The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-02-08

class passenger steamers. some of them be.
ing 12.GD tons and over.
Rotterdam Is our gate to the Rhine and
to the enormous country tributary to it.
Our goods are here transshipped into the
huge barges. from 30 to 800 feet long. In
which they arc carried up the Rhine. The
river freights are exceedingly low and the
Rhine trade is enormous.
About one-half of all the goods that come
into Holland go through Rotterdam up the
Rhine to different parts of Germany. Swift
erland and France. the number of river
ships and boats which carry them being
something. like 10000 annually.
There are canals connecting the Rhine
with the Seine and the Elbe. The barges
go as far north as Basel and some of them
are taken up the Main to the Danube, so
that Rotterdam is actually the center point
of a network or waterways. which en-
braces almost all central Europe.
CITY PROSPERITY DEPENDS
ON RHINE TRADE.
The increase of the Rhine trade has given
Rotterdam great prosperity. 1t had about
209.eW people in 1890.
1t now has almost 10000. and IL IL grow
ing like a green bay tree. 1t is steadily in
Creasing its shipping facilities. 1t has built a
new harbor. which Is over Il mile long and
LOG feet wide. and has another harbor
in course of construction. which will be
-'NNV 49, ioA'- i'NNN Wv anu tNNbtN SIN = 2
deep.
When the present improvements are com
pletcd Rotterdam will have TWENTY-FIVE
miles of Iuays. 1t has already over twenty
miles ana more than fhirty-two acres OF
sheds and warehouses for its ocean ship
ping.
This all belongs to the municipality. The
city has put up eighty steel cranes which
will lift from 1,y9 to 66,g0o pounds each,
and it has hydraulic coal lifts which will
move POO tons of coal per hour at a cost
ut 4 cents per ton. In every respect the
shipping facilities are of the best.
! am surprised at the work the Euro
peans are doing In making canals. l have
been pretty well over the Continent within
the past few years. Nearly every country
is improving its waterways
Russia Is planning a canal from st.
Petersburg and the Baltic to the Black Sea.
which win be thirty feet deep and able to
accommodate the largest of tn. ocean
steamers
Tfsa canal system will probably be ex-
tended eventually to the Northern Ocean.
so that the whole country will be accessi-
BILE by weter. The chief rivers of Russia
are already connected by canals. and it is
possible II go from St petersburg to the
GERMANY has for years been spending an
enormous amount on deepening its rivers
and building canals, and it has one of the
best canal systems of Europe. Goods can
be taken from Hamburg TO Berlin and al
most to the sources of the Elbe by boat.
There are canals connecting the Elbe and
the Oder. and the canal which has been
built to join the coal and iron regions about
Dortmund to the North Sea will eventually
he extended to embrace the Rhine. the
Weser and the Elbe.
EFFORTS TO STANDARD1ZE
THE WATERWAYS.
The Germans want to standardize their
canal SYSTEM! if possible. so that barges
carrying d THOUSAND tens can be taken to
any part of the country.
They use wAie barges or the principle
that it is eas1r to make a wide canal than
a deep one.
At present Ahe canals of Eastern Germany
seem tn be f1yored over those of the west.
the port of3Stettin complaining that the
Prussian CD ,crnment will not give it the
canal facili which it needs to compete
with Hanlk fg.
1t is mu4 nearer and naturally more ac-
cessibie Berlin than any Of. the ports OF