Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1910-09-29
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 ProportionateIy All Other
Products Would Be Affected.

UOo, ana ProPoFTion6teiy All OthST
Products Would Be Affected.
In a former article we gave facts and
! 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
600 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 fact is that for the farm
ers-and everybody else, for that mat
ter-the cost of transportation inf1u-
eRces practically everything he buys,
sells, eats, wears or uses in any way
whatever, except water, air and sun
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 tariff-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 little. The experts of the
good roads bureau estimate the cost
of hauling a ton of freight one mile
hU hnrcn onI h1
road in the United States at % cents
The cost on a thoroughly good, smooth
road might be reduced to 10 cents.
Poor's Manual gives 1872 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 Nutshell.
You can better understand what
these figures mean if they are stated
in another way. They mean that if
you have a dollar to spend in shipping
ton of freight you can send it 4
miles on an average road 10 miles on
a f1rst-class road, 12715 miles on a rail
road, and 1850 miles on a lake vessel.
It is very easy to see that good
roads are 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 traffic
IS concerned the wagon road must be
left entirely out of consideration It
is just as easy to see what a great
benefit would result from the building
of a railway into a region where there
was none before, and that a still
greater benefit would result from so
Improving a river that it is made
dependably naYigable when it was not
so before.
Waterways increase prosperity in
three principal ways, viz: direct saw
ing, indirect saving, and by what may
be called a creative effect The direct
saving is that which occurs on goods |
actually carried by water, and some
facts which indicate how great this di-
rect saving is, will also make more
plain the vast difference between the |
cost of transportation by rail and by
water.
Through the 500 canal at the out
let Of Lake Superior there were car
ried in 1907, 58,217, 214 tons of freight. |
This was carried an average distance
Of 1888 miles at an average cost of |
8 Of one mill per tOn-mile. If this
had been shipped by rail at the aver
rot hot y .
mills), its transportation would have
cost $685., 633, 1854 more than was paid |
for its carriage by water
The total freight Carried on all |
lakes that year was, in round num-
bers, 100,000,000 tons. This vast ton |
mage was carried fer $550,0OO,000 less
than it would have cost to send it by |
rail, and the improvements, which pro-
duce saving large enough to pay off |
the national debt in less than Two |
years, cost only $85,00O,000.
Proof of Good Results.
Wouldn't you call that a pretty fair
dividend on the investment? And don't |
you think it would pay to improve all
our waterways as fast and as far as
we can?
But" says some one, what reason
is there to suppose that improved riv- |
ers would give anything like as good /
results as have been obtained on the +
lakes?" That is a proper question and /
is entitled to an answer.
The only waterway In this country /
which has been improved as a whole !
is composed of the four lakes above
Niagara Falls, but there are many i'm
proved rivers in Europe. From a care
full study of the results obtained on
these rivers the army engineers esti-
mate that when the improvement of
the Ohio river is finished, freight can
be carried thereon for one-haf mill /
per ton-mile. That means that the
dollar which will carry a ton 12715
miles by rail and ESQ miles by lake,
viii carry it 1000 miles by river.
Cost Of transportation will vary on
different rivers with depth, width,
swiftness of current, etc., but the es-
timated cost on completely improved
Ohio river can be increased by GO per
cent. before it will equal the average
cost on the lakes in 1907, and there
is still a margin of nearly 400 per
cent. before you reach a rate one-half
as high as that by rail 1t will pay to
improve our rivers.