New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-07-12

\ few days ago the steamer Chester arrived
at Kansas City from St Louis, making the first
trip OF the new line the Kansas City TranspOr-
tHtion and Steamship Company. After a gen
Grafton or so Of disuse the Missouri River Is
to be used again for transportation, and Kansas
City has dreams OF becoming an ocean port
Orators are predicting that men now alive will
see ocean going steamships loading and unload
ing at its whHrves. This roseate vision of
ocean going steamships is common vision OF
Central Western cities Every city on the Mis-
sssppl River system and on the Great Lakes
and not n few on minute creeks whose beds
could serve as the course Of future ship canals
dream of themselves as centres OF q foreign
commerce rivalling New York or Liverpool or
Hamburg. And Kansas City is far from its
vision, for the Chester crept UP the treacherous
Missouri, which shifts its channel overnight
feeling her way with the utmost caution and
proceeding only by daylight. 1t requires large
optimism TO see IN such cautious and hesitat-
ing trip the opening OF a commerce that will
make Kansas City an ocean port, but optimism
comes easy to Western natures. and the re-
viving interest OF the West in It's waterways
will mean much for their development
The officers of the boat were reminiscent OF
former times when the Mississippi and Mis-
souri, were thronged with river steamships. The
captain "in the old days could feel his way up
the Missouri with his eyes shut" but he had
not made a trip on it in several years. One OF
the pilots was licensed as q pilot from Fort
Benton, Montana, to the Gulf of Mexico in 1854
The other, licensed for the Mississippi and
Missouri, had spent thirty-ilve years on the
Ohio They belonged to tho days when the
Mississippi and Missouri carried most OF the
freight Of the Mississippi Valley. In competl-
ton with the railroads that old river trans
portatiOn died away and practically disap-
peared. The service of the railroads so
much quicker, better and more popular that
water carriage fell into disuse. The same
change took place all over the country. Canals
ceased to carry much freight, and the country
practically abandoned building them. But now
there is strong tendency In the other direction.
The Erie Canal is being enlarged, artificial
waterways are being projected in various parts
of the country, and commissioners representing
the federal government are studying the In
land routes and planning for their development
The railroads appear unable to handle eIpedi-
tiously the enormous freight Of the country, and
| everybody is turning his attention to natural
| and artificial waterways as a relief.
River shipping promises to become again as
popular as once it was. Kansas City is rs en-
| thusastic over the new Missouri River line as
| If it were an unprecedented enterprise that
meant wonders for the prosperity of the city.
| kansas City," says THE Journal" OF that
| place, became a water city yesterday, and.
according to all the lessons of history that
| means a great city"
The indications are that the country has de-
veloped TO a point where transportation by
| canals and canalized rivers is becoming as
necessary to It as was water transportation
before the building OF the great railroads. Pub
lie sentiment regarding water transportation
has undergone a striking change. Apparently
efforts to use the inland rivers will be made
even in anticipation of any deepening OF their
channels. though it is accompanied by such diff
| fcuties as the Chester encountered on her way
| from st Louis TO Kansas City. Her first cargo
| even though .shipiling that mas to lie ap Al
| night is not the most economical kind of ship
ping. was carried at rates about one-third below