The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-08
THE
Fourteen Foot Chdr11pep
 Not Project Bur Policy
Candidate Taft Is Principal Speaker At Waterways Convention Chicago and Urges Completion Of the Plans For Regu- lar Water Traffic From Chicago To the Gulf Down the
 Mississippi As Essential To Country's Development

transportation.
 But the consideration of their perma- nent and extensive improvement accord ing to some general and comprehensive plan so as to mould them into a com plete system of transportation has now forced itself upon us with surprising suddenness. We find that enormous in- crease in the productions of our people in all lines of industrial activity has out stripped the ability of our great rail- road systems, extensive and efficient as they are, to transport them. We find that during the ten years ending with 1905 the internal commerce of our coun- try has increased 11S per cent while railroad transportation facilities during the same time have increased only 20 per cent. It has been pointed out that to supply this deficiency by the con- struetion of additional railroads and nec- essary terminals would require capital investment of S5,500 000,00O and this con- struetion when completed would make no provision for the further increase of our commerce. Shall we have a repetition of the experience of three years ago when the farmer saw his grain wasting in the field and the manufacturer stopped his plant for want of raw material and our finished products lay in the warehouse all for lack of facilities to transport them?
 Great Water Facilities.
 No nation has been so favored with so magnificent a system of navigable lakes and rivers, searching in their prov idential distribution every section of the great valley lying between our east and west mountain ranges and of the slopes from these to their respective coasts. If we improve these in accordance with well defined progressive policy we shall, in conjunction with our great railroads and other forms of transportation keep apace with the industrial and commer- cial advancement of our country.
 "I am not unmindful of the great ex- penditure of public money which the of such a policy will entail. The expense of carrying an article from the place where it is to the place where it is wanted must be added to it's cost, whether it be in it's raw or finished state its cheaper carriage results in a saving to that extent AS trans portation by water is about one-sixth of that by rail- great saving, apportioned between the producer and consumer, and hence among all our people, would fol- low.
 What has been the extent of this saw ing in cases where the government has brought it's waterways to a state of ap- completion? The greatest wa III lIle OUllSu OldlSof anu pS te'h the greatest inland waterway in the world is composed of the Great Lakes Up to the close of 1907 our government has ex- pended upon the harbors and connecting channels of these lakes $S5, 100000 in round numbers. During the season Of 1907 there passed through the Soo canal 5S,217,2l4 tons of freight which was carried an average distance of BPS miles at cost Of $3S, 457, 345, making an average cost or .S of mill per ton mile. If this freight had been carried by railroads at the aver age rate per ton mile of TSP cents 1t would have cost $377, ,090, ,790. That is to say, the saving through decreased cost of transportation on the business of a single lake for a single year amounts to S3SS 300 900 or nearly four times the total amount expended by the government on all the lakes since their improvement was begun.
 Lake Tonnage.
 "If the tonnage of all the Great Lakes were included in the computation the argument would be correspondingly stronger, but there is an indirect saving which results from reduction In the railroad rates between all points that are served by water transportation and these reductions in turn similarly affect paral- Tel lines far to either side of the water route thus each waterway has It's zone of influence upon freight rates.
 'Nor do the savings in freight charges, direct and indirect, measure the full ben eft of the improved waterway to the people. But being itself open and free for the use of all alike, the danger or monopoly Is much reduced and its carry ing capacity, unlike that of the railroad, is unlimited.
 ..Nor does such policy of waterways to dtgadVantaRaOllQlV to the railroads, even though it compels lower freight rates inconsistent as this statement may seem. In the natural economy of transportation the raw ma teria1 commanding the lower freight charges. falls to the waterway, while the manufactured goods of infinite va riety seek the railroads. By reason or the low water rate and the unlimited carving capacity of the waterway you carry millions of tons of raw material to furnaces and factories, there to be converted into corresponding tons or merchandise, capable of bearing higher freight charge. Thus one system be- comes complemental of the other. Illus trations of the working of this principle are to be found on the shores of the Great Lakes the Erie canal and the Hud- son river These are fanked on either side by railroads of undoubted prosperity and no less prosperous are the number less towns and cities along their routes.
 Drainage of an Empire.
 Your project proposes to connect by a deep waterway the great lakes system with the Mississippi river and the Gulf of Mexico, and thus with all the harbors of the world It is a grand conception and appeals to the thoughtful consideration of those who must finally pass upon it's adop- ton. The Mississippi river with It's great tributaries drains an empire vastly great CT in all the resources of nature than those who accomplished had the acquisi- ton of that mighty stream and the terri tory beyond it ever dreamed of The Ohio river, one of it's larger affuents, itself a thousand miles in length, drains a ter ritory as large as the German empire, and will, when improved to its proposed depth of nine feet bring into connection with the Gulf of Mexico one of the great est manufacturing districts in the country and a section rich in the varied products of mans industry and ingenuity The Mis- souri river flows through agricultural dis tricts of unexcelled productiveness, and all have their tributaries of greater or less usefulness and importance. The im- provement of all these so as to make them serve the best purposes of navigation, must be ultimately accomplished. The problems of their improvement are some- what difficult, even intricate, though not insurmountable.
 ''The achievement of these great ends cannot however be worked out through Congress without a radical departure from the course of procedure heretofore em- ployed. No projects should be approved without the most careful consideration as to their feasibility and usefulness When the execution of an approved pro- ject has once been determined on 1t should