Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-07-29
NATURAL HIGHWAYS
MUST Be UTILIZED
(By Associated Press)

10y AS8oClate0 Fre8S)
WASHINGTON, D. c., July 28.-
Especially Under our complex civil
lization every man, woman and child
depends for at least part of the neces.
saries of life on the transportation OF
commodities. This burden it is fair
to recognize as tax. 1t is recalled
that in 1905 our annual payments to
railways Tin which about 70 per cent
was for freight) first rose above the
two billion 'ollars; that in 1907 1t
exceeded $3.50 100000 and in 190SS
it declined to little below $4,000, 900,
900 the current average being reck-
oned at two and one half billion of
dollars.
This vast amount of money spent
for the transportation of the things
that We eat wear and use; the coal
that we burn, the brick, the iron.ore
and the thousand things which
enter into the life of the people. if
reckoned as head tax would be equiva-
lent to over $27 per capita for our
100000 inhabitants; as family
tax vt is $135 annually for each aver
age family. Reckoned as land tax
it is over SIS en- acre for every acre
of our vast national domain, or an an
nual figure corresponding with the
price for which most of the public
lands are sold and if figured as tax
on the improved land which yields our
Astounding farm products it averages
$500 yearly for each of our Ale, 100000
acres. The question therefore asserts
itself with brutal force how long can
production continue under so weighty
a burden? No wonder the quantity of
the farm production of the neces-
saries of life has fallen off since the
year of congestion, 1906, though the
value of the products continues to
increase under the inverse relation
brought out by the Secretary of Agri-
culture in his last report; and no
wonder that the retail prices of food
have scared since the farmers learned
in 1906 to limit their production to
what the railroads can carry.
There are in the United States 295
navigable rivers of a total length of
26,4OO miles. If these rivers could be
made to do a quarter of the hauling
of the freight and thereby move the
freight at a quarter of the current
cost there would be an apparena saw
ing of half a billion of dollars annu-
ally in traffic charges, reducing the
current transportation burden to $40
per capita or 500 per family, or $1.00
an acre on. land, all of which saving
might be measured in reduced cost OF
living.
Commissioner of Corporations Her
bert Knox Smith in speaking of the
crying needs IOr a comprehensive pol
icy by the general government toward
the waterways of the United States,
which has been the slogan of the
National Rivers and Harbors Congress
since its organization fifteen years
ago. said our waterways must be
made an INTEGRAL part of our arrying
system. "The tremendous p.edomi-
nance of through traffic in the United
States between widely separated Sec
tions makes unification with the whole
transportation system almost essential
for the life of any part of that system.
We find, however. that the general
water traffic is almost isolated from
the main currents of the, traffic of
the ountry. BY general water traffic
I mean the traffic that is not carried
upon the water lines controlled or
closely affiliated with the railroads.
There is surprising lack of coordina-
ton between the rail lines and general
water lines and until We have close
physical rail and water lines with
close commercial connections at the
= A. ~
enormous charge for transportation
cannot be appreciably reduced.
my personal opinion is that the
construction of the waterway channels
by the government should be abso-
lutely conditioned upon the present or
future assured existence thereon of