The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1908-06-25
RIVER AND RAIL

lG is frequently dSSoICeu, dHu VIII
excellent foundation, that the Prussian
system ofinland waterway Improvement
"a work in which no section OF the
country is so vitality interested 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, a most admirable OBJ
iect lesson. That France should enter
on the expenditure Of more than one
billion of dollars on inland waterway
improvements is not surprising. The
French are the most economical, and the
richest Of all peoples of Europe. They
saw in the improved waterway means
of communication between producer and
consumer at once cheap, safe and con-
tinuous, and they appreciated the fact
that the hostility between river and
rail -wasaa hostility without substantial
basis. t.@+
Imbued with the soundness of that
view the committee of the French Sen
ate, having the question before it, thus
reported to the Senate in 1903: cit is
futile to deny that traction is less costly
by water than by rail and where trans
portation by water and by rail are both
available they complement and complete
each other, the one transporting heavy
Materials the low cost of which is an
indispensable condition to the vitality
of industries which >aliment, in their
turn, the traffic Of the railway"
The report, concurred in by both
branches Of the legislative body of the
French Republic resulted in the per-
fectingi Of the system of Improvement
of the artificial and the natural inland
Waterways of France and every branch
of trade and commerce is feeling the in
estimable benefit Of the wisdom of the
French legislative body in the compile
tion of a. system which is now part
of the fixed policy of the government
of the country. Of the traffic on the
French waterways the latest available
figures show that while it reached 49,
438,701 tons in 1905, it increased to
1897, $40 tons in 1908. Coal was car
ried by water from Cette to Toulouse
at $077 per ton; while the railway
charge between the same points was
$1.48. The rate for wheat, on the
Rhone between Lyons and Marseilles, in
1906 was $1.03 per ton, while by rail
the same points, approximately the
same distance, it was $2.63 per ton.
Great though the difference in rates,
between the two modes of transporta-
ton in France. unquestiouably is, the
difference in the United States is still
greater-with the difficulty, in this
country, that the difference applies only
to the section enjoying the benefit of an
improved waterway-and they are few
while France reaps the benefit of an
inland waterway system of improve
ments, such as the National Rivers and
Harbors Congress advocates, based on
fixed policy on definite lines, with
annual appropriations sufficient for the
work and with the work continuously
prosecuted.
There is no reason why every section
of the United States should not enjoy
the benefits of such system. Certain
ly no section would profit by the system
as the great Northwest would profit by
it. France is illustrating the immeas-
urable benefits coming from the adop-
ton and to the enforcement, of an en-
hghtened and definite system with river
and rail supplementing and completing
each other as means of transportation
without hostility between them, but
with both sharing in the benefits that
come to every interest in the entire
country. &a