Monroe City Democrat. (Monroe City, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1910-12-01
MEAN LOWER RATES
EFFECT OF WATERWAY ooMPETi.
TON ON THE RAlLwAYe OF
THE COUNTRY.
DIRECT AND INDIRECT SAVING

Conservative Estimate 10 That In q
Single Year II Would Be Moro Than
Enough 70 Discharge the Entire Ne
tIonai Debt.
II was stated In q previous article
that waterways produce both direct
and indirect savings in the cost Of
transportation and also exert what
may DO called 4 creative effect As
an instance Of the direct saving 1t
was shown that the 100, o00, 900 tons OF
freight handled on the great lakes
in 1907 were carried for $3.50, 900 900
less than II would have cost by rail-
II the opinion OF the United States
army engineers is correct-and this
opinion is based upon results actually
achieved on the rivers of Europe
we have q number of rivers on which,
when properly improved, freight can
be carried for less than on the lakes
and many rivers on which 1t can be
| carried for much less than by rail-
| If, therefore, the plan advocated by
| the National Rivers and Harbors
congress should be carried out-which
includes the improvement Of all our
rivers to such extent as shall be found
advisable after expert examination
the direct saving in cost Of transporta-
ton would be vastly increased. It
would probably be increased tenfold,
but II II were only doubled the direct
saving in q single year would b more
than enough TO pay of the national
debt
| But this Is net the end Il the bone
ats which the general improvement Of
our waterways would bring, n II only
the beginning. Beside the direct saw
ing there IL an iAAirost SsviA0 which
results from the effect Ct VH&SFwayS
on railway freight rates. fer rates
| are always lower on railr0AaA which
meet water competition than q those
which DO not The amount a tAaS saw
ing II not everywhere the sama, ewing
70 difference in conditions. ~ We
can get q good general IDEA II N from
Q study Of some sample instances.
Freight Rates Affected.
| Freight rates from New York to
Bait Lake or Spokane are much high
or than to San Francisco OF Seattle.
although the distance Is much less, be-
cause goods can be carried to the Pa
| cific coast by water, around Cape
Horn, while there Is no waterway Of
any kind to the inland cities named.
It is not the ocean alone that affects
|
flrst class merchandise to river towns
and inland towns situated about $50
miles from St. Louis. Towns on the
upper Mississippi get . rate 1t %
cents Q hundred, inland towns pay g
cents; towns on the Ohio pay Il oantaS
inland towns IN the same region
pay 81.
A still more striking instance, and
one showing the direct result Of wa
terway improvement, Is to be found
on the Columbia river. Before the
locks at the cascades were built
freight rates on nails, and that class
of goods, from Portland to The Dalles
were $6.40 per ton. AS soon as the
locks were finished and the steam
boats could get through, the railroad
rate dropped to two dollars per ton
less than one-third what Il was before.
That the difference was due to the
river improvement Is shown by the
fact that rates were not reduced be-
| yond the point to which the steam
boats could run. For instance, the
rate on salt in car load lots was $3.50
per ton to The Dalles, and 5000 per
ton to UmatillR-$1.60 per ton for the
SO mileB with water competition and
$50 per toA for the next 100 miles
without. These rates have since been
reduced a. the improvement has pro-
| ceeded. and when the work Il finished
and boats can run far up the Colum-
bia river and 70 Lewiston and other
point in Idaho en- It's principal tribu-
tary, the Snake river, the people in
all that region will beneflt not only
by the direct saving on goods carried
by water, but also by the indirect saw.
ing. through the reduced rate on goods
carried by rail. Exactly similar TO
suits would follow the radical i'm
provement of rivers all over the United
States.
Indirect Saving Large.
There Is, however, ne possible way
Of finding out rust how much this In.
direct saving would be. Rates on some
freight would be reduced greatly. on
some freight slightly, on some, per
haps, not at all. But We can get SEINE
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