Seward daily gateway., 1924-02-19
CHEAP RIVER CARGoEs RESULT IN GROWTH OF
 INLAND SHIPBUILDING

PITTSBURGH, Feb 19-Oil has united with steel for greater use of the inland waters as means of transportation, and to this can be traced the interesting fact that ship building in the Mississippi basin last year was more than one-third the to- tai tonnage of the United tSates, including ocean ports and the Great Lakes.
 | The figures. complied by industrial authorities in Pittsburgh, show that approximately 400 steel barges with freight capacity of approximately 1000 freight cars; Is steam tow boats. and ten packets were added to the existing fleet of several thous- and barges and several hundred boats. Much of this river craft is used in carrying coal to mills and sfurnaces in the district but a con- | siderable proportion is allotted to the steel carrying trade from Pittsburgh to rail distributing points along the lower Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
 Two years ago, during a period of railroad congestion, steel manufac- turing companies sought the Ohio River as a means of getting their products to southwestern consuming points. So gratifying was the suc- cess of the experiment tha it has grown into an expanding industry. It was not, however, until later that l the oil industry, attracted by lower | transportation costs and time saving 1 turned its attention to he inland waers. Tank barges, holding from l 5000 to 10000 barrels of crude oil refined oil and gasoline are begin ming to prepare in squadrons, talk ! ing the place of tank car service on the railroads for long distance hauls, but they are coordinated with motor trucks and railroad tanks at river terminals fo rback country distribu- tion.
 The Standard Oil Company of Louisiana which two years ago set up barge delivery service between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, ex- tended the line to Memphis from made inland. Early this year it push l ed the service to Louisville, some 1900 miles from New Orleans Two steamboats have been assigned to the task, one for oil and gasoline barges l to Cairo, the mouth of the Ohio and small one to take the barkes to Louisville.
 The Pan American Petroleum & Transport company, which recently absorbed the Mexican Petroleum com pany, investigated river transporta- tion, and placed a contract with a Pittsburgh shipyard for a fleet of have been launched, and the Pan Amrican will shortly begin bSging oil and gasoline from it's ocean going tankers in New Orleans to Pittsburgh and intermediate cities for local ser vice stations. This all water haul will be more than 5000 miles
 The Inland Waterways company of Louisville has established semi monthly barge movements between Louisville and Pittsburgh. This gives new outlet for oil from the Ken lucky fields, while a return haul is provided the towboats in steel laden barges from the Pittsburgh and the Wheeling mills.
 The United States Steel Corpora tion, through its subsidiary, the Car negie Steel company, sent some 800 freight car loads of steel down the Ohio by boat, while the Jones & Laughlin Steel company, the piooneer in the movement, added largely to it's total. The National Tube Company and American Steel & Wire Com pany, other corporation subsidiaries, also were represented in the ship ments. nI similar manner the Ten nessee Coal & Iron Company, the southern subsidiary of the corpora tion, is using the Warrior River divi-