Bisbee daily review., 1908-02-12
CANAL TRADE WILL DEMAND WATERWAYS
United States Must Provide Cheaper Means of Freight Transit To Seaboard To Meet the Coming Demand.
Special to Review)

| WASHINGTON, Feb. 11.-Prophetic i indications of the great increase in 1 business that will follow the opening | of the Panama Canal is contained in
 a government report just issued. The report, given out by the Department of | Commerce and Labor, deals with the commerce of the United States that crossed the Isthmus of Panama and ! Tehuantepec in 1907 This totaled
 more than forty million dollars worth ! of gods in thetwelve months, or three times more than ever flowed across
 this narrow strip in any previous sim
 liar period OT time.
 This great movement was made pos. Sible by the pening of the Tehuant5pec Railway just one year ago this month The railway was constructed by the Mexican government. Modern steel docks at the western terminus, Coat 1 ZaCcaiCOs. permit the transfer of goods from the holds of steamers and their reshiDment after a land haul of 1SO miles. in the remarkably short tiIGe of fOrty-eight hours The goods ill transit are carried in sealed cars, which are run alongside the steamers and quick ly emptied.
 If the remarkable growth eviden. Ced can b7 accomplished by the com | parativCly slow and expensive method : Ci transfer by rail and reshipment, ! government experts are wondering 1 just how great the stimulus to trade 1 will be once the Panama Canal is Op- l ened to the world. Vessels will then 1 be enabled to leave the stormy waters | CT the Atlantic to slip Cheaply and 1 without check into the sunny waters
 of the Pacific, bearing in their holds i the products of American industry to i the western shores of South America | and the countries of the Orient.
 But to prepare for this increased ! export trade is now the problem of l the United States. It will be neCes- 1 sary to provide here at home cheaper ard better means of transportation to 1 the seabOrd from the interior, or else we will find ourselves handicap ped Germany. France and England can load their vessels practically at ! the doors of their factories. and almost
 transfer the products of their n"lds | from the windrow to the holds of the 1 vessels for export. This is made pos. siDla by the highly developed condi- | tiun Of the waterways of thOsa cOun- ! tries.
 Obviously. this means os transport | in, products abroad giTes t5e Toi eigner a big lead over his American l competitor. The United States has 1 neglected it's waterways for years, ! with the result that it has the poorest 1 system of navigable rivers and canals ! -E q, Ta. | that in no other nation are the natural 1 advantages greater. For that reason ] it costs the American exporter more l than it does his competitors to~get his 1 goods started on their way, and costs ! him more ta market them
 It is to remedy this condition of af- l fairs and arouse Uncle Sam from his apathy, that the National Rivers and l HarbOrs Congress is working. This | organization declines to stand for any | specific scheme oT improvement, but 1 is seeking to have the national govern l ment expend on the general plans of
 rivers and harbors betterments the
 sum of $5O.O0O 600 each year As there | is now upwards of $500,000 900 Of i'm | provements passed upon and adyocat- 1 ed by government engineers, this sum is absolutely necessary if the complete 1 program of bettarmeRts is to be car ! Tied out by the time the Panama ] Canal is ready to open.
 There is little doubt that the re- 1 port of the business done on the Te- 1 huantepec Railway will stimulate the
 government into action. There are in- dications even now that such action 1 is near, in the shape of the adoption
 of a stated policy to care Tor the riv- CTS and harbors.