The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-04-27
Ry N. c. ELTING,

By N. c. ELTING,
 Chairman Executive Committee Iexi' nessce River Improvement Association INDUSTRIAL America of the present day owes it's commanding position to
 it's transportation system. For many years this country has had approxl- mately 40 per cent of the entire raii- road mileage of the world within its borders. It is admitted by all that the wonderful industrial development Of the past two generations has been chiefly due to, our railroad system.
 Fourteen years ago James J: Hii made the statement that It wouia E re. quire an expenditure of $5,5OO,OuO,Uvu .o bring the railroads up to the re 5auirements of commerce as they exlsted at that time. Referring to this state .nent. the Engineering World, in Jan uary. 1923, remarked that this pre- diction had been confirmed by q sue cession of most disastrous freight con restions, and agreed with the statement of Elihu Root, former secretary of state, to the effect that:
 .There is no human probability that the railroads can keep pace with our commerce, and the only avenue that is open for us to keep up our progress is the avenue of water transportatlon.
 Our transportation experience in 1923 showed 6 large increase of freight traffic in every form, and without the waterways, says the National ln-' land Waterways Magazine the trafflc congestion in 1923 would have been worse than during the peak of war time production.
 RailrOads Inadequate
 It seems apparent. therefore, that sthfs country is about to be driven into an adeQuate development of it's water ways by the sheer inadequacy of its railroad system,
 2 However, there are the best of eco homie reasont why the permanent inn movement oi inland waterways should be encouraged wholly apart from it's necessity as a means of Supplementing our inadequate railroad system. That reason can be summed up in single word Economy.
 The cost of carrying freight over any system of transportation may be said to be inverseiy proportional to the availability, of the system. For ex7 ample, country road of ordinary dirt is the most available form of trans portation systems It can be located where "a railroad is who'll. impracti- cable. A railroad, on the other hand, is more available" as a means of transportation than a canal, fer rail road can be built where the cost of a canal would be prohihitive. But a canal is more available" than q river, for q canal can be used to provide transportation where it is not possible to employ river for the purpose at all.
 The cost of moving freight over these various transportation systems shows striking differences. The estimated cost of wagon transportation on the aver age (unpayed) highway in the United States is 25 cents per ton mile. The average freight rate on the railroads of this country in 1924 was about IA cents per ton mile, while the aver age freight rate on the New York barge canal was about 1 cent per ton mile. On the Monongahela river coal IS car ried to Pittsburg for about 5 mills per ton mile, while on the Great Lakes the average cost per ton mile is about mill.
 Water Cheaper N
 There are many reasons for this. The equipment necessary to carry given load by water is much less ex- pensive than by rail, for the interstate commerce commission reports show that the cost of river equipment is only about one-fourth that of railroad equip ment. The same amount of power can move IS tons of freight on railroad, than by rail, for one horsepower will fove 15 tons of freight on a railfoad, while on waterway it will move from 90 to 100 tons in a boat, with an ex- penditure from One-sixth to one-half of the fuel required by the railroad. Finally, there is no cost of mainten- ance for the right-of-way and struc- lures on waterway that is at all comparable with the large expense nec- essary for this purpose on a railroad.
 In spite of these advantages, how ever, waterway traffic will not develop as it should unless there is provided a continuous all-year channel of suf- ficient depth which will connect sources of freight with the various markets. The old-time packet boat, built to nav igate in shallow, water, designed to carry both passengers and freight, is destined to disappear from our inland streamH It Is too slow for modern pas senger traffic and it is not adapted to the economic handling of freight. It is being replaced rapidly by modern steel towboatS and steel barges, some of which are self-propelled. Already there are in service in the upper Ohio river, near Pittsburg, more than 1900 new steel barges and some 300 tow boats, while 100 steel harges and 10 steel towboats are now under construc- ton.
 In spite of the Tact that modern terminals with automatic handling de vices are available only to a very lim- tied extent on our inland streams, these modern towboats and barges are mak- ing a most satisfactory record. The average river time for large tows of steel between Pittsburg and Louisville Ky, is only eight and a half days against six days by rail, and the re- ports of Jones and Laughhn company, who have been making extensive use of the Ohio and Monongahela rivers for hauling their coal and steel prod ucts, state that when the river im- proFements and terminal facilities have been fully completed it may possibly