New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-04-23

ping their grain abroad by way OF van
couver and the Panama Canal
At n meeting recently held at Ke-
gina, at which number Of gram as
sociations were represented many
phases of the transportation problem
were considered in the course oil
general discussion relative TO efforts
being made 10 stimulate agriculture IN
the Dominion. a number of large pro-
ducers and business men who at
tended .he meeting expressed the opin-
ion that the conditions under which
the grain Of Alberta has for so long
been kept moving through the old
channel to Atlantic ports. are artlhclal.
The suggestion was made that IL
would be the par of economy to route
cargoes for Europe via Vancouver and
the Panama Canal 1t costs FL cents
to get a 5urhe OF wheat from kJmon-
ton to .idewater or the Atlantic, which
means Montreal. II costs Fl cents to
get the same bushel of wheat 10 Pa
cifc tidewater at Vancouver. WORE
over, the high insurance rates re-
CURED Of all vessels operating IS fer
inland as Montreal, on the st. Law
renee Rive, is another important fac
tor that makes 1t expensive to snip
via the Atlantic. This is given rs one
of the principal reasons WIN 50 large
a portion of the Canadian export gram
reaches Ultimate consumers va New
York.
Writing n "The Vancouver British
Columbian News" Of the proposal to
divert the grain to the Pacific, &. G..
Porter says:
"How many Canadian business men
realize that more than one-half OF the
vast 1915 grair crop exported 70 Eu-
rope left the Canadian TRANSPORTATION
highway at Buffalo? Yet that is what
! the records in the Office of the mana
ger Of the Lakes Shippers Association
show. Canadian rails and Canadian
| lake vessels carried the torrage to
Buffalo. where mere than half o. IT
entered the Erie Canal bargas and
| American railway cars, and reached
/ New York, Boston or Philadelphia.
| Imagine the tolls the alien tr4ns3orta-
| ton companies exacted from this
| Canadian produce? 1t costs more to
| ship a 5ushel of wheat from buffalo
to New York than it does from Ed
! monitor to Port william"
/ Henry W, Wood. president of the
Union of Alberta Farmers, during the
course of the Regina meeting. frankly
remarked that he thought The time
had come when the grain traffic from
| the far Western provinces shonId be-
| gin to seek its natural Pacihc Coast
! outlet.
OF course. in other years as Mr..
| Wood pointed out in his conversation,
elevator facilities and superior trans
portation routes almost forced the
/ grain from Alberta toward the Allan
| tic, but conditions in this respect are
rapidly changing in favor of Vancou-
yer. Calculating the difference in in
surance rates alone on the 81: Law
| renee and ;he Pacific route would give
an advantlge 70 the Pacific side % the
continent which no other cocsidera-
ton could outweigh.
Now come the three railroads oper-
atng into British Columbia from those
wheat fells, Mr.. Wood indicated, and
the balance is too great for the ship
per to ignore or the makers Of arti-
fetal conditions master. In addition,
the growing proportions of the Peace
River grain industry force the issue
very sharply. Here is vast grain
producing section, some 400 miles
square, that is naturally tributary to
the Pacific. 1t is almost down-grade
haul for over half the distance-Rrav
ity being the cheapest motive power
yet revealed