The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1910-03-04
WILL MAKE CHEAPER RATES
Admiral r.. ID. Evans Explains In q
Magazine Article Why Railroads
Will Try to Kill the Pana-
ma Canal

AeooiSy -. G'duS, WHO mas Deen eX
planning the probable future of tn
Panama canal in striking series O
articles in Hamptons magazine, con
cludes in the forthcoming Marcel
number with a direct attack upon tn,
railroads and their rate making meth
DDS, which is perhaps the most lucit
explanation of the whole situation ye
seen in print.
There is no more important cues
ton before the American nation to-
day, than this of making sure thai
when they have invested their hun.
dreds OF millions of dollars in the
canal, 1t shall be permitted to give
them returns on the investment.
The Panama canal will earn the
returns, albeit perhaps indirectly, If
Vt Is given a chance. But it will not
De gl7er a chance If the transcontin-
email railways can prevent.
Decade after decade, the great
east-and-west railroad systems op-
posed and prevented the building of
the canal. They knew what it's com
petition would mean in the reduction
OF their freight rates.
Oregon's Trip Brought Canal
THE canal, however, is being dug,
not because the public rose to an
acute realization of the commercial
necessity for it, but because of the
Oregon's trip from the Pacific to
the Atlantic. That one voyage of one
battleship, in time of national crisis
served to crystalize a purpose in the
national mind that all the powers of
railroad and finance and railroad pol
itics could not thwart.
To-day we take certain pride in
the fact that American genius and
enterprise are achieving the most
wonderful engineering work eve. I'M
dertaken by man. But we are Civ
ing no thought, much less taking ANY
steps, to assure to ourselves as a ma
ton, the commercial benefits which
that work must bring, if it shall not
be disappointment and a failure.
DO not imagine that | have be-
come afflicted with any populistic an
tl-ra1lroad mania. There is not a
transportation authority among all
the rulers of the rail who will claim
more for the steam railroad as a fac
tor in the development of the coun-
try. past, present or future, than I
Will concede. But the truth will not
be suppressed. The railroads always
nave been hostile to the canal, and
they may be hostile to it in the fut-
ure. | believe their hostility is based
on narrow conception, short sight
ed view But, reasonable or unrea-
sonable, it is the fact.
"Weare spending $4OO,OOOOOO dig
glng at canal which ought to reduce
freight rates across our continent to
fraction of what they are now. The
commercial justification of that ex-
penditure will never be found, as | I
nave heretofore tried to show, in the
impetus that will be given our for
elgn trade. 1t must be found in ben
eht to our domestic commerce.
Water Transportation Cheapest
Water transportation is the cheap
est known to the world. Wherever
here Is free and fair competition the
water highways takes the business
rom the railroad Year after year. a
anger and larger proportion of Lon
on's coal comes down from the north
If England by the sea. Year after
ear, Importance to the internal wat
r routes-rivers and canals-on the
of Europe increases, as they
AIRY steadily increasing proportion
II the freight traffic. Why? Be- (
ause 1t Is more economical to move {
rattle by water than by land. II
yet for many years we have con-
ented that the railroads should mon a
police the transcontinental traffic
'hich a canal would have carried at h
reater speed and vastly less cost. I
Ie have developed our continet thus e
lr without thought of the possibili- \
es OF the greatest transcontinenta a
'ade route-that via the Atlantic, e
lie canal and the Pacific-and with "
1t consideration of the possibilities C
our imperial system of rivers. n
The canal Is going to force atten- e
IN to these things, if only the coun- c.
can be aroused to understand it's 81
nmense potentialities. But how k
any people who read this know that ci
will be possible to ship the oranges
southern California from Los fl
1geles to New York or Boston in pr
wer days by steamship through the et
mama canal, when completed, than C
fast freight across the country. CT
The distance from New York to 81
IS Angeles via the Panama canal OF
in round numbers 5000 miles. A pc
cotton capacity steamer loaded III
tn oranges or other fresh fruit, tn
canning at rate of only twelve M
OTIS per hour, would cover this dis in
ice in 18 days. If we allow one
Y for the steamer passing through ra
canal, her total time from port of
port would be nineteen days. If hi
vessel were run especially for tn
fruit trade, this time could be gu
[uced several days. A ship of six an
n knots speed, such as those now to
I'd in the West India fruit trade, pr,
uld make the trip in just fourteen mi
IS, giving again the allowance of ne
day for passing through the canal cal
Time is Compared
"The time for rail freight across wa
continent varies from twenty to t er'
y days. 1t will therefore be seen , &c,
the Staamar pou1d in oil oococ wa