The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-06-22

your committee Of engineers has
held several conferences with a view
of formulating a preliminary report
outlining the principles OF location,
construction, equipment, cost and
economies of river terminals, in such
form as will enable the city engineer
or equivalent official of towns along
the river to apply these principles to
the terminal requirements OF their
respective localities.
ITO distribute the burden of the
work Of formulating the report the
same was by mutual agreement as
signed as follows:
"FlRST-To the chairman. the in
troductory chapter and the general
review OF the purposes to be sub
served by river terminals.
"Second-To Mr. S. w. Bowen the
description and discussion of freight
handling equipment.
"THiRD-To Mr.. Won Pagenhardt
the matter Of standard plans for river
terminals for cities of the Mississippi
valley.
"FoURTH-To Mr.. Bernhard the
discussion of the terminal problem as
especially affecting the proposed
barge system of the Inland Naviga-
ton System.
"FIFTH-To Mr.. Streckfus the dis
viewed from the interest of the pres
ent system of packet boats operating
on the rivers.
these several reports appear as
separate chapters; but it must be I'M
derstood that the subject matter has
been presented, discussed and deter
mined in open meeting of the COM
mittee and represents the conclusions
and recommendations of the entire
committee Except John Bernhard,
whose apologies for his inability to
present his chapter until later date
and his regret for absence from the
several committee meetings is ex-
pressed in the following letter.:
est. Louis, Mo, March 20, 1916.
az find that the demand upon my
time between now and May will be
such that I will not be able to give
the proper amount of attention to
the work allotted to me by your board.
81 kindly request your cooperation
by reconsignment Of this work to
others, and shall be pleased to be
more active in your committee after
May L."
"Mr. Bernhardt's request that his
portion of the work be reassigned to
others has not been granted, for the
very self-evident fact that no one
but himself can better present the
requirements of his system of barge
construction and operation which is
yet to be fully tested in commercial
service on our western rivers. Mr..
Bernhard's chapter will be a welcome
and doubtless valuable addition to the
next edition of this committees re-
port.
"Packet Line TerminaIs.-A per-
usal Of the proceedings Of the first
annual conference of the Mississippi
Valley Terminal League held at st.
Louis, February IS, 1915, and of those
of the recent second annual confer
ence held in the same city, February
16, 1916, impresses the reader
with the fact that the main factor in
the revival Of river traffic is the mod
ern terminal for the handling and
transfer of freight from boat or barge
to car or wagon economically, safely
and expeditiously. With the present !
type Of packet boats, where freight
tonnage is small and passenger earn
ings large, the present wharfboat and
landing stage system has answered. |
But when we consider the main
tenance charge on wharf boats, the
limited storage capacity, the expos
ure Of freight to theft and damage, |
the high insurance rate and the e1- ]