The record-union., 1897-01-11
A Great Scheme if It Can be Made
Successful.
Designed to Elevate the Canal to a
Trunk Line Possessing the Ad.
vantages of an All-Water Route
Unavailable to Any Rival Port, and
Concentrate the Freight From the
West in New YOrk-Its Success
Depends on the Decision of the
Dock Department of New York.

NEW YORK, Jan. 10.-In response to
inquiry regarding the Consolidated Ca
nal and Lake Company, incorporated at
the State Capitol Saturday, Erastus
Wiman, one of the directors, has sent
the following to the press from ST.
Georges, Staten Island:
''The purpose of the new company is
to revive the commerce of the Erie Ca
nal and by elevating 1T to the position
of trunk line possessing the advant-
ages of an all-water route unavailable
to any rival port, concentrate freight
from the West in New Y ork, now leav-
ing it for Newport News and Baltimore
on the south and Boston and Montreal
ON the east. The operations of the new
company Will at the start be confined
to the freightage of flour, provisions
and other produce in packages moving
eastward and numerous classes of COM
nperce moving west. The disappear
ance of commerce known as package
freight en- this great waterway is best
illustrated by the statement that in
1895 while 100000 barrels of -four
reached lower lake ports, the amount
reaching New York oveg the canal was
only 900 barrels.
This quantity can be increased in
1897 to 900, 900 barrels by contracts
already signed by the great freight
originators of the West. Among these
are included such men as the director
of the company, Charles A. Pillsbury,
who with his associates of the Wash
burn-Crosby Company and the Consol-
idated Milling Company, have a flour
output of 12,000,0O0 barrels annually;
with Bradford C. Church, representing
the mills at Duluth and Superior, rep
resenting 10000 barrels daily, and ship
nlents of grain, the largest of any
other single port in the world For
west-bound freight the representative
on the board is Albert B. Young of ST.
Paul, representing the Jobbers' Union,
distributing nearly all the merchandise
absorbed in the six Northwestern
States, and who are the largest freight
originators of west-bound traffic.
THE opportunities for THE new COM
pany, it will be seen, are wide enough
and could be made entirely available
to the canal by the introduction of or
ganization where now no organization
exists; by the creation of modern equip
rlentS, now ordered to the extent Of
seven steamers and thirty-five canal
ccrsoIts: but, more especially by the
provision of terminals for practically
free transfer storage both at Buffalo
and New York. The latter is abso-
lutely necessary to the revival of canal
commerce, 50 that not only can the cost
of transfer be made so low as to be i'm
perceptible in the through rate, tha
same as by rail, but that canal boats
may obtain quick dispatch and obviate
ths delay of craft in port which for
seven years has averaged no less than
sixty days out of a navigation season
Of 30 days.
ITO expect canal commerce with such
delays to compete with rail traffic run
on schedule time, is to expect the i'm
possible; and hence without some such
Improvement in this harbor as free
transfer storage, the advantages of this
free waterway are lost. In Buffalo this
free terminal is already secured and in
New York the question comes up to-
morrow for determination before the
Deck Commissioners. If their decision
is favorable the company can proceed;
if not, its future is uncertain.
New Orleans attracts trade bv offer
and ait all rival out ports free transfer
storage is universal. All that is asked
of New York is without a dollar sac
iiflce, the permanent use of a pier and
hulhhead where a canal commerce can
be dumped. stored and sorted, for ex-
port or distribution to New England or
for the local market.
Canal passage freight can thus be
placed on parity with rail freight
which, reaching the city in small car
lead lots, frequently in cars of other
roads ON which the freight originated.
is held indefinitely for the convenience
of the consignee, SO also by rival ports,
as in Baltimore, Newport News, where
direct contact is held between cars and
ships, impossible in New York.
The whole question, therefore. of
concentration of western commerce by
canal rests upon the decision of the
dock dpDaI rnant Monday