NAVIGATION RESOURCES OF AMERICAN WATERWAYS 573 



by the United States, and this waterway, 

 ninety-six miles long, is the first of its kind 

 to be managed by the Federal Government. 

 Nearly all of the canals in the United States 

 belong to the states or to corporations. The 

 only really important state canal is the Erie, 

 now being modernized bv the people of New 

 York. 



The highly valuable reports of the United 

 States Commissioner of Navigation contain 

 classified information regarding documented 

 American vessels, the aggregate tonnage of 

 which is about six and a half million tons; 

 InU there is an equal tonnage of undocu- 

 mented craft not included in the tables pub- 

 li.shed by the Bureau of Navigation. Com- 

 paratively few people are aware of the fact 

 that American shipping has a total tonnage 

 of over 13,000,000 tons gross register. 



The Bureau of the Census has about com- 

 pleted a report on "Transportation by Water" 

 in the United States in 1906. This, like 

 the preceding report of that bureau, which 

 was made in 1889, seventeen years ago, is a 

 valuable document exceptionally complete as 

 regards American shipping, but necessarily 

 less satisfactory regarding passenger and 

 freight traffic, for the simple reason that 

 full and accurate information regarding 

 traffic cannot be obtained until machinery 

 shall have been provided for the systematic 

 and daily recording of freight and passenger 

 movements. 



In calling attention to the relatively small 

 amount of information concerning transpor- 

 tation by water obtainable from the regu- 

 larly published official reports of the Federal 

 (io\ernment, there is no thought of criti- 

 cizing the bureaus by which those reports 

 are compiled and issued. The powers those 

 bureaus possess and the scope of their activi- 

 ties are fixed bj' law. Congress decides what 

 data the public shall have regarding our 

 navigation resources, and the use made of 

 those resources. As the Inland Waterways 

 Commission states in its preliminary report, 

 this "information is essential to an intelli- 

 gent treatment of the inland waterways, and 

 it is desirable that means be employed to 

 obtain it;" and the Commission wisely in- 

 cludes in its recommendations '"the adoption 

 of. means for ascertaining regularly all facts 

 relating to traffic on the inland waterways, 

 and for publishing the same in a form suit- 

 able for general use." 



According to the report on "Transporta- 

 tion by Water" recently made by the Bureau 

 of the Census. American craft of all classes, 

 exclusive of those in the fishing fleet and 

 those owned by the Federal Government, 

 numbered 39,083, and had a combined ton- 

 nage of 13,072,755 in 1906. Of this total 

 there were 1,441 registered vessels — those 

 employed in foreign commerce — and their 

 tonnage amounted to less than a million 

 (^939.486) tons gross. Thus the craft con- 

 structed for domestic trade included 37,642 

 vessels, with a tonnage of 12,133,269. In ad- 



dition to this there was a fleet of 6,910 ves- 

 sels with a total tonnage of 196,132, em- 

 ployed in catching and transporting fish, and 

 a great host — 82,443 — of small boats and 

 launches used in the fishing industry. 



The census taken in 1906 shows that there 

 were 2)7,^^^ vessels actively employed in do- 

 mestic and foreign commerce of the United 

 States, of which total 20,032 were operated 

 from the Atlantic and Gulf coast, 2,537 O'l 

 the Pacific coast (including Alaska), 2,990 

 on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence, 9,622 

 on the Mississippi River and its tributaries, 

 and 2,140 on our other inland waters. The 

 gross tonnage of the Great Lakes' fleet was 

 2,392,863, 18.4 per cent, of the total for all 

 American merchant craft in 1906; the ton- 

 nage of boats and barges — mainly coal 

 barges — on the Mississippi and its tribu- 

 taries was 4,411,967, 34.2 per cent, of the 

 total ; and the tonnage of the craft on other 

 inland waters was 259,491, or 2.01 per cent, 

 of all American shipping. The tonnage of 

 the river and canal craft thus amounted to 

 4,671,458, or 36 per cent, of the total of all 

 active American shipping. 



The freight shipped on the Great Lakes 

 in 1907 amounted to 83,498,171 tons; the 

 total for the previous year — the one cov- 

 ered by the census report — was 75,610,690 

 tons, which was 42.6 per cent, of the total 

 freight, exclusive of harbor traffic, handled 

 upon American waterways coastwise and in- 

 land. The traffic of the Mississippi River 

 and its tributaries in 1906 was 19,531,093 

 tons, or eleven per cent, of the total. On 

 the other inland waterways the freight ag- 

 gregated 3,716,765 tons, or 2.1 per cent, of the 

 total. The combined traffic on the Great 

 Lakes and our other inland waterways in 

 1906 was 98,858,548 tons, 55.7 per cent, of 

 the total water-borne domestic commerce of 

 the United States. 



Such was the traffic in 1906. Compari- 

 sons with the previous census of 1889 will 

 show where progress has taken place and 

 what waterways have gained and what have 

 lost in tonnage. The most rapid growth has 

 been in the commerce of the Great Lakes, 

 which rose from 25,266,978 tons of shipments 

 in 1889 to 75,610,690 tons in 1906. The 

 port-to-port traffic of the Mississippi River 

 and its tributaries in 1906 amounted to 

 I9.53i>093 tons of freight. There was also 

 handled locally in and about the harbors 

 8.32,-, 548 tons, making a total of 27,856,641 

 tons for the rivers of the Mississippi Valley. 

 In 1899 the figures were 29,401,40^, there 

 having been a decrease of 1,544,768 tons in 

 the seventeen years. The freight handled on 

 the other inland waterways of the L^nited 

 States experienced a very large decline dur- 

 ing this period, the total tonnage of freight 

 carried having fallen from 11,221,224 tons 

 in 1889 to 3,944,655 tons in 1906. 



In order to make the statement of traffic 

 complete the passenger business must be in- 

 cluded. The highlv efficient steamers of the 



