The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1910-11-16

| at the points of transfer will determine
| very largely the transportation cost. and
therefore the real value of the entire sys-
Now, have talked this sort of thing
| to people and to gatherings when it was
perfectly clear that they did not care u
| snap for it, and the reason was that the
| only thing that they wanted was to bring
| about a federal expenditure of money in
| their locality, regardless of transportation
results. That sort Of thing / trust has
gone by. A serious assemblage like this
| so puerile an object, and I shall take the
| liberty of presenting to you before ] get
| through, a suggestion which has met with
favor elsewhere for emphatically dfscour-
aging that kind of business.
| You are serious in this matter, You
are advoeat eating a waterway sGSa which; ,,, IT
| part of the transportation system of the
country, and that Is your resaon for adj
! freight. Let me show you. therefore, in
| a summary statement, some Of the mis-
| takes that we have already made, some
of the reasons why our waterways do net
carry the freight they should; in short,
| how not to do it in the matter of termi-
nails as shown by cold facts.
| If you will think moment you will see
| that there four things that good
water terminal must have: First, ade-
| to hold the freight pending trans ship
| ment and distribution; third. machinery to
| trans ship it between the wharf and the
vessel; and. fourth, If you are going to
| have any inland freight or any effective
| linking up of the waterway with the land,
a belt line railway connecting between the
| general water traffic the adjacent rail
| ways, and the local industries. And let
| me add that these factors not only must
| control as to best serve the needs of
general water traffic. Keep these requi-
~ sUPPLv OF wHARvEs
| Now, what are the existing water ter.
| minal conditions i'll the United States:
There is fairly adequate supply OF
almost everywhere There is almost no
modern effective trans shipping machin-
sSe er fS bulk ke1smng se
| list now at only seven ports, with a totai
main track of 20 miles, serving directly
only about 50 wharves in the entire eoun-
| try. That sums up the physical condition
of our terminals: 1t is certainly not 9
satisfactory condition for a country with
| our great waterway possibilities.
| You will recolect that / mentioned a
| moment ago the question of the control
of terminals. Let us see what is the sit
uation here. Control by private interests
mates III this country. Public control Of
the water front exists in considerable
cisco, Baltimore and New York. and is
greatly modified at the last two cities by
exclusive private leases for long terms
! Now. I am going to give some figures
which 1 would like you to note. They
are very. condensed. but they give the
ports Of the United States, only two.
New. Orleans and San Francisco. have
water front; have a small degree of
control; and 40 out Of the so have none
at all. Out of 81 ports for which l have
Francisco. there are only IA that have
any publicly owned wharves-about $50
such wharves in all. Excluding again the
have wharves open to general traffic-49
such wharves in all. Out Of 46 ports, eX-
Guiding again the same two cities, ma :.
| privately owned in 40. Finally, out of the
| 80 foremost ports first referred to. there
are u in which railroad ownership and
| occupancy cover over so per cent of the
| active frontage, and ~ more between 70
and so per cent Reflect what these facts
waterways. 1t is our excellent theory
| that our waterways are public highways,
but as a matter Of cold fact the terminals
on which they, absolutely depend for
traffic are mainly under private control.
There are only two ports in the coun-
try-New Orleans and San Francisco
| which can be compared with innumerable
foreign harbors in their publ control and
equipment. New Orleans is worthy OF
your study The active water vat trent r; a, at
equipped and controlled by state board
| That board owns most of the wharves
are are open open, for general traffic Finally,
| belt line railroad 10 miles long is operated
by a municipal board, and gives con-
I
! tries, and trunk line railroads.
| MUST HAVE TERMINALS.
Now, / am going to go step further
| in this terminal question You not only
| must have terminals by which freight
| can be gotten on to and off from your
| channel but, if your waterway Is to be
! a commercial success, 1t must be linked
| up effectively, at those terminals with
! the raiicarrying system of the country:
| There are very few coastWise or inland
waterways where transportation lines can
! exist on what is known as port. to-port
! traffic from or to the Interior Of the coun-
try, and this requires effective rail water
| connection.
AS matters stand now, the general
| water traffic OF the country is almost iso-
| lated from the main currents of rail
| traffic. BY general water traffic l mean
lines controlled by or. closely affiliated
| with the railroads. If you will travel
| along our coast and inland rivers, you
| will be astonished to note, throughout the
| steal proximity of rail and water lines.
with no commercial intercourse except at
the through terminals of the railroads
| themselves.
! / come now to my final point upon.
which want to lay the greatest enpha-
| sis. This is the extreme lack of co-opera
! ton on the waterway Question between
The government has made enormous OK
penditures on channels, but these eXpen
| ditures in many cases arc largely neutral
! lied by the adverse action non action
| Of tho local authorities the terminal
| question. There has been little
! operation by localities in channel work.
| but the same amount Of effort and money
| applied by the localities to terminals
/ Continued on Third Page)