78 



CONSERVATION 



waterway connecting Lakes Superior and 

 Huron, upwards of 58,000,000 tons of com 

 merce, which was carried an average of 

 828 miles, at a total freight charge of 

 eight-tenths of one mill per ton-mile, equal 

 to $38,000,000. 



I hope you w .11 bear patiently with me 

 while I use a good many figures, because it 

 is necessary to ui". figures in order to ex- 

 plain this subject, .nd I will try to take the 

 oflficial figures. 



"Fifty-eight mi.-ion tons" rolls glibly off 

 the tongue, but, my friends, that is three 

 and one-half times as much as the total com- 

 merce passing through the Suez Canal. 

 That is mcie than ten times the commerce 

 that will pass through the Panama Canal 

 for several years after its completion. That 

 is a truly coUossal commerce and a com- 

 merce in which every citizen of this Repub- 

 lic is interested. Without that splendid 

 commerce through the Soo, composed 

 largely of iron ore from the famous Mesaba 

 Range in Minnesota, you would not be able 

 to purchase iron and steel as cheaply as 

 you do now. But for the commerce 

 passing through that Soo, that Soo made 

 navigable by large expenditures of this gov- 

 ernment, the people in the far West would 

 suffer a great deal more from cold than they 

 do now, because the vessels returning from 

 the East to the West, after discharging a 

 cargo of ore, carry a cargo of coal back 

 to the West with them. Every citizen in 

 this country is interested in that improve- 

 ment, and that wonderful commerce is 

 carried at one-tenth of one mill per ton per 

 mile. How now does that compare with 

 the average railroad rate — the average, 1 

 mean, for all the railroads of the country? 



According to the Interstate Commerce 

 Commission, the railroad rate charged in 

 1907 was 7.59 mills per ton per mile, prac- 

 tically nine and one-half times as high as the 

 water charge on the lakes. Now suppose 

 this great commerce of 58,000,000 tons had 

 been carried at the average railroad rate; 

 instead of paying $38,000,000 for it, the 

 charge thereon would have been $364,000,000, 

 or $325,000,000 in excess of what was actu- 

 ally paid. 



So, my friends, the improvements of the 

 lakes and the development of the water- 

 borne commerce of the lakes resulted in bene- 

 fitting the American people in cheapened 

 rates through that portion of the commerce 

 which passes through the Sault Ste. Marie 

 Canal in the splendid sum of $325,000,000 in 

 one year, an dit is going to continue to in- 

 crease that amount, for the commerce of the 

 Soo has been growing by leaps and bounds 

 for many years. 



Now bear in mind that the commerce 

 through the Soo is only a portion of that 

 of the great lakes. Official figures show 

 that through the Detroit River, that same 

 year, the commerce was 71,000,000 tons, or 

 13,000,000 tons in excess of that through 



the Soo; and there is also a vast commerce 

 on the lakes which does not pass through 

 the Soo or through the Detroit. There is 

 also a considerable commerce on Lake On- 

 tario. I am convinced, after a most care- 

 ful study of the subject, that if the com- 

 merce of the lakes, in which all of us, I 

 repeat, have an interest — that wonderful 

 frain of the west which is brought East on 

 the lakes, that wonderful ore of the West 

 which comes for a thousand miles from Du- 

 to. Conneautluth to Conneaut and Ashtabula, 

 and thence ti35 miles by rail to the factories 

 in and around Pittsburg, practically at the 

 door of the coal field — if that wonderful 

 comerce of the lakes, I say, had to be carried 

 by rail, it would cost the American people 

 nearly $500,000,000 per annum more than 

 they now pay. So it seems that it is a pretty 

 good investment we have made in improving 

 those waterways. 



How much did we spend on them? 

 About $80,000,000 on the lakes. Ah ! but, 

 you say, that is all right as to the lakes ; 

 nature has done a great deal there, a great 

 deal. Certainly it has. That is a system 

 of waterways that no other country on 

 earth has any to compare with. We ought 

 to be proud of them, and we are proud of 

 them. But is there any other place in the 

 country where we could get like results by 

 improving our waterways ? Yes ! The 

 Mississippi River and its wonderful tribu- 

 taries would also give us relatively as cheap 

 rates if they were as well improved as the 

 lakes. Now, bear in mind this statement ; 

 The lakes carried very little commerce un- 

 til our government had, at an expenditure 

 of about $80,000,000, deepened the harbors 

 and improved the connecting channels 

 through the Detroit River and the Sault 

 Ste. Marie. They have been splendidly im- 

 proved. Vessels drawing twenty-one feet 

 can pass from any harbor on those lakes 

 now to practically every other harbor. 

 How is it on the Mississippi River? How 

 is it on the Mississippi River's tributaries? 

 How is it on the great Ohio, with its head 

 at Pittsburg? Pittsburg, the greatest man- 

 ufacturing city on earth; Pittsburg, which 

 annually generates a commerce equal to the 

 combined commerce of New York, Liver- 

 pool, London, Antwerp and Hong Kong ! 

 That is a big statement, but it is true. 

 The Pittsburg commerce is composed of 

 coal, iron ore and steel, and the products 

 of iron and steel, and you must remember, 

 my friends, that when it comes to a freight- 

 moving proposition, it costs as much prac- 

 tically to move a ton of coal as it does to 

 move a ton of silk or a ton of diamonds. 

 I do not pretend to intimate for one mo- 

 ment that the Pittsburg commerce is as 

 valuable as the commerce of the city of 

 New York or the city of London or any 

 of these other cities, perhaps, that I have 

 named ; but it exists in tons, and when we 

 are discussing the question of transporta- 



