The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-07-04
yesterdays TEMPERATURES.
washington time q P. m. St. Paul..
OUR INTER-LAKE COMMERCE.

OUR INTER-LAKE COMMERCE.
The latest monthly summary of trade
and commerce from the treasury depart
ment contains tables Of the inter-lake
commerce that has passed in each season
through the canal at the 500 since its
opening in 1855, from which some very
surprising and interesting facts to us Of
the Northwest may be drawn. From the
totals of freightage that pass through the
locks at the 500, all sourcing in or des-
tined for Lake Superior ports, one can
our inter-lake commerce. If the total
registered tonnage of vessels in 1898, car
rying 21,2346 ga tons of freight, is the por-
ton belonging to the Superior region.
figures are added those of Michigan,
Huron, Erie and Ontario?
The development of the wheat fields of
the Northwest is accurately traced. in the
columns giving the annual shipments of
-four and wheat through the canal. in
1870 but 3,54S barrels of the former and
1900 bushels of the latter are given. In
ten years the flour rose to 6S7 ,O31 barrels,
and wheat to 2,1O5,9 2O bushels. BY
1884 flour had jumped to 1,24S. 24S
barrels, and wheat to 1885, 791 bushels
The next decade, 1890, showed 3 239. 1O1 bar
rels of flour and 16,217,37O bushels of
wheat pouring out of the mills and gran
aries of the Northwest through this one
channel of commerce, a stream which
eight years later, 1898, had swelled to
7,77S,O43 barrels of flour and g., So, 1886 BUSH
els of the staff of life. Not less signifi-
cant are the shipments of "aH other
grain" as indicating both the growth of
diversified farming and the movement Of
corn on unusual lines to market With
the exception of 1881 ''all other grain" had
not risen above the million-bushel mari,
until 1888, when it reached 2,O22, 3OS BUSH
els rising to S,92S694 in 1895, and to q, 44S.-
ST. bushels the following year. an in
crease largely due to the system of rail-
~.
But the most interesting facts to be
drawn from the tables are the economies
produced in transporting this immense
output of the farms and mines. In 1887
the cost Of carrying wheat was cents
bushel; in 1898 it was cents Had the
rate in 1887 obtained in 1898 the freight
charges would have been 81, 1865, 300 instead
OF $1,246.659, a saving in this one item of
SS,l16,649 The 81 rate on flour was 90
cents barrel; In 1898 it was 10 cents, the
reduction amounting to $1,477.S2S Iron
ore, which rose above the million-ton out
put in 1884, and reached the enormous TO-
tai of n,7O6,9 $50 tons in $685. also felt the
effect of this reduction. The rate in 1857
was $1.75 ton, and so cents in 1898. Had
the 1887 rate prevailed last year the
freightage would have cost s13. 463 900
more than 1t did. Coal from the East
that came back to furnish heat in the
newly developing country, and the ship
nlents of which rose from 170, 900 tons in
eral reduction, the rate falling from 90
cents a ton in 1887 to Is in 1898. Had the
coal rates of the former year been paid
last year the freight bill would have been
s3,S9S.SO5 instead of $944,112, a saving of
$2.454,6 SOB for coal sellers or users or both.
Presented in another way it is shown
that the number of tons of freight carried
one mile in 1898 was II, S91, 5g7, $50. at total
cost of s14,125,S9 or ton mile cost of
79-10O of mill The difference between
rail and water carriage becomes easier of
comprehension when this marvelouslv
low cost is compared with the average of
mills per ton mile of the railways. MANY
factors have entered into and forced this
reduction, but chief among them. unques-
tionabIy, is the increased tonnage of YES
sells. In 1887 the average tonnage of boats
passing through the canal was 54S tons, a
capacity nearly doubled by 1888, when the