Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-02-23
When New York Loses It's
Freight Differential Business
Will Gravitate to This
Port
BY JOHN MEIGS, C. f.
WHAT is the present maritime situation


commerce are urgently needed on the At
lantic seaboard. The present facilities in
most Of our ports are sufficient only TO
take care of existing business. In New
York they are entirely insufficient even for
this. For no logical reason Whatever her
commercial predominance has become so
overshadowing that, although only fifteen
per cent Of the total value of manufactures
In this country originates in New York.
or about $4,000 600, 900 out of S20,700,-
OOO,OOo--more than ntty-fve per cent Of
our total foreign trade passes through and
pays tribute to that port, II is universally
admitted that il Is naturally one of the
most uneconomical ports in the country to
handle freight through, and that II has been
able so long to maintain an unreasonable
supereminence is due, not to superior en-
dowments Of natural advantage, but simply
and solely to the astuteness of New York
business men, who have succeeded for gem
erations past i'm securing railroad favors
which have enabled them not only to over
come their patural deficiencies, but to enor-
mously overtOp all Of their naturally bet
ter-equipped rivals.
New York's Handicap
The island Of Manhattan was never In
tended by nature to be n place for the
receipt or shipment of freight from or to
inland points 1t is separated from the
rest of the United States-exoept New
producing section--by formidable barrier
in the shape Of the Hudson River Ninety
per cent of the enormous total Of It's eX
port freight reaches the port of New York
at the termini of the great trunk-line rail.
roads in Jersey City, Hoboken and other
New Jersey communities, when an cX
pensive transfer Of it has to be made
across the river by means of lighters or
car floats to the ship terminals located
mainly in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The
rail tariff for goods from interior points
Is the same either to New York or Jersey
City, the cost of the Hudson River transfer
operaton--from seventy-fve cents to 81 or
more per ton-.-being absorbed" into the
freight rate and pro-rated by the railroads
into the bills of all Of the railroad patrons
throughout the country served by them;
every user of such railroad freight service
being thus made to pay tribute and assist
in the ACKNOWLEDGMENT of New York.
That this unfair preferential cannot he
maintained indefinitely is a certainty; that
It is not going to last very much longer is
the belief Of many students of the problem.
When the time comes that New Yorks
artificial advantages Of this kind are swept
away--and come 1t will--every wel-located
and well-developed port on the Atlantic
coast within 200 miles of it is going to feel
the stimulus of this action; an immediate
flow of trade away from II to other ports
better suited for it will occur until proper
balance of trade distribution has been
reached: and then the ports that are ia
vOred by a good natural location by ade-
quate equipment and by intelligent admin
istratlon will no longer be dependent on
the bounties and favors of railroad cor
porations and they will reap a reward
commensurate with their deserts There
will be plenty Of glory for all-and plenty
of freight.
The day of the newer ports is coming
Our older port cities, il is notorious fact,
have been developed in a haphazard catch
as-catch-can, unscientifc and uneconomic
manner and business conducted at them
may be said to be done in spite of their
wharf facilities instead Of because of them.
These older ports were never really planned
at all; like Topsy, they Just grew" The
newly planned and constructed port ar
ranged to take intensive advantage of its
water frontage, with properly co-ordnated
snip and rail terminal facilities. will he
able to handle 100 tons of cargo in the
same space that the older ports can handle
ten tons, and by means Of improved me-
chancal freght-handling equipment will do
it, much faster and much cheaper.
How Sea Trade Benefits a CITY
The creation of great marine terminals
Is not necessarily municipal function as
1t is still a profitable employment for pri-
vate capital but it is becoming more and
more every year public activity rather
than private one; so that the question
can reasonably be asked, what good does
the community in general derive from such
expenditure? And the answer to this de-
pends on whether any considerable portion
of the freight handled by them originates
in or stays in the city itself If, as in the
case of Galveston the port is intended
as mere place of reshipment or transfer
point for export or import cargo, then the
only benefit derived by the community is
that from the operation of the terminals
the receipts. from dockagc, wharfage and
storage charges, stevedOres wages etc
which are no particular stimulus to civic
growth. IT. on the other hand, the port
is a city of large manufacturing interests
the direct benefit of reduced freight costs
to the importers and exporters and the tre-
mendous inducement that this situation Gre
ates to attract new business, are of vast i'm
portance In the increase of civic wealth
the importation of raw materials and their
manufacture into finished products are
great factors.
There has been a deal of foolish talk
about the Delaware becoming an American
Clyde. We can aspire higher than that
surely as. according TO statistics pub
lished a day or two ago, the Delaware
River now heads the shipbuilding districts
of the world in vessel tonnage now under
construction with a grand total Of ninety
ships-419000 gross tons. The time may
come when the Clyde will be referred to as
the Delaware OF Great Britain, but never
again will the Delaware be referred to as
the Clyde of America.
Most of the present generation will live
TO see every available foot of Delaware
River frontage. from above Philadelphia
to below New Castle, occupied by live and
growing industries, each one deriving bene-
fits from its location on this great artery
of marine commerce, If all of this long
frontage of fifty miles is devoted to private
and individual uses, however, what good is
the river going to be to the hundreds OF
thousands of establishments located back
of the front-line waterfront sites. and un.
able to obtain a direct outlet to the sea To
insure the maximum possible good from the
water highways. great public dock systems
must be created. 1t would be a great
public misfortune II the waterfront of any
great city the river which manifest
destiny intended to be heritage to the en-.
tire people became wholly devoted to mar.
row private uses.
THE FIRST BIRD NORTH
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