The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-07-19
FACTS AND FIGURES CONCERN
ING FREIGHT CARRIED ON
WATERWAYS.
Herbert Knox Smith, Commissioner Of
Corporations, Submits Second
Part of Report.

u 1erDeFI Knox Smith, commissioner OF
: corporations, today submitted the sec
} ond part of his report on water trans
portation in the United States to the
department of commerce and labor.
The first part has been already pub
lished; and the second part made pub
lie this afternoon follows:
The Report.
There are two main classes of
freight-Q) bulk freight, usually raw
materials and of comparatively low
value; CD merchandise freight, So
called, usually in packages, of higher
value and mainly the product of fac
tories. Official statistics of water
traffic are very incomplete.
/ Over rs per cent of our total water
borne domestic traffic Excluding har-
/ Dor and raft traffic. consists of raw
materials and low grade products, such
/ as coal, iron ore, stone, sand lime,
phosphate, oil, cement, brick, ice, pig
iron and steel rails, lumber and naval
/ stores, agricultural products; all bulk
! freight.
Bulk freight is better fitted for wa
ter transportation because neither
/ sWiftness nor especial care is usually
required and its points of delivery are
usually more concentrated. Converse
! ly, water carriers often thus fail to
+! get their corresponding share of back
load from the merchandise products
to the factories
| A comparison of different transpOr-
tation methods is enlightening. We
have. roughly, three great Transport
tation systems-CD rail; CD deep wa
ter (coastwise and Great Lakes; 81
| rivers and canals.
From 1889 to 1906 there has been CD
| enormous increase in rail traffic; (2)
! great increase OF Great Lakes and
coastwise traffic; CD a decrease on the
/ Mississippi river system and the in
land canals, which practically repre-
sent the third class.
Deep Water.
! Atlantic and Gulf cOasts.-Here the
! through freight is very largely bulk;
chiefly coal, lumber, phosphate, naval
stores. cotton, refined oil, sugar, rice
for
northward. Little coal goes south by
water. There is also an important
movement of general merchandise.
There is some use of Gulf rivers as
! feeders, bringing bulk freight to CEN
trail ports.
i Pacific Coast-On the Pacific coast
the principal bulk freight consists of
lumber moving south and oil north;
there is also considerable merchan-
disc freight There is large trade
! with Alaska The river traffic is re-
latively of much less Importance.
The Great L.akes-More than 80 per
cent of this trade is bulk, with very
advanced terminal development and
very low transportation costs. This
is due to an extraordinary cOmbina-
ton of concentrated supplies of raw
material at each end and a CORE
:. spending demand at the opposite end.
Eighty per cent of the shipments and
receipts OF ore, coal and grain are
handled at dozen ports. Three
fourths of the total lake movement is
eastward and southWard-iron ore
(45,OO0, 600 net tons shipped in 1900,
grain and flour (5,6OO,000 tons), and
lumber (27O0OOO tons). The total
westward and northward traffic in
1906 was 1S,50O,OO0 tons, of which al
! most 100000 tons was coal, almost
the only item of back load for the ore
freighters. Not over 5 per cent OF the
traffic of the lakes moves out OF them
by water into United States territory
Domestic shipments of lumber and
grain are declining (although the Ca
-
General merchandise freight is about
10 per cent of the lake traffic.
Rivers and Canals.
This is the third branch of our
TRANSPORTATION system. Its traffic, IN
general, is declining, especially on the
| Mississippi river system and nland
canals. Up to 1855 traffic on the New
York canals, including the Erie, was
more than twice that of the railroads
/ crossing New York state; in 1872 II
was one-third and now it is less than
8 per cent The total traffic or all
state and private canals has declined
from, ia ooO OOo tons in 1880 to about
! 100000 tons in 1896.