Hermanner Volksblatt. [volume] (Hermann, Mo.) 1875-1928, 1910-10-07
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
COO, and Proportionately All Other
Products Would Be Affected.

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 $100,00e,-
900 a 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 ipfiu-
ences practically everything he buys,
sells. eats, wears or uses in any way
whatever, except water, air and sun
slime. The average mar 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 a difference In the cost of
transportation by these different meth
DDS that it is worth while to study the
matter a little. The experts of the
good roads bureau estimate the cost
Of hauling a ton of freight n mile
by horse and wagon on the average
road in the United States at % cents.
The cost ON a thoroughly good, smooth
road might be reduced to 10 cents.
Poor's Manual gives 7.&2 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
sane year was only 8 of one mill.
Facts in a Nutshell.
You can better understand what
these figures mean II they are stated
in another way. They mean that II
you have a dollar to spend in shipping
a ton of freight you can send 1t
miles on an average road, 10 miles on
q f~rst-class road, 127h miles on a rail
road, and 1880 miles IN a 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
is concerned the wagon road must be
left entirely out of consideration. II
is just as easy to see what a great
benefit would result from the building
Of a railway into a region where there
was none before, and that a still
greater, benefit would result from sc
improving a river that it is made
dependably navigable when 1t was moi
SO before.
Waterways increase prosperity in
three principal ways, viz: direct say
ing, indirect saving, and by what may
be called a creative effect, The direct
saving is that which occurs on goods
actually carried by water, and some
facts which indicate how great this di
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, 58,217.2 t4 tons Of freight
This was carried an average distanc,
Of $3.50 miles at an average cost o
8 OF one mill per ton-mile. If THU
had been shipped by rail at the aver
age railway rate for that year Cts.
mills), its transportation would hav,
cost $~33S,633,364 more than was pal,
for Its carriage by water.
The total freight carried on al
lakes that year was, In round mum
bers, 100, O00, 900 tons. This vast ton
mage was carried for $3.50, 100000 les
than 1t would have cost to send 1t b,
rail, and the improvements, which pro
duce a saving large enough to pay OF
the national debt in less than tw,
years, cost only $S5, 900, 900.
Proof Of Good Results.
Wouldn't you call that a pretty fai
dividend on the investment? And DON
you think it would pay to improve al
our waterways as fast and as far a
we can?
But" says some one, what reason
is there to suppose that improved riy
ers would give anything like as GOO
results as have been obtained on tn,
lakes?" That is a proper question an,
is entitled to an answer.
The only waterway In this countr,
which has been improved as a who'll
Is composed of the four lakes abov,
Niagara Falls, but there are many I'm
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
the Ohio river Is finished, freight cal
be carried thereon for one-half mil
per ton-mile. That means that tn
dollar which will carry a ton 1871
miles by rail and 1880 miles by lake
will carry Il 1000 miles by river.
Cost Of transportation will vary o.
different rivers with depth, width
swiftness of current, ETC., but the Of
innfad cnst m a oomnJatafv innnro,,a