The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-10-23
BARGESERV|CE. SHOWN ID BE. RATE CUT TER
Interstate Commerce Con- mission Attitude That Rail- roads Are Only Mode Of Transportation Attacked
 CONGRESSMAN TELLS OF s 8,9 g 3,7 50 SAW ING Shippers Said To Have Bene- fitted Big Sum In Compar- ativeIy Brief Period Despite Discouraging Conditions

ST. LOUIS, Mo, Oct. 22.-(By As sociated Press)-In the comparative ly brief time and under the most dis coura ging conditions that the gov ernment-owned barge line from St Louis to New Orleans has been op- ercted, the shippers and farmers of this section of the country have been saved sS,993,750. Congressman Cleve- land Newton told the special sena- torial committee holding hearings on the Mccormick bill here today.
 "This saving has been effected through the difference betwwen rail and water rates. even though the barge line has suffered losses through the difference between rail comparatively small stretch of the river between here and New Orleans" Congressman Newton told the com r ittee.
 'If sand bars that take up three miles of the thousand-mile stretch of the river southward could be elim- mated, I know that you would have hard time building barges fast enough to take care of the enormous amount of traffic that would rush to your docks" he added. When this is accomplished, as 1 suppose it will be, you will have no trouble in inter esting private capital in operating barge lines.
 
 Barges Indefinitely Delayed.
 "A river is no better than it's weak est point. Along the remainder of the water highway, barges can be lowed with perfect safety, but in time of low water these bars hang them up for from a week to a month and here is where the losses to the line occur. But in spite of this con dition. which afterwards makes ship pers hesitate to ship that way, the difference in the rates between the average railroad rate of the country rshd the actual water rate has saved the shippers and the farmers that what it would be with conditions perfect.
 "The channel should be permanent ly widened to a barge size. At present 1t will take care of packets all right. but in order to quote low rates the barge lines must handle large units, and this is quite frequently impos- sible owing to the stage of water at these points where sand bars exist.
 "The interstate commerce commits sion appears to believe that there is only one mode of transportation in this country and that is by rail.
 Tt was by cutting the rail rate that the railroads succeeded in Vir- tually drlV1nR trattlC OH the rlNer, but the 20 per cent differential in favor of water rates bids fair to put 1t back on the map"
 Congressman Newton furnished the committee, with the first testimony as to the conditions that exist on the Mississippi. He argued for a per manent channel rather than a tenn porary channel patroled by dredges.
 Earlier a number of traffic men from St. Louis had produced figures showing the amount of tonnage that clears through St. Louis and gave estimates of the amount of this that would go by water if the conditions were such that a regular schedule could be reasonably assured.
 Charles Rolpen. a traffic expert of St. Louis, informed the committee that the present barge line should be doubled in capacity at once if it was to take care of all the trade of fered It..
 The committee will leave here at midnight and arrive in Cairo, Ill.,, at D. m., tomorrow. They leave Cairo tomorrow night for Memphis, arriv- ing in the Tennessee city at 4 D. m., Wednesday. They leave for Muscle Shoals at :45 a. m., Thursday morn ing and go from the shoals to Vicks- burg by way of Birmingham. After the Vicksburg hearings they will go to New Orleans, arriving there at S:15 a. m., on Saturday, October 27.