The Montgomery tribune., 1910-09-09
CANALS FOR BENEFIT
LESSON FROM EUROPE SHOWS
HOW WATERWAY IMPROVE
MENT HELPS RAILROADS.
HAS A CREATIVE EFFECT
Construction Of tho Manchester Ship
Canal Shown to Have ResusoItated
Many Dying Towns--Many Give
Similar Experiences.


In previous articles 1t was shown
that the waterways carry goods more
cheaply than railways do or can and
compel the railways to carry for less
than they otherwise would, and then
the claim was made that the improve
ment of waterways Is benefit to the
railways with which they compete.
/ Several instances were given to sup
port this claim and many more might
! be given IL space allowed, for the
writer, who has studied the subject for
25 years, has found many instances
I OF benefit, and not single instance
of harm, to railways from the I'm
/ provement of waterways. 1t is now in
order to see II we can find a reason
for this rather surprising result.
! Waterways, as has been said before,
produce benefits in three principal
ways-by direct saving in the cost Of
transportation of goods carried by
water, indirect saving. by the lower
Ing of railway rates through the COM
petition of water routes, and by what
may be called creative effect. 1t
! is this last named effect which we
4 are now to consider.
Manchester. England, before the CON.
struction of the ship canal, was
dying town. Hundreds of stores and
thousands of dwellings were empty,
factories were closed-some moved
away-and population was decreasing.
With the opening of the canal all this
was changed. Factoriess reopened,
new ones were built, the empty houses
were refilled and thousands of new
ones built to accommodate the popula-
tion that came pouring in. And the
benefits were not confined to Manches-
ter alone, but were distributed over
the whole great industrial region, con-
tanning over 100000 people, Of which
Manchester is the center. 1t was not
only natural, but inevitable, that the
great increase in population an 'ros-
perity in Manchester and the ST. md
ing region should be reflected in the
business and the profits of the rail-
ways therein.
Liverpool Also Aided.
Liverpool fought desperately to pre-
vent the building of the canal and the
establishment of the new port of Man.
chester; but instead of being injured
by the canal, the business of Liverpool
has increased faster than before. Dur
ing the 13 years before the canal was
opened the increase in the harbor re-
ceipts at Liverpool was only $4,000;
In the same length of time after 1t
was opened the increase was $1,365,-
600. The 100000 tons of traffic at
Manchester have not been stolen from
Liverpool. they have been created by
the canal.
Frankfort. Germany. before the
River Main was improved, was not a
dying city but was decidedly stagnant.
Mannheim and Mayence on the Rhine,
which had been improved, were grow
ing rapidly, while Frankfort was grow
ing very little. AS soon as tn canal
ization of the river was finished, which
was in 1885. the city began to grow
and has kept on growing ever since.
The population, which was 154 900 in
1885. has increased to 229,O00 in 1895,
to $4,000 in 1905, and is probably
more than 400, now. Evidently the
people of Frankfort expect their city
to keep on growing, too. They spent
over $1,600.000 ON harbor when the
river was first improved and are
hard at work riglse now building a
new and much larger harbor at a cost
of $17,600,000. Just as in the case of
Manchester, the benefit was not con-
fined to the city Il Frankfort; the In
dustrial and commercial life Of the
whole region was greatly stimulated.
Mines long closed were reopened, new
industries were started, and today |
there Is an almost continuous succes.
sion OF factories lining the banks of |
the river from Frankfort to the
Rhine.
Everybody Reaps Benefit.
Hunt the world around and always
and everywhere we find that the i'm.
provement of waterways sets cities to
growing, factory wheels to humming,
and commerce to moving in a wider
and swifter stream. Railroads get
more business In big cities than in
small towns. in q densely populated
region than In one that
ls thinly settled. Waterways. there
Tore, benefit railways-and states and
nations as well--by promoting an in.
crease In population, In manufactures
and In commerce. But for one who
likes to get clear down to the bot
tom of things there still remains the
question: why do waterways In.
crease population and create COM
nercs and Industry"
Consul General Mason. now In Paris,
'ut for some years at Frankfort, says:
German statesmanship was among
he nrst to foresee that the time