Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1910-02-21
The PANAMA CANAL CENTRAL BANK Ideal
TRANSCONTiNfNTAL RAILROADS
WILL TRY TO KILL CANAL.
~Tighting Bob" Evans, in D Force ful
Article in ii; mpiOn's raaozine,
Says Canal VIII Be Big Factor in
Nakinl Future Freight Rates by
Land and Water.

Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans,
who has been explaining tho proba-
Die future of the Panama canal in a
striking series of articles in Hamp-
tons magazine, concludes in the
March number with direct attack
upon the railroads and their rate
making methods, which is perhaps
the most lucid explanation OF the
whole situation yet seen in print
There is no more important ques-
ton before the American nation to-
day" he says, than this of making
very sure that when they have in
vested their hundreds of millions of
dollars in the canal, it shall be per-
mitted to give them returns on the
investment.
THE Panama canal will earn the
returns, albeit perhaps indirectly, if
it is given the chance. But it will
not be given the chance if the trans
continental railroads can prevent.
DO not imagine that | have be-
come afflicted with any populistic
anti-railroad mania. There is not
transportation authority among all
the rulers of the rail who will claim
more for the steam railroad as fac
tor in the development of the coun-
try, past, present, or future, than
l will concede. But the truth will
not be suppressed. The railroads
always have been hostile to the can
al, and they may be hostile to it in
the future. | believe their hostility
is based on a narrow conception, a
short-sghted view. But, reasonable
or unreasonable, it is the fact.
I'VE are spending 100000
digging at canal which ought to
reduce freight rates across our con-
tinent to d fraction of what they are
now. The commercial justification
OF that expenditure will never be
found, as | have heretofore tried to
show, in the impetus that will be
given our domestic commerce.
Water transportation is the cheap
est known to the world Wherever
there is free and fair competition,
the waterway takes the business from
the railroad. Year after year,
larger and larger proportion of Lon
dons coal comes down from the
north of England by the sea. Year
after year, the Importance CT the in
ternal water rOutes-riVerS and can
als-On the continent of Europe in
creases, as they carry steadily in
creasing proportion of the freight
traffic Why? Because it is more
economical to move traffic by water
than by land.
Yet for many years we have con-
sented that the railroads should
mOnOpOliZe the transcontinental traf-
tic which a canal would have car
ried at greater speed and vastly less
cost. We have developed our con-
tinent thus far without thought of
the possibilities of the greatest trans
continental trade route-that via
the Atlantic, the canal, and the Pa
cific-and without consideration of
the possibilities of our imperial sys-
tenn of rivers
THE canal is going to force at
tention to these things, if only the
country can be aroused to under
stand its immense pOtentialities. But
how many people who read this
know that it will be possible to ship
oranges of southern California from
Los Angeles to New York or Bos-
ton in few days by steamship through
the Panama canal, when complet-
ed, than by fast freight across the
country?
THE distance from New York to
Los Angeles via the Panama canal
is, in round numbers, 5000 miles.
A 600O-ton capacity steamer loaded
with oranges, or other fresh fruit.
steaming at rate of only IL knots
per hour. would cover this distance
in IS days. If we allow one day for
the steamer passing through the
canal, her total time from port to
port would be 10 days. If the yes
sci We're run specially for the fruit !
trade. this time could be reduced by |
several days. A ship of 6 knots !
speed, such as those now used in the !
West India fruit trade, would make /
the trip in just "A days, giving again !
the allowance of one day for passing |
through the canal.
THE time for rail freights across
the continent varies from 90 to 60 |
days. 1t will therefore be seen that |
the steamer could, in all cases, land !
her freight in a shorter time. This
means that many kinds of freight /
would be delivered in . better cOndi-
tion and for one-third the price now
charged by the railroads."