The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-14
TRAFFIC ON OUR
 GREAT WATERWAYS Equal to 0ne-Half That of All
 Our Railroads MORE CANALS PROJECTED Many Cities Built Up By Canals of the United States-Ilustration of the
 Enormous Commerce Car
 ried By Water. S
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
 Internal transportation in the United States, like ancient Gaul, is divided into three parts. These are country roads and pikes canals and natural waterways and railroads.
 To the optimistic student of commercial problems all these methods are of equal importance, but to the majority of people the dirt roads over which the farmer must always haul his grain or cotton or the lumberman his logs are matter of small consideration, and the canals and rivers are of interest only to those whose terri tory they cross. It is the railroads that are considered when goods are to be sent or distant place visited.
 Yet the railroad traffic of the 215,00O miles of operated roads in the United States is only twice as great per ton mile as that of the internal waterways, in cluding the great lakes. The United States exports annually 10 foreign ports 21 000,00 tons of domestic merchandise, of a value approxmating s1,200O00000, yet this tonnage is less than the amount that goes through the Detroit river in the eight months that it is open to traffic, is hardly half as much as that carried by the Hudson river is less than that which passes down the Mississippi valley and is only three times as great that of the Monongahela, which is classed as slackWater stream.
 Henry Clay opposed the granting of land for the opening of the Sault Ste. Marie canal, because 1t was beyond the pale of civilization yet the cities of Duluth, Superior, Ishpeming, Marquette and Ash land exist because 1t is a reality. Dur ing the eight months of the year that it is not ice-locked the Soo has traffic three times as great as the Suez canal, ten times that of Manchester and eight times that of Kiel
 It is asserted that if this system of transportation were abolished the cities it built would immediately die, because no system of railways could handle the enormous amount of products from the forests mines ando farms that depend up- on it. Even if the railways had the necessary tracks the freight rates would decrease the profit and the opportunities for growth.
 a The cost of transportation by canal is only one-third of that by railway, and in open water 1t Is even less. It is figured that with proper canal facilities connecting the navigable inland streams the nation could save 66 per cent on the present cost of transportation
 When Consul General Mason investi- gated the question of transportation in Germany he declared that under ideal conditions a nation would see that its raw materials, such coal. ores, timber. stone, cotton, grain and crude materials were carried by waterways, as haste was not so necessary, while tho perishables. smaller packages and passengers should be- carried by railroad. He argued that the one method of transportation should supplement not supplant the other.
 The value of a farm or mine for est is based not only on what it will produce for its owners but also on the of +ra fr,o I, neerness of railroads and canals figuring largely in the estimate Hauling over la--. by teams costs a ton for one mile 9 cents; on railroad z 2-10 cents; by ca nals. ? 4-1O cents, and by lakes less than l. mill a mile.
 A train must be loaded rapidly, and often the cars are not full boat or ship is not so pushed for time. A ship costs one-ffth as much as a train of cars equal to it's carrying capacity, it lasts longer and it's running expenses are much less
 At last accounts the average cost of moving freight in the United States per ton mile was s.522 by railway (exclusive of the cost of management, structure, etc.); by steamer on the Great Lakes. it was $.1S5 and on the canals a trihe more-a difference that will be minimlzed when steam motive power is used. Boats carrying 2700 tons go from Duluth to Buffalo in three and half days at a cos. of s120 a day, $.015 per ton mile. Foreign exports and imports equal only per cent of our interstate commerce. On our 1s,0O0 miles of navigable rivers we are carrying more than all Europe on her S0O00 miles of perfected water ways.
 One steamer going from Pittsburg to New Orleans by river takes a tow of thirty-two barges holding 6OOO00 bushels of coal, and taking fifteen days for the trip. To do the same work it is figured that 10o freight trains of sixteen cars each would be needed and that they would have to work all summer to de- liver the coal. This is said to save in freight s160,00o.
 John c. Calhoun in a famous address said: Let us bind the republic together; let us conquer space by a perfect system of roads and canals" The partial full fillment of his dream is found in the long inland voyages one may make. go- ing now from Pittsburg to western Mon- tana by river a distance of 43OO miles, equal to that from New York to St. Petersburg. From St. Louis to New York city the water route follows course that nature first planned and man ingeniously per fected by means of artificial channels. From the Mississippi into the Illinois which modern ingenuity has made to empty at its course instead of its mouth through the Chicago drainage canal up Lake Michigan to the Straits of Mack inaw down Lake Huron to Detroit across to Buffalo thence through the Erie canal to the Hudson and New York.
 What pleasure this would have given Washington, who in the days immediate ly after the Revolution, got a charter