El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-12-15

THE representatives of the steam
boat lines which carry passen-
gers on the waters of the United
States are now in session in Washing
ton They have a national association
for the mutual PRONUNCIATION of traffic
rules and regulations. The rise of the
railroad has brought with it the de-
cline of the steamboat as a passenger
carrier, but the steamboat men are
hopeful that the crusade of the rivers
and harbors congress will result in the
return Of the steamboat to popular ia
vor. When the canal from Chicago to
the Mississippi is completed and the riv-
er is deepened to st. Louis the boats
may find a profitable carrying bust
ness.
Increase in Numbers
Steam vessels on the rivers of the
United States are gradually growing
more numerous, but they are showing
decrease in total tonnage figures On
the Mississippi river the number of
steam vessels increased by nearly half
in the II years from 1889 to 1906. while
a. the same time their tonnage decreas-
ed by one fourth. Gasoline power boats
are included as steam vessels in this
enumeration, which largely explains
the surprise of these figures
When president Taft recommended in
his message that a law should be en-
acted to prohibit any transcontinentaI
railroad from owning or being in any
way interested in any vessel passing
through the Panama canal, he based
this Recommendation On the fact that
tho railroads usually have found it
good policy TO dominate competing
steamboat lines so that the natural
advantages of water transportation
could not be used as a club TO force
down railroad rates
Commerce of the Mississippi.
With the possible exception of the
delta-draining Nile, no other river in
the worlds history has borne upon its
waters the commerce that was floated
| on the Mississippi during the three de-
cades of the middle of the last century.
In 1850 there were few railroads west
of the Alleghenies, but the wheat fields
of Minnesota and the northwest were
commanding the attention Of the whole
country. At the same time the planta-
tons of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missis-
Sippi and Tennessee with their acres OF
cotton and sugar cane. their cattle,
hogs, potatoes and other products were
the richest in the south All this vast
and fruitful territory from st. Paul to
New Orleans poured it's wealth into the
Golfers Of the men who navigated the
steamboats, from ST Louis TO ST Paul
on the upper Mississippi and from st.
Louis to New Orleans on the lower
Mississippi, while the Missouri and the
Ohio, the great right and left arm
tributaries, brought coal from the AL
leghenifs and sent the pioneer on the
first stage of his journey toward the
golden west with its bonanza promises
of the newly discovered mines in Cali
fornia.
No period or place IN American his
tory has been fraught with more ro-
nance and advantage than life on the
Mississippi in the SOS and COS 1t was
an age of long chances and large prof
its. Steamboats, costing from $50, 900
to $4,000. with hulls of perishabIe
wooden planks. with their flimsy SUI
perstructures literally soaked in oil and
+; paints, their boilers made of iron and
| their officers ever eager to take a
chance" were in constant peril of de-
struction from those four great foes
of river traffic-Snags. fire explosion
and collision. The average life of a
river boat IL the sos was -four years
Many of them went to the bottom-or
up in the clouds-on their first trip.
But their short tenure of life was more
! than offset by the tremendous profits
which they yielded to their owners and
masters 1t was not an unusual accom-
plishment for a large, swift steamboat
and frequently this was exceeded. The
traffic handled was enormous and the
rates charged were proportionately