The Dickinson press., 1910-10-01
CANALS FOR BENEFIT
LESSON FROM EUROPE SHOVE
How WATERWAY IMPROVE
MENT HELPS RAILROADS.
HAS A CREATIVE EFFECT

Construction Of the Manchester Ship
Canal Shown 70 Have R~esusoltatsd
Many Dying Towns-Many Give
Similar Experiences.
In previous articles 1t was shown
that the waterways carry goods more
cheaply than railways do or can and
compel the railways to carry for less
than they otherwise would. and then
the claim was made that the improve
ment Of waterways Is a benefit to the
railways with which they compete.
Several instances were given to sup
port this claim and many more might
be given If space allowed, for the
writer. who has studied the subject for
Is years, has found many instances
OF benefit, and not a single instance
OF harm, to railways from the i'm
provement Of waterways. 1t is now in
order to see II we can find a reason
for this rather surprising result.
Waterways, as has been said before,
produce benefits in three principal
ways-by direct saving in the cost Of
transportation Of goods carried by
water. indirect saving, by the lower
ing Of railway rates through the com
petition of water routes, and by what
may be called q creative effect. It
Is this last named effect which We
are now to consider.
Manchester. England. before the con.
%struction Of the ship canal, was a
dying town. Hundreds Of stores and
thousands Of dwellings were empty,
factories were closed-some moved
away-and population was decreasing.
With the opening Of the canal all this
was changed. Factoriess reopened.
new ones were built. the empty houses
were reflled and thousands of new
ones built to accommodate the popula-
ton that came pouring in. And the
benefits were not confined to Manches-
ter alone, but were distributed over
the whole great Industrial region, con.
tanning over 100000 people, of which
Manchester is the center. It was not
only natural, but inevitable, that the
great increase in population and pros
perity in Manchester and the surround.
ing region should be reflected in the
business and the profits of the rail.
ways therein.
Liverpool Also Aided.
Liverpool fought desperately to pre-.
vent the building of the canal and the
establishment Of the e port of Man
chester; but instead of being injured
by the canal, the business of Liverpool
has increased faster than before. Dur
ing the Is years before the canal was
opened the increase in the harbor re.
ceipts at Liverpool vas only $4,000;
in the same length of time after it
was opened the increase was 1885,.
600. The 5000. 900 tons of traffic at
Manchester have not been stolen from
Liverpool, they have been created by
the canal.
Frankfort, Germany, before the
River Main was improved, was not .
dying city but was decidedly stagnant.
Mannheim and Mayence on the Rhine,
which had been improved, were grow.
ing rapidly, while Frankfort vas grow.
ing very little. As soon Al the canal.
ization Of the river was finished. which
was in 1886. tho city began to grow
and has kept. on growing ever since.
The population, which was $4,000 in
1885. has increased to 229, 900 in 1895,
to $4,000 in 1905, and Is probably
more than 400, 900 now. Evidently the
people Of Frankfort expect their city
to keep on growing, too. They spent
yer $1,500,000 on a harbor when the
river was first improved and are
hard at work right now building q
new and much larger harbor at a cost
Of ST., 600 200. Just as in the case Of
Manchester, the benefit was not con
fined to the city Of Frankfort; the in
dustrial and commercial life of the
whole region IA greatly stimulated.
Mines long closed were reopened, lev
industries were started, and today
there is an almost continuous success
sion Of factories lining the banks of
the river from Frankfort to the
Rhine,
Everybody Reaps Benefit.
Hunt the world around and always
and everywhere we find that the i'm.
provement Of waterways sets cities to
growing, factory wheels to humming,
and commerce to moving in q wider
and swifter stream. Railroads get
more business in big cities than In
small towns. in a densely populated
manufacturing region than In one that
10 thinly settled. Waterways, there
fore. benefit railways-and states and
nations as well-by promoting an in
crease in population, in manufactures
and In commerce. But for n who
likes to get clear down to the bot
tom of things there still remains the
question: why do waterways in.
orease population and create COM
merce and Industry"
Consul General Mason, now in Paris.
but for some years at Frankfort, says,
German craftsmanship was among
the first to foresse that the time