The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1909-10-03
USING The RIVER
STEAMBOAT TRAFFIC OF FORTY
YEARS AGO.
MILLION DOLLAR CO.
The Experience Of Kansas City, Mo.
MAY be Profitable 60 Shreveport.
Water and Railroad Transportation
in Competition.
in Competition

| IS reproduced Ehe article following =
Forty years ago when ncwpapeTs chron-
icIed, daily, the arrival and departure Of
the boats that piled betweegs So, Louis
and Omaha there was only one raid
road-the Hannibal and Sc. yoseph-
save one branch ofn great Importance.
FreigSat charges were high foT riveP cav
rags and the people looked % Hhe TaaY-
ROADS Cor relief and expedition. Ev-
cntuaGly 3hey got what shey wanted and
now Che people are Calling 6os boats and
rgaying for re9ief from enc railroads.
Few biSs OF contemporary history are
more interesting Ghan tha3 Kansas C0ts
is going BACK 20 che sivee wheTe ia START
e. There win Be no more "dinky' lit
Gle side wheel 8iS1s BOATS Go win have
long CTaff Of steel With wateT-tight
compartments, great 6Veagl1e Carrying
capacity and low supesstsucSure. When
they had been decSded upon Sasf spring.
Walteg s. Dickey was ehose8 Co take
charge Of the project & stock company
was formea Two yeaTs ago Lawrence
M Zones, a l8nerchara, organized o boat
line company and navigated che Miss
iouri successfully dog q season with
small boats Sought BY contributions.
Mr.. Dickey decided &c make the boat
line pay dividends. To this ems He OBJ
tanned freight contracts from shipping
interests guaranteeing a satisfactory re-
turn on an investment and then called
| for stock contributions The first man
to respond was William Rockhill Mel
son, editor and owner of the "Star, !"
who took $4,000 of the issue. One
after another the successful men of
business subscribed for stock until to-
day more than one-half of the necces-
sary million has been disposed Of Every
man in Kansas City, important or OBJ
scure, if he owns home or pays taxes
of any kind, will be asked to buy stock
in the boat line. The company can get
its million, but it is hoped to get every
one interested. Kansas City's population
this year is more than $4,000 1t has
grown $4,000 a year for two years. 1t
it could do this we'll with oppressive
railroad rates, what can it not do in
ten years with water competition? 1t
is not hard to understand the Importance
of boat line when you hear that Min
neapolis and St. Paul have an advantage
over Kansas City-although they are
further west from New York than Kan
sas City of 500 per ton on first-class
freight. This makes an enormous saw
ing in one year for these cities over
Kansas City
FIGURES
One of the best illustrations OF the
effect of river competition on railroad
rates is given in the report of the en-
gineer officer in charge of the upper
Mississippi River in tht fiscal year
1000 From the report of the Upper
Mississippi River improvement Assoc
citation he takes this table:
Rates form St. Louis to St Paul, by
rail, z2o miles; and to Oklahoma City,
by rail, 543 miles, and no waterway
competition;
Class 8 4
Rail sos $50 $.42 SO S-2I
River i. 40 "a III II IA
Ok. City. I.3o 100 81 81 81
For a twenty-five per cent greater dis
lance the boats carry freight for from
one-third to less than one-fourth the
rate charged by the railroads That's
what water competition does. lake the
case of Spokane, Washington. The rate
to Spokane is $I2I, and the rate to
Seattle, go miles further on, having a
water rate, is GOO. The merchants III
Spokane are compelled to pay the rate
to Seattle and back to Spokane, or
distance of 500 miles that their freight
does not travel. On certain classes 0:
piece goods the rate to Denver IS S2i24
The same goods are hauled through OF
the same train across two mountain
ranges and to California and San Fran
cisco for S1.oo 100 pounds. Seattl
and San Francisco have water eompe
, tition. Get boat line" said J. J. HI
one day in Kansas City. 1T will bel
business all around" Get boat line
said E. H. Hartman when ne ylsite
) Kansas City in 1906, and if you get or
) I should like to own railroad follow
) ing the course of the stream. The bo'
5 line would bring business to the RAJ
: road. and the railroad would bring hu
) mess to the boats. hope the boat III
s will be a success" The impression e
8 lists that the Missouri river is general
IS a shallow stream, and to that IS ascrlo'
y the decline of navigation. The Missot
IS river has more and longer stretches
. nayigable water that any other uni
eS proved stream in the world, but the Il
es places that are shallow sometimes bio
80 the whole stream above at extreme /