The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-08-31
Superb Rail and Water Facilities Are
Offered by kcokuk to the job
bling Merchant and the
Manufacturer.
WATER REGULATES RATE
Four Big Railway Systems and Two
Steamboat Lines Are Competing
for the Shipping Orig
mating Here.

eTn commerce tnat transportation
facilities and equitable or low freight
rates are among the most important
factors in city building In potency
they are superior to all other factors
save the advantage of geographical
location. keokuk has been wonder
fully favored by nature and the nat
ural trend of commerce. With super
ior facilities of both rail and water
transportation inducements for the
locating of industrial plants and
business enterprises that involve ex-
tensive shipping are presented. There
are few western cities of the popula-
ton of Keokuk that are so advan-
tageously situated in this regard. Four
large railway systems, whose lines
radiate to every point OF. the COM
pass from this city, are competitors
for the local freight offerings. These
are the Burlington road, the Wabash,
the Rock Island and the Toledo,
Peoria and Western railway, which lat
ter at its eastern terminus in Indiana
has connection with the Pennsylvania
system, extending to the Atlantic sea-
board, and sustains close traffic ar
rangements with it.
Several steamboat lines are COM
petitors with the railways, a com
petition that is effective fully eight
months in the year and has the effect
of modifying materially north and
south rates and of keeping them at
lower level than would be the fact I'M.
der other circumstances. However
the railways. recognizing the import
ance of keokuk as shipping point,
have adopted liberal policy in their
treatment of shippers. This con-
ciliatory and accommodating spirit
which frequently has its concrete
manifestations is appreciated. But it
Is the existence of water competition
in this section that exercises modi-
flying influence on freight tariffs. HUI
man intellect has not and never will
devise any method of transportation
in any way approaching, from the
standpoint of cost alone, that Of
fered by nature on her rivers, lakes
and seas, where least resistance to
locomotion is encountered and e1-
pensive land for right of way or steel
for roadbed is not required. Every
enc who has capital invested in any
business enterprise on the Mississippi
river is assured of independence of
rail transportation north and south
during the larger part of every year.
The railroads quite properly demand
for their faster and perhaps more
convenient service greater compen-
sation than is required for that by
water The principle remains, how
ever, that the railways can never
secure for their haul in competition
with boats a greater increased rate
than shippers and receivers of freight
are willing to pay for the superior ia
cilities or advantage that may be of
fered This in part accounts for the
very low freight charges that are ex-
acted for the shipping to the north OF
nearly all the important products OF
the south.
Revival of River Traffic.
The rehabilitation of steamboat in.
terests on the Mississippi river is now
looked forward to with much con,
fdence by the shipping interests OF
the Mississippi valley Keokuk will
share in the advantages that will come
from a revival Of a traffic that was
permitted to decline. In part it could
not be avoided because of radica,
changes in the arteries of commerce
OF the country Previously to the
war period the bulk of the shipping
followed north and south lines, that il
the waterways OF the land The con
structing of the continental lines o
railway extending from the Atlantic
TO the Pacific and the opening to set
tlement and the occupancy of vas
areas of fertile territory hitherto un
cultivated in the almost limitless reg
ion west of the Mississippi had tn,
effect of diverting shipping into en-
tirely new channels. For several de
cades the tendency has been in til,
direction of the Atlantic seaboard
Changing Arteries OF Commerce.
In the mutations and progress 0
this wonderful area, two factor
have arisen that will exercise a pc
tential effect in altering the transpor
tation routes of trade. These are tn
Panama canal and the policy Of in
proving and utilizing the waterway
of the nation that has been adoptet
by the federal government. 1t is al
ticipated that the not distant futur
will witness the sweeping of ric
argosies and heavily ladened cargoe
up and down the placid waters of tn
Mississippi and its tributaries. Char
mel Improvement of the rivers and tn
opening of the Panama canal mus
necessarily produce vast changes Il
the transportation routes of the west