Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1911-01-27
GOOD FOR COUNTRY
IMPROVEMENT OF WATERWAYo
WILL DEVELOP RESOURCES
OF EVERY SECTION.
FREIGHT CARRIED CHEAPLY
Make a Direct Saving In Cost OF Trans-
portatIon by the Water Routes, and
Indirectly Serve to Lower Railway
Carrying Rates.

p%ortation by the Water Routes, and
Indirectly Serve to Lower Railway
Carrying Rates.
The claim has been made in prevt-
Gus articles-and facts and hgures
given to support the claim-that wa
terways carry freight more cheap
than the railways do or can, and thaL
they compel the railways to carry
freight more cheaply than they other
wise would, making a saving OF nun
dreds of millions Of dollars a year, even
under present conditions, and lndlcat
ing a vast increase In that saving II all
waterways should be improved. And
then the surprising assertion was
made that the surest way to enlarge
the business and increase h profits
of the railroads of the United States
is to improve the waterways of the
United States. The best guide to tho
future is the experience OF the past
SO let us see what has actually hap
pened to railways when waterways
have been improved.
That the improvements in the chan
nels and harbors Of the lakes have
been of great benefit, both to the rail-
way which parallel their shores and
to those which run from lake cities to
the interior. is a fact SO plain that
It needs no argument to support IL
There are no more prosperous and
profitable roads in the country n
those that serve the region tributary
to the lakes. But no n questions
49, r,I,l~,, 80 oortin,1jD O tha imnr0vQ.
ment of the lakes, Or Of our ocean
harbors. The real question Is a< to
the improvement Of our rivers, and II
we wish to study the effect Of river
improvement, either on railway reve-
nues or national development, We
must go to Europe.
Results in Bohemia.
During the fifteen years that Inn
provements were under way on the
Elbe river. in Bohemia, the river traf-
ic, as a natural result of the better
channel, increased fvefold. But traf-
fc on the competing railways In
creased still more largely and b div
idends on the main line, from Teplttz
to Aussig, rose to 16 e per
annum.
Similar results followed the canalt-
zation OF the River Main, from May
ence, on the Rhine, to Frankfort,
which was finished in the latter part
Of 1886. The river traffic, which
amounted to only 10000 tor in that
year, began to grow and has kept on
growing, being 1.273,ooo tons in 1909.
There are two railroads between
Frankfort and Mayence, one on each
side of the river. What happened to
them? Did their business show q Sc
rious falling off? Or were they forced
into the hands of a receiver? IN the
contrary their traffic, which was 911.-
900 tons in 1886, also began to grow,
and by 1902 had reached 100000
tons, or more thai double What 1T was
when the railroads had a practical
monopoly of the business of Frank
fort.
The mere statement of the In
creased tonnage does not tell the
whole truth of the matter, for the
tonnage was not only more than
doubled in quantity, but greatly
raised in grade, SO that it could pay,
and did pay, a much higher rate per
ton per mile.
Fine German Waterways.
Practically all the railways Of Ger
many are state owned and state oper-
ated. Out Of a total Of $4,000 miles.
in round numbers, only about $500
miles are operated by private COM
panies. Germany also has n Of the
finest systems Of waterways in the
world, and a study Of the balance
sheet of the German railway system
shows that the results which followed
the Improvement of the River Main
are not an exception, a mere coinct-
dence, but are the natural outworktng
of a principle of general application.
In the calendar yea 1907, after paying
for operation, maintenance, repairs,
renewals, new equipment, interest on
bonds, contribution to the sinking
fund, and every other item which the
most careful bookkeeping required to
be charged up, the German railways
turned S164, 600, 900 Of absolutely net
revenues into the treasures of the
various states. This was 5000 per
mile of line operated, while the CORE
spending figure on United States rail-
ways for the fiscal year 1906-7 was
| only S. 1867 little over one-third az
much.
Much the greater part OF b total
revenue of the German states Is de-
| rived from their railways, II cents out
| of every dollar received by Prussia in
1907 being so obtained. Yet German
statesmen keep on, yea after year.
spending money earned by their rail-
ways in building and improving water
ways to compete with those same rail-
ways, on which they depend as the
principal source of national income.
In the light of the facts given above
it will not do. to say that these Ger
man statesmen do not know what they
are about. On the contrary, they are
acting, as has been well said, 'fn fur
therance of a policy the wisdom Of
which time and experience have fully
confirmed"
Always and everywhere the result
Is the same-the improvement Of a
waterway is q benefit to competing
railways. For this result, as for In
other. there Is a good and sufficient
reason, but it must be left for another
time to tell what that reason is.
Halvor Lee was at Sioux Falls last
Saturday OF business.
Mrs. Thomas Thorson went te
Sioux City Wednesday.