The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1939-08-21

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doubtless there are many peol
Omaha is headquarters for sew
eral important railroad lines and
Is essentially a railroad city.
Landings are going to be diff
cult for private interests to build,
for most of the land along the
present river-front is owned by the
railroads.
The single, and very powerful.
newspaper of the town has to re-
main more or less on the fence
when the subject of river traffic is
brought up. In fact, Bob couldn't
get them to commit themselves
either way.
All the way along 1t is a contin-
ual battle between river transpor-
tation and the railroads. It was
the latter who originally killed
river traffic in the old days, and
they are doing their best to keep
1t dead.
Business Is Chary
The United States government Is
no promoter. It merely puts the
river in shape for traffic and after
that 1t is up to private interests.
But private interests are a bit
chary of sinking too much money
in one chunk into a thing that is
the target of every railroad in the
country. Nor can they be blamed,
for no quarter Is asked or given.
1t Is granted that competition is
the life of trade, but this opening
up of our inland waterways opens
up many new yistas of business as
yet untouched by the railroads. No
doubt river traffic would, to a GER
tain extent, get some of the pres
ent railroad business, but 1t GER
tainly wouldn't endanger the in
land traffic to any great extent.
River Not Quite Ready
And river traffic is coming back
just as sure as taxes. 1t is growing
by leaps and bounds now with every
river improvement. 1t would seem
that If the railroads are so afraid
of losing some of their business,
they might get into that end of the
business themselves, just as they
have in the past with some of the
airlines and motor buses. They
fought those until they suddenly
found out 1t was more profitable
to enter that line of business than
to fight 1t.
AS we said, the government is
no promoter, but it is seeing to it
that private interests are getting
leg-up for the start of river traf-
fic in newly-opened districts, such
as the Missouri between Kansas
City and Sioux City. At present
the river is not quite ready, being
80 per cent completed as far up as
Omaha, and only So per cent COM
pleted between the latter town and
Sioux City.
To Build Traffic
But, by next spring, the lower
section will be ready and Uncle
Sam Immediately will inaugurate
the first barge line backed by fed
eral money. This line will endeavor
to build up business along the river
and as soon as few private lines
take courage and start their own
boats, the government boats will
either gradually withdraw from the
field or sell outright.
After that 1t Is up to the private
interests. These are headed mostly
by few of the large oil companies
and grain operators, but, as the
traffic grows, there is no doubt
that general merchandise will be
carried as it is on the Ohio and
lower Mississippi.
No Passenger Trade
Probably all of the river traffic
will be freight. There are a very
few packets operating on the Mis-
sissippi and the Ohio rivers on
regular runs. Most of the pas
senger-carrying boats are excur-
sion steamers making week end
cruises or the big annual cruise
from Pittsburg to the Mardi Gras
in New Orleans. So far as we
could find out, there are no pas
senger boats regularly operating
on the Missouri now.
Sometime ago We had decided to
have a small sail made, but gave
up the idea when the head winds
continued to blow so hard. How