The L'Anse sentinel., 1907-11-23

of grain could not be moved last yeaf
because Of the railway congestion, ana
the west suffered q coal famine be
cause cars were not available and the
limit Of transportation had been
reached In other ways.
James ]. Hill has pointed out that
not only has the limit been reached In
the movement of freight. but even
should cars, locomotives and tracks
be supplied, there Is now and is bound
to be for years to come a dearth OF
terminal facilities. Mr.. Fill has esti-
mated that the cost of constructing
sufficient railway lines to meet the i'm
mediate demands for moving the COM
merce of the country would require an
outlay OF $4,000. .000. 900. This est'
mate. he declares, gives little or no
consideration to the future. Mr.. Har-
riman short time since announced
that in order to meet transportation
requirements the gauge of the railways
of the country and the rolling stock
would have to be doubled.
Some time ago." Mr.. Hill said. II
asked real estate man what 1t would
cost to get tier of blocks. one of the
narrowest, from the Harlem river to
Thirty-third street, New York. He
came back in week and said that
$3.50, 100000 would not buy 1t. That
means that for terminals alone 1t
would cost $165,000 mile for every
mile from Chicago to New York be-
fore the line was built. The railroads
can't pay rent on such high-priced
terminal property.
Matter 10 Urgent.
"This matter of transportation is .
most urgent one. People think there
is no limit to what the railroads can
do. There is a very present limit to
many railroads in the volume of busi-
ness we have to do. 1t takes money to
run railroads. There is want of
money in every center. Where the
business has grown the fastest there
the want is greatest. Traffic Is grow
ing five times as fast as railroad mile
age. We might as well put railroad
improvement out of the question"
Hundreds of millions Of dollars, 1t is
admitted. would be saved annually by
the substitution of water transporta-
ton for the present railroad transpor-
tation between the central west and
the seashore. Statistics gathered
from all quarters of the United States
demonstrate that water carriage OF
freight costs less than one-sixth that
for railroad transportation. The latest
schedules place the freight charge
bushel of wheat from Chicago to New
York at 1920 cents, as against Dbl
cents by lake and canal. The cost
from st. Louis to New Orleans by
river Is 4.25 cents, as against 11.S
cents by rail between st. Louis and
New York.
Despite this very great difference In
cost the tonnage of the Mississippi
from st. Louis to its mouth has stead
lily decreased since 1880. In that year
the number of vessels arriving there
was 1892. The total tonnage, receipts
and shipments amounted to $2,130,525.
In 1890 the number of vessels arriving
was 1901, and the tonnage was 1881.
It's. In 1900 the number of vessels
fell to 2,217 and the tonnage to S12,-
1856. At the present time st. Louis
Mississippi tonnage is only 100000.
While the argument Is made by the
champions Of the inland waterway
project that river regulation is rate
regulation and that the improvement
OF the great waterways Of the coun'
try will do more to regulate freight
charges than all the interstate com
merce laws that can be enacted, prac-
tical railroad men declare that a fur.
ther lowering of railroad freight rates
is really impracticable. They point
out that with the great rail systems OF
the country operating to their fullest
they are earning only fair
return on the capital invested. Fur
ther reduction in railroad charges thcy
cannot be made while the
outlay for maintenance and Operations
at the present figure.