East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1908-06-23
RAILROAD AND RIVER.

It is frequently asserted, and with
excellent foundation, that the Prus-
sian system of inland waterway i'm
provements-a work in which no Sec
ton Of the country is so vitality inter-
ested as the great northwest-is the
best and the most comprehensive in all
Europe but the inland waterway
system Of France is, none the less
most admirable object lesson. That
France should enter on the expendi-
ture of more than one billion of dollars
on inland waterway improvement is
rot surprising.
The French are the most economi-
cal, and the richest of all peoples of
Europe. They saw in the improved
waterway a means Of communication
between producer and consumer at
once cheap; safe and continuous, and
they appreciated the fact that the hos
tinty between river and rail was
hostility without substantial basis.
Imbued with the soundness of that
view the committee. of the French
senate, having the question before It,
thus reported to the senate in 1908:
1T is futile to deny that traction is
less costly by water than by rail and
where transportation by water and by
rail are both available they compile
ment and complete each other, the one
transporting heavy materials, the low
cost of which is an indispensable con-
dition to the vitality of industries
which aliment, in their turn, the traf-
fic of the railway"
The report, concurred in by both
branches of the legislative body of
the French republic, resulted in the
perfecting of the system of improve
ment of the artificial and the natural
inland waterways of France and every
branch of trade and commerce is feel
ing the inestimable benefit of the wis
dom of the French legislative body
in the completion of a system which
is now a part of the fixed policy of
the government of the country.
OF the traffic on the French water
ways the latest available figures show
that while it reached 32,4SS,7O1 tons
in 1905. 1t Increased to 33,977,S4O tons
in 1906. Coal was carried by water
from Cette to Toulouse at II cents per
ton. while the railway charges between
the same points was 81 cents. The
rate for wheat, on the Rhone between
Lyons and Marseilles, in 1906 was
s1.OS per ton, while by rail between
the same points, approximately the
same distance, it was S2,6S per ton.
Great though the difference in rates,
between the two modes of transpor-
tation in France unquestionably is
the difference in the United states is
still greater-with the difficulty, in
this county, that the difference applies
cnly to the section enjoying the bene-
fit of an improved waterway-and
they are few-while France reaps the
benefit of an inland waterway system
Of improvements, such as the Nation
al Rivers and Harbors Congress ad-
vocates. based on a fixed policy on
definite lines. with annual appropri-
ations sufficient for the work and
with the work continuously prosecut-
ed.
There is no reason why every Sec
,ion Of the United states should not
enjoy the benefits Of such a system
Certainly no section would profit by
the system as the great northwest
would profit by it.
France is illustrating the immeasur-
able benefits coming from the adop-
ton and the enforcement Of an en-
lightened and definite system with
river and rail supplementing and
completing each other as means OF
transportation without hostility be-
tween them, but with both sharing in
the benefits that come to every inter-
est in the entire country