452 : The Atlantic 



mately $2.00. The distance is 9,000 miles. Its destination is Akron, 

 Ohio — by rail, about 500 miles from New York. It will cost just as 

 much to get the bale from New York to Akron as it cost to get it 

 from Singapore to New York, that is to say, $2.00. 



This means that the transportation per ton mile by rail is about 

 eighteen times as expensive as oceanic transportation. 



Now let us suppose that the bale of rubber were shipped the whole 

 way by air. At current rates the charge would be about |6oo.oo or 

 three hundred times as expensive as the transport by sea. 



In practice, of course, rates will fluctuate one way or another as 

 between the different methods of transport depending in part on 

 the distances covered and the types of goods conveyed, but these 

 fluctuations are trivial when we compare them with the great jumps 

 in cost from one method of transport to another. 



Another illustration of the economy of ocean transport contrasted 

 with other charges involved in the handling of produce was supplied 

 by a merchant doing business in Oriental commodities. The case in- 

 volved a large shipment of rice from an Oriental port by way of New 

 York to a port in South America. The ship from the Orient was to 

 dock in Staten Island, a part of New York harbor. The ship for 

 South America was to depart from a Manhattan pier. Fortunately, in 

 time, the merchant discovered that it was going to cost him more to 

 convey the shipment from Staten Island to the outward bound vessel 

 in Manhattan than it cost him to transport it from the Orient to 

 New York. The problem was solved and solved economically by 

 shipping the rice to Hamburg and trans-shipping from there to the 

 South American port. 



These examples illustrate the effectiveness and low cost of ocean 

 transport contrasted with the high costs of land transport and ruin- 

 ous harbor charges. However, reliable low-cost ocean freights were 

 not an automatic gift of God and nature; they were not won at a 

 single stroke; they do not stand alone; they can be lost. 



Many inventions went into the development of low-cost ocean 

 freights. First the improvement of ships from the Phoenician vessel 

 to the superliner through all the special types we have seen crossing 

 the Atlantic — the galleon, packet, clipper, etc. Then the wiser use of 

 the ocean and its lanes that began with Maury and quicker and more 

 accurate methods of navigation. To this we must add an array of spe- 

 cial services: charts and pilot books; lights and markers for coasts and 

 harbors; equipment for handling cargo aship and ashore; fire protec- 

 tion and safety equipment; radio, radar, sonar, etc. 



