Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1910-09-22
SAVING OF MILLIONS
WHAT COMPREHENSIVE SYSTEM
OF WATERWAYS IMPROVE
MENT MEANS TO FARMERS,
FIGURES TO SUPPORT FACTS
On Shipments Of Grain Alone the d.
rect Return Would Mean 100000
600, and Proportionately All Other
Products Would Be Affected.

] rect Return Would Mean 100000
| 600, and Proportionately All Other
Products Would Be Affected.
In a former article we gave facts and
| figures to prove that, If the compre-
| hensive plan of waterway improve
ment advocated by the National Riv-
ers and Harbors congress were car
| ried out, the direct return to the farm
ers of the country, on the single item
of grain, would certainly be 100000
900 year-and probably would be
more than twice that sum.
But grain Is not the only item on
which the farmers would receive a
benefit. The fact is that for the farm
ers-and everybody else, for that mat
ter-the cost of transportation inf1u-
ences practically everything he buys,
sells, eats, wears or uses in any way
whatever, except water, air and sun
shine. The average man is inclined to
laugh when told that he pays out more
for transportation than he does for
taxes or because of the tariff-but his
laughter does not alter the fact in the
least.
There are three principal methods
of transportation, the wagonway, the
railway and the waterway, and there
is so great difference in the cost of
transportation by these different meth
DDS that it is worth while to study the
matter little. The experts of the
good roads bureau estimate the cost
Np HON fy,c {0n ~ F,Ns rr1,k ;1~
by horse and wagon on the average
road in the United States at % cents.
The cost on thoroughly good, smooth
road might be reduced to 10 cents.
Poor's Manual gives 1882 mills per ton
mile as the average price received by
the railways in 1907, while the official
records kept at the 500 show that the
average rate on the freight carried
into and out of Lake Superior in the
same year was only 8 of one mill.
Facts in Nutshell.
You can better understand what
these figures mean If they are stated
in another way. They mean that If
you have dollar to spend in shipping
a ton of freight you can send it
miles on an average road 10 miles on
a first-class road, 1271a miles on a rail-
road. and 1880 miles on lake vessel.
1t is very easy to see that good
roads are a lot better than poor roads
but that transportation by horse and
wagon Is too costly at the best to be
used except for small loads and short
distances. So far as interstate traffic
L fc I,n
left entirely out of consideration. It
is just as easy to see what a great
benefit would result from the building
| of railway into region where there
was none before, and that still
greater benefit would result from so
improving river that it is made
dependably navigable when it was not
so before.
Waterways increase prosperity in
three principal ways, viz: direct saw
ing, indirect saving, and by what may
5 be called creative effect. The direct
saving is that which occurs on goods
actually carried by water, and some
facts which indicate how great this d.
rect saving is, will also make more
| plain the vast difference between the
cost of transportation by rail and by
water.
Through the 500 canal at the out
let of Lake Superior there were car.
ried in 1907, 5S,217,214 tons of freight
This was carried an average distance
of 1888 miles at an average cost of
8 of one mill per ton-mile. If this
had been shipped by rail at the aver
age railway rate for that year (7.82
mills), it's transportation would have
cost 1888 1854 more than was paid
for it's carriage by water
s The total freight carried on all
lakes that year was, in round mum
= bers, 100,000,000 tons. This vast ton
mage was carried for $55o,o00,0OO less
than it would have cost to send it by
rail, and the improvements, which pro
y duce a saving large enough to pay of
the national debt in less than two
70 years, cost only $S5,000,000.
8 Proof of Good Results.
Wouldn't you call that pretty fail
~ dividend on the investment? And dom
you think it would pay to improve al
our waterways as fast and as far a.
IL we can?
le "But," says some one, what reason
,e Is there to suppose that improved riv
ers would give anything like as goot
: results as have been obtained on thu
le lakes?" That is a proper question ane
is entitled to an answer.
The only waterway in this countr.
- which has been improved as who'll
Il is composed of the four lakes allow
is Niagara Falls, but there are many i'm
n proved rivers in Europe. From a care
" full study of the results obtained OF
;, these rivers the army engineers est
= mate that when the improvement o
ct the Ohio river is finished, freight cal
Of carried thereon for one-half mil
I'd per ton-mile. That means that tn
o dollar which will carry ton 1871
. miles by rail and 1880 miles by lake
~ will carry 1t 1000 miles by river.