The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-01-26
VAST GOOD OF
RIVER TRAFFIC
a Des Moines Comment on the R.n..
fits to be Derived From
NavigabIe River.

The dispatch from Washington say.
ing oae rivers and harbors committee
would recommend that survey of the
Des Moines river be made, with a view
OF opening it to navigation, was low
fully received by business men of
Des Moines. That thousands of dollars
can be saved annually by steamboat
traffic is certain. And it is the gen
eral opinion that the Des Moines riv.
err without great expenditure, can be
made navigable. Lucius Wilson. sec
rotary of the Greater Des Moines COM
mittee, said:
we have contended that river i'm.
provement should be for the sole pur-
pose OF transporting tonnage. Its OBJ.
1ect Is not to provide straight and
smooth channel for the passage of
water, but to serve tlle requirements
OF territories and districts that pro-
duce enormous quantities of slow NOV.
ing freight which could be profitably
handled by barge or steamboat.
There are eighteen counties in the
valley of the Des Moines river which
produced in 1907 45,0003,76O bushels
of corn, 14,S1S,OO bushels of oats. 769.-
597 bushels of wheat, 43S, 900 bushels
of barley and 254,53O bushels of rye.
In ten of these eighteen counties there
were 15,7S7,534 tons of coal and 16O,-
139 tons of gypsum. The greater
part of this gypsum was marketed at
the glass and pottery plants in the
Ohio river valley. The natural path
way of this gypsum from the ferry to
the consumer was down the Des
Moines river to the Mississippi and
thence up the Ohio.
Two hundred thousand brick were
shipped from the same counties. The
sandstone and clap products no. enum-
Grated in the above statement amount.
ed in value to about 100000.
In tle year 1907 the total corn crop
of the state of Mississippi was only
40,7S9,000 bushels, although corn is
far away the greatest crop of that
state. The cotton raised in Mississ-
ippi the same year amounted to L.
$4,000 bales. The total area of i'm
proved land in Mississippi (7.594. 42S
acres) is only little greater than
the tillable area in the eighteen coun-
ties 100000 acres along the Des
Moines river. Yet it would be diff
cult to find legislative body which
would refuse to improve waterway
that provided transportation for tae
entire agricultural products of the
state of Mississippi
These ten coal producing counties
in the Des Moines valley have turned
out as much coal in the past few years
as the state of Tennessee. Yet Ten
nessee has two great waterways on
both of which improvements have
been made at enormous expense to
the United States.
Another comparative measurement
of tae Importance of the eighteen coun-
ties in the Des Moines river valley is
proper. AS stated above, their
tillable area is about 100000 acres
L llS ClltHS StcLS VI SdlllOllld has uil-
der cultivation only about 10000 900
acres, or but twice the area of these
eighteen Iowa counties. Aside from
the Mississippi, the Missouri and the
Ohio rivers, there is no other water
way within the confines OF the United
States, which, if improved, would move
so large freight tonnage as would the
Des Moines river. / might multiply
of facts similar to these
Reports of the rivers and harbors com
nittee, the reports of the censuc bur
eau, reports by the secretary of agri- /
culture and the reports of the Iowa
Agricultural society supply the sta
.istics from which the foregoing com
oarisons were made"