The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1910-09-16
SAVING OF MILLIONS
WHAT COMPREHENSIVE SYSTEM
OF WATERWAYS IMPROVE
MENT MEANS TO FARMERS.
FIGURES TO SUPPORT FACTS
On Shipments Of Grain Alone the d.
rect Return Would Mean 100000
600, and Proportionately All Other
Products Would Be Affected.

Products Would Be Affected.
In a former article we gave facts ana
figures to prove that, If the compre-
hensive plan of waterway improve
ment advocated by the National Riv-
ers and Harbors congress were car
ried out, the direct return to the farm
ers of the country. on the single item
of grain, would certainly be 100000
900 a year-and probably would be
more than twice that sum.
But grain is not the only item ON
which the farmers would receive a
benefit. The TACT is that for the farm
ers-and everybody else, for that mat
ter-the cost of transportation inhu-
ences practically everything he buys.
sells, eats, wears or uses In any way
whatever, except water, air and sum
shine. The average man Is inclined to
laugh when told that he pays out more
for transportation than he does for
taxes or because of the tarin-but his
laughter does not alter the fact in the
least.
There are three principal methods
Of transportation, the wagonway, the
railway and the waterway, and there
Is so great a difference In the cost OF
transportation by these different meth
DDS that it is worth while to study the
matter a little. The experts OF the
good roads bureau estimate the cost
of hauling a ton Of freight n mile
by horse and wagon on the average
road in the United States at rs cents
The cost on a thoroughly good, smooth
road might be reduced to 10 cents
Poor's Manual gives 1882 mills per ton
mile as the average price received By
the railways in 1907, while the official
records kept at the 500 show that the
average rate on the freight carried
into and out Of Lake Superior in the
same year was only 8 of one mill +
Facts in a Nutshell
You can better understand what
these figures mean IL they are stated
in another way. They mean that II
you nave a dollar to spend in shipping
a ton of freight you can e II 4
miles on an average road, 10 miles on
a frst-class road, 127k miles on n rail-
, road, and 1880 miles on a lake vessel.
1t is very easy to see that good
roads are a lot better than poor roads
but that transportation by horse and
wagon is too costly at the best to be
used except for small loads and short.
. distances. So far as interstate rams
is concerned the wagon o a must be
| left entirely out of consideration IL
is Just as easy to see what a yreaf
benefit would result from the building
: OF a railway into a region where there
was none before, and that a stih
greater benefit would result from 81
improving a river that 1t Is made
O dependably n~avigable when 1t was moi
so before.
Waterways increase prosperity IN
three principal ways, viz: direct say
ing, indirect saving, and by what may
~ be called a creative effect. The direc'
saving is that which occurs on goods
actually carried by water, and Sons
facts which indicate how great this di
rect saving is, will also make mor'
- plain the vast difference between I'M
&c cost of transportation by rail and b,
Al water.
" InTOuSH lHt oOO dbd ~ thS oSe
er let Of Lake Superior there were CA
ried in 1907, SO, 217, 214 tons Of freight
~ This was carried an average distanc'
.. of $3.50 miles ct al average cost Q
8 of one mill per ton-mile. If thi
had peer shipped by rail at the ave'
age railway rate for that year us
mills), its transportation would hav
cost 1898, 633, 1854 more than was pal
E for it's carriage by water.
The total freight carried on a
lakes that year was, in round nun
bers, 100, 00O, 900 tons. This vast to,
&C. mage was, carried for $3.50. 000, 900 les
rs than 1t would have cost to send 1t b
us rail, and the improvements. which pr
OF luce a saving large enough to pay o
of the national debt in less than tn
is. years, cost only $S6, 900, 900.
Proof Of Good Results.
N. Wouldn't you call that q pretty Ia
dividend on the Investment? And don
:. you think 1t would pay to improve q
-. our waterways as fast and q far q
we can?
by But" says some one, what relsC
nd is there to suppose that improved RI
ne ers would give anything like as goo
,tt results as have been obtained on Il
N. lakes?" That is a proper question al
is entitled to an answer.
The only waterway in this count
which has been improved as a who
is composed of the o u lakes abo'
zee Niagara Falls, but there are many Il
no. proved rivers in Europe. From a ca,
full study of the results obtained I
these rivers the army engineers es
e mate that when the improvement
OK the Ohio river Is finished, freight c.
las be carried thereon for one-half m
no. per ton-mile. That means that t
he dollar which will carry a ton l2T
av miles by rail and 1880 miles by lal
will carry it 1000 miles by river.
Cost of transportation will vary
different rivers with depth, Wild
swiftness of current, ETC., but the
re- timated cost on a completely impror