The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-11-05

akIn the improved lands. it is eaual
to a tag of S5.25 upon every acre, and.
comparing IT with our population, IL
Is equal to $40 per year for every man.
woman and child in the Union.
Thirty dollars a year is $3.50 a
month. Suppose you should receive a
bill every month OF $3.50 from tho
railroads, or of s12.5O per month for
your family of Ave. wouldn't 1t iar
you? Well. that 1t what you pay.
During the year It costs on the
average every family $3.50. Now the
average cost OF living the United
States over Is not more than $3.50 per
family. so that one-third OF our living
cost goes to the railroads.
Water FrciShts sn. the railroads.
These are figures given ME by DR..
He tells me. moreover, that
the cost OF water transportation is, on
the average, only about o%ne-fourth
that OF rail transportation, and that
the greater part Of the heavy fr,ight
might be taken by water. leaving to
the railroads the lighter freight, for
which higher prices are paid. and
which Is by far the more profitable. AS
1t Is now, the railroads have more than
they can carry, and 1t is believed that
his system of canals would so in
crease the traffic that the railroads
YOU'D st,li nave all and more than
they could do. Their business would
pay better and the dividends would be
correspondingly increased. 1t is the
idea that the railways and waterways
might cooperate here as they do in
Europe. and that togeth they would
work not only to the advantage of the
companies owning them. but to that
OF the consumer. Roth NSnpId he ,,nHn.
an interstate commission, as their
business is between the States.
There arc some railway men who
look upon such a combination as ono
of the necessities OF the future. Among
those who have the broadest views is
James j. Hill. He says that railroad
transportation ann be performed at
much less than one.half cent Il ton pes
mile. The rates on iron ore on the
Great Lakes are about / mill per ton
per mile. while the same ore carried
by railroads costs ten times as much.
Uncle Sans River md Hnrbor Projects.
AS 1t Is now. the government Is
spending tons of millions of dollars a
year on rivers and harbors. and q
great part of this is political graft.
The money goes to the Improvement
of creeks and other waterways which
have no commercial Importance, and
1T is really an appropriation bill for
the benefit of the representatives in
their individual districts. The amount
appropriated last year was n little
moro than $4,000. 900.
Among the important works under
way are the improvement of the Ohio
and Mississippi, the deepening of the
channels In the Delaware River at
Philadelphia, In the Hudson River at
Troy. and at Mobile and at Oakland,
Cal. A considerable work has been
done at Baltimore md New York, as
we'll az at Galveston. where the en-
trance channel has been dcepened to
thirty-four feet.
The government is making surveys
for a deepwater channel from Lock
port, ILL.,, at the end OF the Chicago
Drainage Canal to the Mtssisaippi
River at Cairo, and the State OF New
York has about half completed the
: making of a new barge canal twelve
feet deep from Lake eric at Buffalo to
the Hudson River. Tho route Is from
Buffalo to Rome along the line of the
old Erie Canal. and from Rome to
the hudson 1t is Il ca~nalization of the
Mohawk River. The State is author
lied to spend S101, 900. 900 on the pro-
ject, and 1t is probable that the Who'll
amount will be needed.
Copyright. 1911, by Frank G. Car
penter.)