The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1914-05-16
4 WIDE TERRITORY.
SUMTER FACTORY MAKES SHIP
MENT TO TASMANIA.
This Far Away Shipment and the
Comparatively Low Freight Rate
Suggests Certain Reflections on
the Panama Canal Tolls Issue.

Witherspoon Bros & Co., have just
made a shipment Of twelve hundred
and ninety-one pounds (about seventy
cubic feet) of knock-down coffins to
Hobart, Tasmania, travelling by ship
from New York city. either west by
Cape Horn or east by Cape Town,
thirteen thousand miles either way.
This Is very interesting to the
company for the reason that it dem
onstrates the fact that it's territory is
only limited by the whole surface of
the earth, where the point is reached
by railroads or steamship lines, the
company in the past having shipped
no goods further than San Francisco,
where the freight was even higher.
1t will be Of interest to Sumter peo-
pie, throug this transaction, to know
the value of the Panama canal
Ships charge about three and
one-half cents q cubic foot for carry
ing a shipment one thousand miles
judging by the rate on this shipment
The canal would save about four
thousand miles. or fourteen cents on
cubic foot, whereas the passage OF
cubic foot through the canal would
be only three cents.
In carrying a shipment from the
east coast Of America to the west
coast of America there would be q
saving Of eight thousand miles, @,
twenty-eight cents per cubic foot
whereas the passage through the can.
al would be only three cents.
On basis of the price the com.
pany paid for this shipment tt
Tasmania, the same goods could Dc
carried from New York by passing
around Cape Horn to the western par
Of the United States for a little over
one-half what the railroads charge t
carry the same shipment by Lynch
burg, Va, across the United States t
Vancouver, B. c., which shows tina
the railroads now get the business
wholly for the reason Of much quick
er transportation.
What connection has this with tn
bill now before congress, exemptint
coastwise vessels from tolls througl
the Panama Canal? If the saving il
time by making the distance eigh
thousand miles shorter will get tn,
business, they can pay the tolls q grea
many times, and then be under tn,
charges Of the railroads. 1t is tn,
writer's opinion that the transcon
tinental railroads will be greatly bene
fitted by the canal, in the fact that i
Will give them lots more hauling Il
do from the west to the central par
of the United States and from the cas-
to the central part of the United
States though they might lose som,
business that is now hauled from tn,
east to the west, and vice versa.
From the foregoing. is it not evi
dent that congress is making a noun
tain out Of a mole hill in It's legisla
ton upon this issue? Not much
smaller item could come before boti
houses of congress. though in it there
is q principle, and President Wllso,
is right.
In it there Is the principle of pro
lection, and is a subsidy, pure ant
simple.
Bringing the matter down to q
proposition that any one can under.
stand. the toll of pair Of shoes
through tho canal would be one halt
cent whereas the railroads would
charge over thirteen cents for the
same pair Of shoes by the way OF
Lynchburg. Va. across the continent
to Vancouver, B. c.