Telegram-herald., 1891-11-12
THEY Don't OPPOSE IT
Railway Freight Agents Favor
Grand River Improvement.
IT WOULD NOl HURT The BUSINESS
In Their op,aisss ~ Wsuia Maks sas
Lstsis Dausrsses ia krsaghs natss
Hat " saio De - Good iAtas 10
bripg is Raw Material


wandered ABOUT lae various ra-.soad |
oal4oes yesterday and excited IAe ioi-
so~ ~ op-Gions eoaee4a.14S the pro
leee ~ aiease uf'lnd river,
0e.leral ireSAt Agent DAVIS. oi the |
L. - ". Al. Was II ,n-eaeo, but Assist
ant freight Agent Rose expressed Inn
sels as follows: 1T would be u bene-
TT II certain directions 10 Grand Rap
Ids manufacturers 4 lake boats were
TO run into the city. Iron, woods ana
other materials uow brought across
the Aake could b. brought direct iiy
into the city without the cost oI trans
ferrlng. As TO reducing the freight Oh
6oal, | think that's doubtful. Grand
Haven. Muskegon and other lake ports
brthg Their coal N by rail; 50 don't
STE any reason why you should expect
Grand Rapids TO do d1ierentiy. | ques-
tion whether coal can be shipped from
the mines of Pennsylvania any cheaper
by water than by ran. when the cost
of transferring from the cars .s taken
into consideration. Then there's ;sli-
other po.nt. To make Il pay 10 bring
coal by water clear arouad the lakes
10 Grand Rapids Il would be neces-
sary to bring immense eargoes. Now
those large boats couldn't get cargoes
10 take back with them from here.
This .sa't large transferring point,
and large vessels wouldn't bring
cargoes here, ana then go TO Chicago
or Milwaukee, TO load mp. Still IN
some respects l think the Improvement
would De benefit. IL wouldn't III
jure the railroads any. On the con
trary, IL would help them"
}. IL. '. Asnew, superintendent oi
| the Z. x W. M, didn't know any thing
about il; hadn't thought any thing
| about il; but suspected that Il IL
would cheaper rates 1T would be a
good thing Tor sh -ppers.
George DeHaven, general passenger
agent OF the &. 4 W. NJ, said Il
can't see where the project wouId be a
disadvantage TO the railroad COM
pan.es. Anything that makes Granu
| Rapids r.cncr and more prosperous,
| benefits everybody IN the city. ana we
| are one OF The every yDodies-ole Oh the
| big everybod-es. You can't make rail-
rosldlng prosperous by trying 10 sap
| the lie blood oi every thing connected
with It.; but you make every thing
connected with II prosperous and your
railroad Is going 10 prosper"
| f. c. Leavennso orth, " the Il. Il. q
L.. was out od the city; but H. I.
| Leave NV orth. assistant general freight
| agent. expressed the follow ing opinion:
II can't see where the railroads would
be injured IN the least. Freight rates
might be cheapened on a few things,
such as grain and iron. but the rail-
| - t-,f., r..I nv -
for getting cheaper rate on coal,
| perhaps, that is possible, but what
| good would lt do TO consumers!
| Look ut Grand Haven and Muskegon.
Consumers have TO pay the same price
for coal there that they do here De
trolt gets coal little cheap
er there than we do here,
but he coal rate to De
troit Is only 20 cents a ton. And even
II boats did bring cargoes here, what
| could they take away? The constant
| demand now is for fast freight. snip
pers won't have anything else except
upon pitch, cement, or something that
| there isn't any hurry for. Furniture
men won't ship by water. a cargo
or so of apples might be picked up,
perhaps some potatoes, but there isn't
| any grain to ship. 1t is possible that
a waterway might materially bene-
| mt Grand Rapids, but l don't see IT,
| IL certainly wouldn't .niure the rail-
roads any"
C. II. Head. general manager OF
the C. & w. NJ. Is SEX; but James
Austin, the chief clerk in the general
managers Office, said: 'I am quite
sure Mr.. Heald Is In favor o. water
way 10 Grand Rapids. | think have
heard him say so. AS to the effect IL
! would have ON railroad business, the
om.y way to fbnd that out would be
TO try. 1t might hurt the railroads
IN some ways and benefit them in
| Others. 1t certainly couldn't do them
very much damage. As 10 the freight
II world bring to the railroads. |
think the roads would sooner do with
out It than TO divide the rate. There
wouldn't be any money in Il. They
haven't any desire TO establish trT MS
lake route. The +. & II. VI. has dons
that and has the heaviest tonnage
OF any road doing that Kind of busi-
ness. yet Mr.. Baldwin, the general
manager. told me the other day that
the system was mn utter failure. The
10. & W. " would have and has as
good facilities for establishing such
a ronte ~ any road I'm tho State. and
We don't car~ for any of IL IN ours.
Summing II oil up, don't know that
the railroads could receive any good
from - waterway. AMI don't believe
they could be damaged very much
either"
W. r. Sttrsson. superintendent Of the
q 7 e ~afs. sfT'ai-'-~, II All TO-
sether. think the opening Of water
esty but DO not think n would result
IN, tho rpsiu~t On ~ freight rates. YES
ssl ownsrs wou1 N car~ II br NJ largs
car~Des IN here unless they were sure
| 90 b~ssi-v a hle - 80 large cars~oes ont.
| They wov1idn't care towo to Chicaeo
or NHwankce 20 load m
W. n. Hu~rs-' r~e~idcnt ~ the u
r. a T.. could not be sren. bat u :
uYsT's-vt cs1a tlraf ~ r. h~artTv IN fAFof
/ - Cs--s ~ r~-,sSs h~v'~~ = va fH~va =
- flsn lake. ard doesn't think ~ wonid
damage railroad husaTfe~
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