Newport weekly independent., 1902-05-02
The Romance of the Old River By Samuel R. Van sant, 0ouernor of Minnesota.

we raise the wheat to feed the world, and when made into bread we can fur nish the best butter, and enough to spread it all. Last year we produced 31 1,500,000 bushels of corn alone.
 Still another incident on the first trip of the first boat that we con- structed for the rafting business, the j. w. Van Sant. MT. Frederic Weyer- haeuser was passenger. The raft was for his mill, and he was anxious to see the new departure tried. The success was complete. At that time MT. Weyer- haeuser was young man. Since them his industrial genius has developed the great lumber interest of the north west, and he has won for himself the title of Lumber King" The magni- tude to which this commerce has grown is suggested by the fact that one individual fleet has carried an- nually 200, 100000 feet of lumber down the river to enrich and upbuild the ter ritory tributary to the Mississippi. In a single trip one boat has lowed a suf- ficient tonnage of lumber to load to the limit a railroad train two miles in length. It is scarcely saying too much to assert that the total downriyer ton mage of lumber fleets any day in the moving season is sufficient to stall the traffic of all the competing railroad lines, if the traffic were transferred from boats to rails. and amounts to 500000,000 feet annually.
 This marvellous development is due to the steamboat, and few, if any, achievements of my life afford me more personal satisfaction than the fact that I built and operated the first steamboat of large power for this par ticular branch of river traffic.
 In the inland sections of the coun- try an impression prevails to-day that the Mississippi is now no longer an active factor in the world of transportation, that it's traffic days are only recollection, and that the great stream has no claim upon the gratitude of the people of the northwest on the score of present benefits. This delusion will be keen ly resented by all who are Loyalty jealous of the reputation of the great river.
 True it is that it's through pas senger traffic has been almost com- pletely absorbed by the railroads. On the other hand, the volume of it's freight carrying, especially in lum- Der and coal, is still very large, as the facts I have already cited will indicate. But of far greater mo- ment is it's value as a conservator of freight rates. It acts as a per- petual and unalterable check upon the greed of railroad systems-and will continue so to act for all time to come.
 With the completion of the isth- milan canal a new era of prosperity will be assured to the river. A mighty volume of traffic will sud- denly be turned southward and the activities of the Mississippi will be multiplied in a manner now hardly to be realized. This great govern mental enterprise should, for this reason, command the heartiest SUD- port of every dweller in the valley of the Father of Waters, and Of all in the vast northwestern empire tribu- tary to it.
 It is by no means to be admitted, however, that passenger traffic is wholly dead letter on the Mississippi. On the contrary, it is still considerable, although radically changed in char acter. All along it's course the river is supplied by ''short-line packets" which make daily and profitable trips between cities not far distant from each other. The lines from Daven- port to arlington and from Keokul1 to Quincy are examples of this traf- fic, which will certainly increase with the passage of time.
 Another recent development is the excursion business, which is also destined to increase. The boats de- voted to these lines of the carrying trade are modern and slightly, some of them costing $50,O0O each.
 No review of the old days on the Mississippi is complete without refer ence to the famous races in which the fast steamboats indulged-a practice which has found appropriate embodi- ment in the literature as well as the history of the west. How strong was the racing spirit in the old-time river masters is best illustrated by an in- cident which will ever remain vivid in my recollection.
 As captain and part owner of the D. A. Mcdonald I had shown the proper river spirit by trials of speed with all corners, and these efforts to maintain the reputation of our boat had reached