The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-06-09

coming in OF the railroads, had traf.
| fic on our rivers, but the railroads
!, have absorbed that traffic and taken
tinue to do so until the action that
has been recommended by Professor
johnson in the summary of this report,
I is incorporated in the law by our gen
eral government.
There is no reason in the world why
our rivers should not be made to work
for us. The government has expended
large sums for the development of our
waterways. We have splendid chan
nels on most of our rivers. They have
deeper channels than your rivers in
Europe, but they are not being used
for the reason / have given, but we
hope for better days in the future.
We hope that the legislators in our
national congress and our state legis-
latures will give us relief from this
dominating railroad monopoly which
his driven the traffic from our rivers.
When we can see that we can use our
rivers we want such terminals as
Mr.. Harding has just spoken of.
On the river which I represent, the
upper Mississippi, the oscillation be-
tween high and low water is not
great, probably. we will say. twenty
feet. With such a light oscillation as
that it will be very easy TO construct
such terminals as Mr.. Harding sug-
gests and we hope that by building
such terminals it will popularize
river trafic. AS 1t is now we have
practically nothing in the way Of ports
or terminals which are worthy OF the
name on any OF our rivers.
There is not installed at present at
any river port in this country a single
piece of machinery for the handling
of heavy freight or the interchange of
trafic between railways and water
ways.
A member: Nor for miscellaneous
Mr.. wilkinson: No sir. Whenever
they do get the goods they have to
haul the freight up or down big in
clines, over rough places, from the
railroad freight stations to steamboat
landings, where they are discharged
on the water front to be shipped to
the destination it is intended they
should reach. For that reason it Is
not popular to ship by water and in
nine cases out of ten shippers are pat
ronizing the railway because OF its
convenience and are willing to pay
difference in the rate Of freight.
II we can have such terminal facil-
tiles as Mr. Harding speaks of in his
remarks and coordination and cooper
alton between railways and waterways
it will popularize our rivers and bring
the traffic back to them. and that will
come when the rivers are protected by
such legislation as we expect to se-
cure from the national congress and
our state legislatures in the future,
so we hope that in short time we
can make a better report of the use of
our rivers than we can do today.
There is vast amount of freight in
our country that can be moved econ
omically by water the same as in
your countries. We have heavy ton
mage such as iron, lumber, grain and
bulky materials of that kind that can
be carried by water but are now being
carried by rail-
Railways not only have absorbed the
river traffic, but they in many cases
control both the water fronts and the
boats. I have seen it stated that
ninety-five per cent of the water fronts
of our country are controlled by rail-
ways. AS matter of fact, on our
great lakes, the Mediterranean of the