The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1907-07-18
Would Carry Millions of Tons
of Freight Annually
Charter for Concern Projecting En-
teIprise Granted Ready for OPP
erations to Commence.
THROUGH OHIO FROM ERIE,

washington, July 10 ships OF
$500 tons burden in the near future
will be enabled to load cotton, SUI
gar, lumber and other supplies at
New Orleans, steam up the sMissis-
sippi and Ohio rivers to the Great
Lakes, and return laden with wheat
and ore and coal. This was made
possible this week when the national
government issued a charter to the
Lake Erie and Ohio River Ship Ca
nal company. The company is to
build the canal by private contract.
but the operation Of the waterway
will be under certain federal super
vision.
The ship channel, as its name in
dictates, is to connect Lake Erie with
the Ohio river. It's northern terminus,
unless plans are modified or chang
ed, is to be at Geneva-on-the-Lake.
some seven miles west of Ashtabula,
o. 1t will enter the Ohio river by
utilizing the Mahoning and Beaver
rivers.
The distance covered by the canal
is 1913 miles. The channel will be
100 feet wide and It will have a
depth all the way of Ia feet. It is es-
timated that, once completed, the
canal will have capacity Of 10000
600 tons, of freight annually. The
cost will approximate $50, 900,
but If the earnings of foreign canals
furnish any criterion it will prove a
highly remuneratiye investment, be-
sides being a boon to shippers and a
wonderful upbuilder of the territory
1t traverses.
The saving this channel will eff
feet to shippers will be enormous. On
an average the cost of waterway
transportation is one-sixth that by
rail- At the last national convention
of the National Rivers and Harbors
congress, its president, Congressman
Ransdell, of Louisiana. advanced
some figures that showed clearly
what waterway development meant,
not only to the shipper but to the
CONSUMER, who in the last analysis Is
the one who feels the weight of heavy
transportation tolls in the advanced
cost of the necessaries Of life. Mr..
Ransden, in comparing rates, point
ed to the fact, that the average rail-
road charge Is. &c mills per ton per
miles. and said:
What RansdeIl Says.
There is an immense commerce on
the Ohio river, and there the freight
charge Is &c of one mill per ton per
lmile. The tremendous commerce on
the lower Ohio and the Mississippi
between Louisville and New Orleans
lis carried at a freight charge of .G7
Of one mill per ton--less than one
eleventh of the railroad charge
There is a splendid commerce on the
Monogahela river. and there the
freight charge is less than one-elev-
enth of the railroad charge.
What would it amount to If in one
iyear we could carry all our freight
by water? Last year the commerce
lof this country, which moved by
rail. was 1903, 900, 900 tons. II II
could have been carried by water the
saving thereon would have been In
one year 100000. These fig
ures are so vast that l know the,
stagger credullty, but they are abso
lmtely true and defy any man t
contradict them.
The Lake Erie and Ohio River ca
nal will increase the business tina
now is teeming on the Great Lakes
and the rivers of the Ohio. Missouri
and Mississippi valleys Heretofore
they have had no connection, one
with the other, but when linked, thu
volume of the countrys interna
commerce is certain to make some
remarkable gains.
The National Rivers and Harbor
congress is interested in the project
but only for the reason that It show
the gradual growth of the sentimen
J in favor of a return to waterwa.
transportation The organization 4
not pledged to any individual schema
of Improvement, but is combining It
activities to arousing the American
people and congress to, the necessit,
for expendng not less than $4,000,
600 annually on this general work.