The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1921-04-08
tba Missouri to Kansas City.

moved along on schedule. Then, liter
ally and fguratively, it began to
strike snags. The war came along
and other more pressing matters oc-
cupied the attention of the nations
Legislators and the river program was
allowed to lapse. About 40 per cent
of the original program of river i'm
provement has been completed. 1t
is interesting to note right at this
point that neither France nor Ger
many allowed their waterway work to
stop throughout the war.
an an effort to bring about the COM
pletion of this extensive river pro-
gram which means so much to the Mis-
sissippi Valley, Congressman New
ton in 1920 drafted bill calling on
Congress to make good their bond.
In other words, he asked them to fin
ish what they had started out % do.
"The war did more for water trans
portation in America than SO years Of
normal growth. Business men recall
the rail congestion of 1917 that tied
up the nations freight traffic and in
many cases interfered with the rapid
movement of war materials overseas.
Government traffic experts saw one
way to reduce rail congestion, and that
was to ship war materials out by way
of the Mississippi River and New Or
leans. So General Black came out
post haste and looked over the situa-
ton and recommended that the river
be utilized.
"They began by communicating all
the out-of-date antedeluvian boats and
barges they could find Operation of
the line was not then question of
profit, but of achievement, The cry
was, Get the stuff out, and they got
it out.
"In 1913 when the war was at its
height, Congress recognized the me-
cessity of expediting shipments, and
without any hesitation whatsoever ap-
propriated $1,000, 900 for new and bad
ly needed boats and barges. This
equipment includes 40 modern steel
barges of 1000 tons capacity, and six
new tow boats of 1000 horse power
each. The barges have been complet-
ed and delivered at various points up
and down the Mississippi River,
where they are now tied up waiting
for the towboats. One of the lows,
the Natchez, has been delivered and is
already in service. On her maiden
trip she exceeded in performance the
fondegt hopes of river men. Two Of
the remaining five towboats are near
ing completion on their ways at
Charleston and Point Pleasant, West
Virginia, and are promised for deliv-
cry within the next 80 days.
"These six tcwboats are modern in
every sense of the word. Each Of
them will be capable of taking down
stream eight of the 2000-ton barges
loaded to their full capacity. This
means that each tow will carry from
St. Louis to New Orleans the equiva
lent Of 400 freight cars, each car load
ed with forty tons of miscellaneou!
freight, or eight solid train loads o.
fifty care each.
GAS soon as these boats are put in
to service, river freight movement
will begin in earnest. Regular sail
ings will be established and freigh
shipments between st. Louis and New
Orleans will move on a regular SEIZED
ule.
"The Government is very much in
terested in the development Of tn
rivers, and Uncle Sam is going int
the water transportation problem q
y an experiment. Federal officials wis
to be assured of two things: FRS
| IhdI sulllSiSHt COihihES Sai NC oSSuiO
to justify the operation of the barg
line, and second, to find out if the bus
mess can be carried on at prof
New docks and loading devices hav
been installed at terminal points an
the rapid automatic handling {
freight seems to mike assured til
fact that both points may be proven
1--WE have gone far enough with Il
= old equipment to demonstrate that q
u adequate amount of tonnage can |
' secured. With the new equipment "
Il will demonstrate that freight carryir
y by water can be carried on at prof
j. with the new equipment, we wi
! be able to deliver freight to New o
&c leans more quickly than the averai
freight train. Even with the o
Il equipment and the delays due to Il
NC machinery and the sandbars we ha,
u (been making about 120 miles di
III which compares very favorably Wi
70 the daily average mileage of b.
E cars between these cities.
IL "The river has many advantage
m over the railroads. There are no 4
III I..s- A. n 4