The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-04-04
THE FREIGHT RATE
PROBLEM
Continued from Page IL

canal of the Hanford company could
be readily utilized for a steamer ca
nal by the insertion of locks at COM
paratively small cost.
From Priest rapids to Wenatchee
the river can be navigated at any
ordinary stage of the water, but there
are two bad rapids-Rock Island
and Cabinet-which must be i'm
proved before easy navigation can
take place. From Wenatchee to
Bridgeport the river is regularly
navigated and furnishes the only
means of public transportation.
"Above Bridgeport, past the mouth
of the Spokane river to Kettle Falls,
there are a number of bad rapids,
though they have been passed by
steamers. Yet that stretch Of the
river cannot be considered CONNER
cially navigable without some i'm
provements. The government esti-
mates the cost of improvements as
comparatively small, perhaps not
over $4,000, though larger sums
would be needed to make that section
of the river navigable at all seasons
for large steamers.
Requires $8,OOO,OOO.
''Kettle falls would require locks.
These locks have not been figured on
by engineers, but it is believed that
the work would be comparatively in
expensive. Above Kettle Falls there
is a magnificent water course of
nearly 800 miles through the Arrow
lakes into British Columbia.
"Thus to make the Columbia river
navigable for 1000 miles, throwing
open to the seaboard all this vast
country, with it's infinite possibilities,
will require perhaps not to exceed
s7,OOO,OOO to sS,OO0,OOO. In order
properly and fully to improve the
80 feet in ten miles. This has been
passed by river steamers, but it cam
Snake river from it's mouth to Lewis
ton it would require an additional
million, though much less would
make it essentially navigable for
light-draft boats at ordinary stages.
In fact, it is now navigated and has
been for several years.
''The harbors and channels of the
great lakes have been deepened from
1870 to the present time from four
feet to twenty-one. AS a result the
cost of transporting bushel of
wheat from Chicago to New York has
been lowered from I'LL cents to
cents. The railroads have been
obliged to meet water rates, and as
a result grain traffic costs less than
one-fourth what it did 40 years ago.
This is only one of hundreds of ex-
amples that might be given.
Railroads Came to Time.
when the canal at the Cascades
was completed, connecting Portland
with The Dalles, the freight rate on
sugar fell from $3.50 ton to $3.50.
The railroad had to meet the boat
rate. A man at Palouse told me he
saved $40 on a carload of sugar from
Portland by using the boat to Lweis-
ton.
"The open river will be the great
railroad regulator, and it will beat
your appeals to the interstate COM
merce commission all hollow. 1t will
be the only sure way to settle the
terminal rate question. The open
river from the ocean to Pasco, We
natchee, Kettle Falls and Lewiston
would make terminal rate territory
commercially, anyway, and perhaps,
legally, of the whole Inland Empire.
Savior of Inland Empire.
"The open river will encourage
and demand a network of trolley
lines connecting all parts of this ter
ritory to the river Spokane will
have independent lines to points on
the Snake and Columbia rivers, thus
insuring steamboat connections and
terminal rate advantages with Its
millions of commercial savings.
"Tho onaD river and the trolley
will be the rate regulator and the
commercial savior of the Inland En-
pire. 1t is safe to say that every
farm and city lot will be worth
from 10 to 20 per cent more on &C
count of the open river"
The plan proposed would be one
of the greatest possible things that
c0uld hammer for Wenatchee