The Washington herald., 1918-12-16
PUBLIC BEHIND
! (F|vE-YEAR PLAN
|, FOR RAILROADS
Secretary McAdoo' $! Offices
Swamped with kilograms
of Approval.
RIVER MEN OPTIMISTIC
Think Government Control
May Bring Back Halcyon
Freight Days.
RIVER MEN OPTIMISTIC

N'S NNis 10 idilylnB 10 blTtClOT
General McAdoo's plan for a five-year
extension of government operation of
the rail lines. Scores of kilograms are
being received at his offices daily.
Union labor stands as a unit behind
the proposition, while chambers of
commerce, usually regarded as sympa-
thetic to the rights OF property" ap-
peal. are beginning to swing into line.
This is particularly true in cities on
inlani waterways susceptible Of navi-
cation.
Chicago. New Orleans. Memphis. st.
Louis, Kansas City, Cairo, Cincinnati
and Davenport. Iowa. have Joined
their voices to the demand for con-
tinued government control of trans
portation. They see in IL the only
hope of a developed river commerc..
relieving the congestion of the rail
lines by absorbing the slow freight and
, anording a cheap means of transporta-
ton.
Most OF these cities looka back with
envy on the early eighties. when ma
Jestic steamboats, raced their rivers
and tied at their landings with decks
piled high with freight and the song
OF the stevedore rose weirdly in the
air twenty-four hours out OF the twen-
ty-four along the docks.
Pooling of railroads and Joint de.
preston of rates to a point below
which the boats could not operate un-
TIL the boats were driven of the riv-
ers, then a sudden boost in rates by
the rail lines to a point which abb
sorbed all the losses of the rail-water
war were the tactics which wrecked
Inland water navigation and won for
the pupvately owned rail lines a mo
nopoly of the carrying business
The governments plans were all laid
for a tremendous inland waterway de-
velopment. to go hand in hand with
the railroads. relieving them of the
strain of a too great traffic demand.
auxiliary to them and not competitive.
but permitting ~ river cities to real
ize their ambitions of former days.
Big Plans Under Way.
r Already the government has de-
veloped the intercostal canals to a
point that Atlantic traffic is able
to take the inner route most. of the
way up the coast Great projects
for the Mississippi River and the
Black Warrior River in Alabama
are under way. with orders for tow
boats and tugs let. and full plans
worked out. Extensive surveys
Were being made of the Columbis
and tributary rivers in the North.
west. as the next point of develop.
-, 4,
utilization OF every navigable riveI
| in the country was to be developed
Next would have come the build.
ing of. canals, such as the ofttime
projected canal through Ohio from
Lake Erie to the Ohio River. max.
ing an all-water route from the
ore regions of the Upper Lakes tc
the steel mills of Ohio and Penn
sylvania Other canals would have
| followed.
If the transportation system OF
the country is permitted by failure
of Congress to act at this session
to go back to private hands, Mr.
McAdoo says the old railroad meth
DDS of competition with waterways
transportation will be revived. and
ii is probable the waterways eN-
pertinent VIII be unable to survive
the competition.
Result of Southern Trip.
The order for the equipment for the
Black Warrior River, announced yes
i terday. is the result of Mr.. McAdoo's
last trip to the South directly follow.
ing the announcement of his resigna.
tion as Secretary of the Treasury and
Director General of Railroads.
At that time he let it be known
that he would probably have some an.
nouncement of definite measures Of
transportation Improvement to make
upon his return.
The new equipment will consist Of
four steel. self-propelled barges witt
a coal-carrying capacity of 1.soo tons
each. to cost $3.50, 900 apiece: three stee
boats to cost 100000 each, and
twenty wooden barges to cost $500
each.
The Warrior and Black Warrior river.
tap the richest coal areas of, Alabama
The new equipment will add an annua
/, coal-carrying capacity to the trans
portation of the rivers of $4,000 tons
This coal is carried down the river
made possible by governmental i'm.
provement by a system OF locks an6
| dams that make transportation pos
| sible throughout the year, to Mobile
and also thence. without stopping, by
the land-protected Mississippi Sount
| and Lake Pontchartrain to New Or.
leans
Railroad opposition and competition
for long time was successful IN
hampering such a development as az
unaided commercial proposition.