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370 THE Marine REVIEW September, 1910 REASONS FOR A- CANAL FROM LAKE ERIE TO LAKE MICHIGAN P. C. RAnpbALt, in the Industrial Magazine.* Howard I. Shepherd as president of the 'Chamber of Com- "merce, of Toledo, on the question of inland waterways, and also to your editorial comment commending the same. As I have been an ardent advocate of the Michi- gan and Erie canal and have twice advocated it in public speeches in your city, I want to take issue with Mr. Shepherd on the subject of the practic- ability of this canal and with the subject of inland waterways in general. | Mr. Shepherd says that large vessels could not go through the Michigan and Erie canal at a speed of more than four miles an hour, and that lake vessels could make the distance from Chicago to Toledo by lake' quicker than they could by the canal. I grant this is true. No one advocates the Michigan and Erie Candi a6 a ship canal. . It is foolish to talk of this canal and of the Miami and Erie canals as ship canals. and in fact the whole system of inland waterways, for that matter, must be for barges and not for ships. There is no draw-back to this, as there is no ship- ping in the world so cheap as that by barges and barge fleets. This has been demonstrated on the canals and canal- ized rivers in France and Germany. In the first place, the cost of the vessels is much cheaper and the cost of pro- pulsion much less. The average cost of carrying a ton on the Ohio river, in- cluding the return of the empty barges, is but one-third of a mill per ton mile, and I am told that the cost in Germany on the larger streams is no more. The distance from Chicago to New York har- bor by the Michigan and Erie canal, Lake Erie and the Erie canal is a little over 1,000 miles. Over half of this distance is in the state of New York, as by the Erie canal and the Hudson river it is 520 miles from Buffalo to New York. This, one-half the distance from Chicago to New York, will be for barges and not for ships, and would seem to determine the kind of vessels that should be used between Buffalo and Chicago. If barges are to be used for . Y ATTENTION has has been called to an extended account : ofaspeech made by Vr. *The canal would probably enter Erie at Toledo, and Michigan at some river near the state line. These canals, the entire distance, then why make the great detour of the lakes and travel between 800 and 900 miles farther on each round trip than is necessary? Granted that no time would be saved in going through the canal and that lake vessels could make the longer distance in as short or shorter time, still the fact remains that these vessels would travel on the round trip from 800 to 900 miles farther than necessary, and would in so doing use just that much more coal than needed. Vessels carrying grain from Chicago to New York must stop at the toll-gate at Buffalo. Here their cargoes must be unloaded and loaded again into barges or into cars. If lake vessels only are to be used in carrying freight from Chicago to Buffalo, then 'barges from western waterways must go through the same process of unloading and loading again at Chicago. Only For Barges. I do not wonder that Mr. Shepherd is a bear on inland waterways if he conceives that they must be used for ships. If the country goes to inland waterways, and it will, these waterways will all be for barges. It would be ut- terly impracticable to furnish bridges for cross-country travel that would let ships with their great smoke stacks and great hulks pass through. The Erie canal will always be a barge canal for this reason, no matter how deep and how wide it may be made. No matter how much Mr. Shepherd may deprecate it, the Mississippi and Missouri rivers will be canalized and not only the rivers themselves, but their tributaries likewise. The people of the middle west have been damned by the long railroad haul for all the years past and they are de- termined to have cheaper transportation both in and out. The country has suf- fered too much in the past to remain longer quiescent. The recent arbitrary raising of rates by the railroads and changing of schedules have set the peo- ple's teeth on edge again and _ their wrath is renewed. The railroads have done what they could in the past and they will in the future, to destroy water navigation. They own nearly all the dockage in Buffalo and Chicago and practically dic- tate what freight shall go by water and what by rail. What they have done in these places they are fast doing in every other water port in the country. They have made the rates so low where there was water competition on the navigable rivers, that they killed the water traffic there. This is noticeably so along the Mississippi and Columbia rivers. When once they have stifled water navigation, back go the rates, Back they go, but always the railroad's rates are lower to river points than to inland points. Although there is very little navigation ot: the Mississippi, the freight rates to river cities are from $2 to $5 per ton less than to inland cities the same dis- tance from the point of shipment. The same is true to cities on the Great Lakes. Chicago has a differential billing rate east to the Atlantic, 33-1/3 per cent lower than Indiana, Ohio and Michigan cities, hundreds of miles nearer the coast. The rate on wheat from _ Chi- cago to New York is 7%4 cents per bushel by rail or water, while from cities in Indiana and Ohio the rate is 10% cents per bushel. Freight that pays 11 cents per 100 at Chicago, pays 17 cents per. 100. from Indiana poimts, not 50 miles distant from Chicago. Water Only Competition. I mention this to show the attitude of the railroads toward water naviga- tion and also to show that the people the country over have no hope for com- petition except that furnished by water. Is there any reason then why the people are clamoring for inland waterways? Should the traffic system of the coun- try and the manufacturing of the coun- try be both without competition, there would be no hope for the people, except what little they might get from their trust in God. The transportation bus- iness of the country is not wholly out- side of competition except where there are waterways. With legal agreements and gentleman agreements, the railroads perform the trick and levy the taxes. James J. Hill said a few days ago, in speaking about government suits against the railroads to restrain them from rais- ing their rates on the western roads: "The tariffs which the western roads have in force are the same as charged by all other roads. They are uniform. Everybody knows that. I do not think there are any anti-trust laws that. will prevent the roads from acting as they did. Surely not; not touch them. We Their rates laws do all know it.