The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1906-07-13
OUR NATIONAL WATERWAYS.
Mean the Saving Of Billions to the
South IL Properly Fostered by the
United States Government.
Special to the ocala Banner:

Special to the Ocala Banner:
Washington, July 9.-Of particular
interest to the South, both because of
its local application and the fact that
it is from the pen of southerner, is
the article in the current number Of
the Information by Congressman
Humphreys, of Mississippi, setting
forth in large way the necessity, both
economic and financial, Of national
scheme of improvements for our
waterways as means of transportation
IAN object which is being earnestly
sought by the organization known as
the National Rivers and Harbors Con-
gress.
That such development of our
waterways has been sadly neglected
in the past, to the loss of the shipper,
and that it is a subject whose magni-
tude makes it worthy of all interest. is
the inevitable conclusion to be gained
from Mr.. Humphreys article.
Even the the third rate country Of
Austria has in the last thirty years
spent as much in the Improvement of
her 800 miles of rivers as has our gov
eminent spent on the Mississippi with
it's 1900 miles of tributary streams.
While in 1904, the total international
commerce of the world amounted to
twenty-five billions of dollars, the in
land commerce of the United States
equaled that stupendous sum. These
facts seem to prove the foregoing as
sertion. That the shipper has been the
loser, and to the tune of hundreds of
millions, is evident from our neglect
of our natural means of transporta-
ton. Congressman Humphreys cites
the instance of recent freight of $4,000
tons of coal from Pittsburg to New
Orleans at cost of $4,000, as COM
pared to s1S0,000, sum ten times as
great, which would have been the cost
by rail-surely strong evidence that it
is time for the shipper to act, and
assist the National Rivers and Har.
bors Congress in its campaign for such
increased appropriations as will ena-
BILE him to reap the benefit of the op.
portunities which lie at his very door.
The deepening of the New Orleans
harbor has resulted in the saving of
millions to the southern shipper, says
Mr.. Humphreys.
1.-THE deep water over the jetties,
says he, which permits the great
freighters to come up the river and
go out with twenty-four thousand
bales of cotton instead of six or eight
duced the ocean freight by one dollar
duced the ocean freight by one ollal
and half a bale. We export about
seven or eight million bales year
thus saving some ten or twelve mil
] lion dollars annually to the cotton
farmers of the south. think we car
all agree that the great harbors along
our seacoasts deserve and should re
ceive our very generous aid. Every
farmer in the land is interested il
them, as we have seen, because wha
we export is very largely the produc
of the farm"
Just as Mr.. Humphreys argumen
applies to harbor improvement, 81
does it to the Improvement of rivers
and no community is SO far inlant
that it would not participate in tn
gains of the national scheme of i'm
lprovements which he advocates in be
half of the National Rivers and Har
bors Congress.
Certainly, in this, the age of trans
portation. as it has been called, tw
facts stand out clearly in the light O
Congressman Humphreys article
first, that natural regulation of tn
price of transportation by means c
waterway improvements viii prov
superior to artificial regulation, an
second, that the shippers of the Uni
ed States cannot longer afford to ne:
lect the opportunities for cheap trans
portation to be gained from the pla
of national waterways Improvement
for which the Rivers and HarboI
1 Congress is laboring.
LAWRENCE.