St. Paul daily globe., 1893-08-04
A GREAT SHIP CANAL
c0NNEc TING THE LARGE LAKES WITH
THE ATLANTIC OCEAN
is WHAT DULUTH DEMANDS.

Able Speech Delivered by Samuel
"A. Thompson, Secretary Of the
Duluth Board of Trade, Be-
fore the Water Commerce
Congress- Economic Value OF
Great Canal TO the Seaboard.
CHICAGO, Aug. 3.-In the water com-
| merce congress at the art institute, lake
navigation was the subject under dis
cussion today. Samuel A. Thompson,
secretary Of the board Of trade of Du-
luth, made the principal address, and,
in addition to hauling the railroads over
the Goals, he elOquently pictured the
advantages of a ship canal connecting
the great lakes with the Atlantic ocean.
Mr.. Thompson said the railroads super
seded the canals before the latter had
an opportunity to show what they were
capable of doing. Ordinary canals
went out of use, and the beds of some
of them are now occupied as rights of
way by railroads. From the very be-
ginning of the railroad building, Mr..
Thompson said, the railroads have en-
jOyed great prosperity. They have
passed through a period of vast devel
opment, and canals and waterways have
been neglected. The eXtOrtions which
have beeu practiced by railroads, the
speaker said, have revived the interest
in waterways, and will result in ship
canals. which will be of immense value
to commerce.
He told OF a conversation between
two railroad presidents seme years ago
in which these officials Congratulated
each other Oil the decadence Of canals.
One of The presidents said that the lake
steamer was failure as competitor of
railroads, that canals were gone never
to return and that IN the future the rail-
roads would have control of all the
commerce of the country.
Mr. Thompson Said
the railroad men were entirely mistaken,
and he proceeded to prove it by com
parison between the lake traffic and
that OF railroads. Since 1882 there has
been a reduction in railroad rates aver
aging about p per cent, and this is
urged by some as proof that the rail-
roads furnish the best means of trans
portatiOn. ReceDt statistics show that
the average rate per ton per mile Oh
the railroads is about nine mills
The average rate of lake traffic
through the 500 canal is one
eighth of that. The average
cost OF transporting freight by rail
MIR. Thompson said is 4.76 mills per ton
per mile, while one lake steamer, the
MonOla, carries it at a cost of As mill.
The Erie canal, the speaker said, is not
a good example of canal. 1t is run
without any system, and does not ac-
cOmpiiSh as much for commerce as even
Is shallow water course is capable of.
''The brains of the country" said he
have been devoted to the development
OF railroads, but the day of ship canals is
coming. We don't know what even the
Erie as it is now could do. The i'm
menSity of the lake traffic shows the
economic value OF great canal to the
Seaboard. The average earnings of the
great steamers OF the lakes is three
f0urthS of nlll per ton per mile.
Capt. McDOugall, the inventor of
alebackS, tells me that one ounce of
coal, consumed under the boilers of the
great lake freight carriers, will trans
port a ton one mile, while the Whalebacks
Will carry il mile at an expenditure
of one-third OF an ounce. 1t Is now pro-
posed to organize upon the lake a SyS-
TEN of towing, analogous TO railroad
trains. The boats and their toWs will
be directed by the
FeIegraphic SYSTEM
as railroad trains are. Tugs will take
the place OF switch engines. In five
years L expect to see tOws going down
The lakes carrying 25.000 tons of freight.
With steamers drawing twenty feet of
water the lake rates will be cut in half.
The railroad president to whom |
have alluded was wrong when he said
the railroads would have it all their own
way. Contracts have been let for lake
steamers which will sail around the
Campagnla OrEtrurla in six hours in the
open sea. 1t is wrong TO suppose that
lake traffic is slow. The boats run
faster now than freight trains. There
are steamers which average sixteen
miles per hour between Buffalo and
Chicago, while the average net progress
OF freight train Is only eight miles an
hour"
The lake tonnage, the speaker said.
is 30,O0O,000 TONS a year. AT the rates
charged by railroads the cost of trans
porting this frel- ht would be enormous
ly greater than iT is now. Railroad
rates are always subject 10 COMPETE
ton of lake routes, and on account of
this competition the people save at least
S40O, ,0OO,UU0 every year.
Ii the lakes and Erie canal were
closed the people would probably lose
S65OOOO,0U0 per year. 1he speaker
cited one occasion when the railroad
| points, when sudden freeze-Ip in the
Erle canal caused them to go 10 cents.
The powers exercised by railroads." :"
| he said, would
Cause an Uprising
all over the country if the president of
| United States should attempt to eXer-
| else them. l am not an opponent of
| railroads i'll the sense that our Populist
friends are opposed TO them, but am
| DelleVer III waterways because they
| VIII do more than any human legislation
| TO regulate commerce. A ship canal to
the SeabOard would not injure the rail-
roads. No railroad was ever injured
| by being parallSled by canal. When
the railroad officials get to that place
| where from the nature OF circumstances
there can be no waterways, their
greatest punishment will be the thought
creased the earnings OF their roads.
The railroads are even in scheme to
obtain control of lake traffic, and being
unable 20 transport ali the grain TO the
East themselves, they are today using
the Erie canal and pocketing the differ
ence between transportation by train
and by water." Mr.. Thompson said the
best route TO the sea would be by way of
a canal around Niagara Falls, which
would admit vessels to Lake Ontario.
Then canal from OSwego through
New York state, connecting with the
Hudson river, could utilize Lake
Oneida. This route would be more ad-
va ntageOus than the Erie route, as there
would be more open lake water in it,
through which high speed could be
maintained. The total cost of the canal
would be about S150,OO0,0O0. The dis
cuSSion which followed Mr. Thompsun's
SnpIQh ShnNpn "a