ANNUALLY.

freight rates are from 75 cents to 81 % a
ton. With a ship canal connecting Pitts
burg with the lakes three-fourths OF this
coal would be saved one handling and the
cost of carriage by canal to the upper lake
ports would be at least 80 cents a ton less
than at present. So the saving on the coal
now handled would be little, if any, short
Of 81 ,000, 900 annually.
Ore could be brought back in the same
vessels, with but one handling In most cases,
and the total saving on 1t would be even
greater. This year Ashtabula will receive,
in round figures, 1000, 900 tons of ore, Cleve-
land about 1,SOO, 600, Fairport a round
1000, 900 and Erie probably 900 tons.
Of this vast amount, by far the greater part
is used in the region Immediately tributary
to the proposed Lake Erie canal. At rea-
sonable estimate 100000 tons will go to
Pittsburg and points in Western Pernsyl-
vania and Eastern Ohio that would be easily
reached from such canal. The saving In
freight and in unloading from the lake
vessels to the docks and again into the cars
would average scarcely less than so cents
ton, or total saving on ore alone of 81 ,5OO,-
600 every year. Assuming that the railroads
would restrict the traffic to this amount the
gross earnings would be more than 10 per
cent of the cost of constructing such ship
canal. That alone would make the invest
ment paving one.
PENNSYLVANIA COAL HANDICAPPED.
But there is another consideration that
will appeal powerfully to the coal interests
of Pennsylvania. When the pool, or COM
bInation, OF railroads carrying coal to Lake
Erie ports was formed last spring, the
Hooking Valley and other roads carrying
Ohio coal exclusively, demanded diferen-
tial of 25 cents ton against Pennsylvania
coal, and while there was no open agreement
tn that effect, it is certain some such discrim-
ination exists against the superior product
of the Pennsylvania mines. This agree.
ment between the railroads deprives Penn
sylYania coal of much of the natural advan-
tage its high quality would otherwise give
it in the lake markets and tends to greatly
restrict the output of Pennsylvania mines. 1t
is in effect handicap of 25 cents ton
ton on Pennsylvania coal, and was de-
manded and is maintained because the Ohio
Goals are inferior in quality, and competi
tion on an equal basis would put the rail-
roads running into the Ohio coal fields and
depending on Ohio coal for most OF, their
tonnage, at a decided disadvantage. There
is every reason to suppose like tactics will
be continued in determined effort to put
the poorer Ohio Goals on an equality with
the better Pennsylvania product as long as
the transportation of coal is entirely in the
hands of the railroads.
COMPETITION FRIEND TO MERIT.
Once let a ship canal be opened, how
ever, and the Pennsylvania coal will come
to the front upon its proper basis. Compe-'
tition between the canal and railroads would
make such a discrimination as is now main
tanned impossible. The result would be
that the superiority of Pennsylvania coal
and the lower figure at which it could be
sold at the $780," Duluth, West Superior
and other upper lake ports, would greatly
widen the market for it and increase the
amount consumed. Primarily this would
benefit the miners and mine-owners of
Western Pennsylvania, but the lower price
at which the best coal could be laid down at
all the upper lake ports would be a direct
saving to all tine people of the great North
west
Another thing to consider is that great as
is the lake traffic now, it is certain to stead
ilv increase. Everything points with the
emphasis of manifest destiny to this. AL
though lake ship building has been carried
on to an Unprecedented extent in the past
four years. there are still no signs of the
lake marine being overbuilt or of the ship
yards ceasing to turn out great steel ore
and grain carriers.
GREAT FUTURE GROWTH IN SIGHT.
The last ten years has seen a great growth
in the territory tributary to the lakes; the
next ten years will see nearly or quite as
much more. The iron ore districts in the
upper peninsula OF Michigan and in Mime
sofa have by no means reached their maximum
producing capacity. There are still hundreds
Of acres of good mineral lands undeveloped
and likely to remain so for years, even If
the remarkable growth Of the past four years
be continued for the next decade. This ore
will nearly all be reduced at either Chicago
or the furnaces of Western Pennsylvania
and Eastern Ohio. The amount which will
go to each section will depend in very large
part upon the cost of carrying the ore to the
Ohio and Pennsylvania furnaces and the ex-
pense OF shipping the finished iron or steel
to the points where it is to be used.
The ship canal would lessen both these
and enable Pittsburg iron and steel manu-
facturers to lay their steel rails or other
product down on the dock at Duluth for
from 81 90 to 81 90 ton less than can be
done at the present time. This is margin
not to be despised, and would mean the con-
tinued possession of many markets that
might otherwise fall to other manufacturers.
GREAT STIMULUS.
With the stimulus of such an improve
ment as this proposed ship canal the iron
and steel industry of the Central West
would continue to go forward at even more
rapid strides than in the past. The great
future, which is undoubtedly before these
interests, would develop more rapidly, and
the benefit resulting to the whole country
would be more immediate and greater. /
am aware, as must anyone be who has noted
the tone of the press of the lake cities and
the hostile feeling of many lake and local
interests, that the ship canal project will
meet with sharp opposition. but the opposi-
ton ought not to be very widespread. The
ore and coal interests of all the Lake Erie
ports are naturally opposed to it. So are
the railroads that carry coal and ore to and
from these ports, but these interests will be
much more than overbalanced by the favor
such plan will WIN at the upper lake ports
when fully understood.
1t would mean cheaper coal for Detroit,
Port Huron, Bay City, Saginaw, Sauite
Ste. Marie, Marquette, Ashland, West Su-
perior, Duluth and many minor points, as
we'll as for nearly the whole of the great
States of Minnesota, Wisconsin and MichI-
gan, and cheaper fuel is most important