The Falls City tribune., 1910-09-16
GOOD FOR COUNTRY
IMPROVEMENT OF WATERWAYS
WILL DEVELOP RESOURCES
OF EVERY SECTION.
FREIGHT CARRIED CHEh?LY
Make a Direct Saving in Cost of Trans
portation by the Water Routes, and
Indirectly Serve to Lower Railway
Carrying Rates.

The claim has been made in previ-
Gus articles-and facts and figures
given to support the claim-that wa
terways carry freight mere cheapiy
than the railways do or can, and that
they compel the railways to carry
freight more cheaply than they other
wise would, making a saving of hun
dreds of millions of dollars a year, even
under present conditions, and indicat-
ing a vast increase lat saving if all
waterways should he improved. And
then the surprising assertion was
made that the surest way to enlarge
the business and increase the profits
of the railroads Of the United States
is to improve the waterways of the
United States. The best guide to the
future is the experience of the past,
SO let us see what has actually hap
pened to railways when waterways
have been improved.
That the improvements in the chan.
nels and harbors of the lakes have
been of great benefit, both to the rail
ways which parallel their shores and
to those which run from lake cities to
the interior, is a fact so plain that
it needs no argument to support it.
There are no more prosperous and
profitable roads in the country than
those that serve the region tributary
to the lakes. But no n questions
the wisdom Of continuing the improve
ment of the lakes, CT of u ocean
harbors. The real question IS as to
the Improvement Of our rivers. and if
we wish to study the effect of river
improvement, either on railway reye-
nues or national Development, we
must go to Europe.
Results in Bohemia.
During the fifteen years that I'M
provements were under way on the
Elbe river, in Bohemia, the river traf-
fc, as a natural result of the better
channe3, increased fvefold. But traf-
fc on the competing railways in
creased still More largely and the div
idends on the main line, from Teplitz
to Aussig, rose to 16 per cent. per
annum.
Similar results followed the canali-
cation of the River Main, from May
ence, on the Rhine, to Frankfort,
which was finished in the latter part
of 1856. The river traffic, which
amounted to only $4,000 tons in that
year, began to grow and has kept on
growing, being 1,273,0OO tons in 1902.
There are two railroads between
Frankfort and Mayence, enc on each
side of the river. What happened to
them? Did their business show a Sc
rious falling off? Or were they forced
into the hands of a receiver? On the
contrary their traffic, which was Gill;
600 tons in 1886, also began to grow,
and by 1902 had reached 100000
tons, or more than double what 1t was
when the railroads had a practical
monopoly of the business of Frank
fort.
The mere statement of the in
creased tonnage does not tell the
whole truth of the matter, for the
tonnage was not only more than
doubled in quantity, but greatly
raised in grade, so that it could pay,
and did pay, a much higher rate per
ton per mile.
Fine German Waterways.
Practically all the railways of Ger
many are state owned and state oper-
ated. Out of a total of $4,000 miles,
in round numbers, only about $500
miles are operated by private COM
panies. Germany also has n of the
finest systems of waterways in the
world, and a study of the balance
sheet of the German railway system
shows that the results which followed
the improvement of the River Main
are lot an exception, a mere coinci-