Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-07-16
Using Inland WATERWAYS

THE Mississippi Valley States forced issues
l before tho railroad administration upon
the question Of the use of the inland waters
of the United States as means of cheap and
boundless transportation during the period
of the war. Representatives of fifteen great
States touched by the Mississippi River and
its navigable tributaries appeared before Of
fcials OF the railroad administration and de-
manded that the government exercise the au-
thority given it by Congress to develop the
transportation possibilities of these streams.
That they were at least partially successful
in their mission is seen in the announcement
of Director-General McAdoo that a Federal
manager has been appointed for the Mis-
sissippi and Warrior Rivers. Thus the rail-
road administration commits itself to the
policy OF using the inland waterways in fair
competition with land transportation, and on
the result Of this experiment may depend the
development and operation Of these water
ways as an integral unit of the transportation
system under the Federal government.
The waterways advocates encountered at
the outset the prejudice Of powerful group
of railroad officials. a prejudice acquired
when the privately owned rail lines were in
direct competition with all inland waterway
carriers. These railroad men have
tended for twenty years that river transpor-
tation was an economic failure and an un-
certain facility for the movement Of either
passengers or freight They have argued in
this manner long that great many OF
them actually believe what they say about it.
But the time for prejudice. for private in
terests, for competitor and all that goes with
these conditions has passed. 1t is no longer
the business OF the railroad president TO fight
the river steamboat line, to bully and brow
beat the small competitor and drive him
from his route by denying him transfer and
terminal facilities. 1t is no longer the bust
ness Of private capital to organize steamboat
companies and struggle herocally to make
them pay. 1t is the business of the Federal
government to operate the railroads and any
other transportation facility which will assist
in moving the enormous traffic which war
conditions have created.
Barge lines should be placed upon the Mis-
sissippi and other great American streams
This is not matter Of experimentation The
barge traffic already has been tried out and
found to pay both in dividends and in the
dispatch Of freghts. The government
demonstrated this to its own satisfaction
when it took over the New York Barge Canal
as an auxiliary TO the transa ppalachian rail-
ways, and there is an immediate likelihood
that the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal built
~ Firginians more than 100 years ago will
c5 taken over coal carrier
Barge lines should be placed on the Mis-
sIsslppi River. They should be placed upon
the Missouri and the Ohio Rivers They
should be used to move great volume OF the
Dulk lrelshts such as coal and grain, sand
and gravel from the interior to the Gulf If
this is not done the United States government
VIII convict itself of short-sightedness and
invite the reproach OF all clear thinking men
the country over.