The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1916-11-23
| utting a River to Work.
By FREDERIC J. HASKlN

river town, large or small. The Missi
sslppi Terminal League has been form
ed to see about. terminals. The plan is
to have the terminal a municipal struc-
ture, each city and town building and
maintaing its own. The Terminal
League is an organization whose units
are the various chambers of commerce
and business mems leagues in the river
cities. The Leagues engineers have al
ready drawn up elaborate plans for
different types of terminals suitable
for every size of town from great
cities like st. Louis and New Orleans
to little river landings where a hundred
people live.
The question of freight handling Is
coming IN for a great deal of study,
for it is only by cheap and expeditions
/ handling of freight that the river can
compete with the railroads. Water
shipments are cheaper than rail
shipments. unless the expenses of
transferring the freight from cars to
boats is big enough to eat up the diff
ference. The old-time method of load
ing and unloading river cargo boats
with gang of singing negro roust-
abouts and a swearing first mate was
undenlably picturesque and equally In
effective. Machinery is playing a big
ger part, and the essential feature of
the new terminal plans is the complete
replacing of human labor by machines.
Steam cranes and elevator systems will
do all the work in every city of any
size if the plans of the League are car
ried out.
Nowadays the river traffic is be-
ginning to show few signs of coming
back on its own account, even without
municipal stimulation. The old boat
lines here. some of them with historic
names running back over half a century,
report increased business, and one big
new line has just been started, a
feature of which is the steel barge idea.
Much is hoped for from these steel
barges. They may prove the prize
cargo carriers of the future river
trade. lowed by some vessel with
steam power plant, they bear ire
mendous loads. Those now in opera
ton carry 5000 tons-a load equivalent
to that of three heavy freight trains.
The new company intends eventually
to operate such barges on a bi-weekly
schedule between st. Louis and New
Orleans, when they will evidently play
an appreciate part in national freight
traffic.
The steel barge has helped to over
come one of the main difficulties of
river freight business under the old
conditions by making the insurance
hazard smaller. The steel hull has little
or nothing to fear from snags or bars.
In the matter of insurance, things have
been improved generally in the river
business, and good deal of growth is
traceable to this one cause. Under the
old regime, the shipper had to insure
his own goods while they were on the
water, while on land his worries end as
soon as the RAILROAD company puts
seal on the freight car. Because the
shipper did his own insuring, the boat
companies were unable to quote a net
freight rate including insurance. Now
the boat lines insure freight just as the
railroad companies do, and they have
educated the insurance companies into
thinking better of river risk than
they once did.
There is little doubt that river traf-
fic will increase in Importance in the
next few years, both absolutely and
relative to the total business of the
nation. The rivers are hardly doing
their share of transport labor, An in
crease is probably due to arrive on its
own account; but if the river cities
succeed in pulling together and put
ting through their elaborate and COM
prehensive schemes for municipal docks
and terminals at all the river points the
movement will be immensely stimulat-
ed. The Panama Canal is also sure to
have considerable influence, opening as
it does new route to western South
America and the Orient. The routing
of shipment from Chicago to Chile,
for instance, is obviously changed by
the Canal. Such a change and all the
others like 1t will 60 toward putting the
idle divers of the central states to
work.