THE I. A. A. RECORD 



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Page Seven 



1 



Water Transportation Will Help 



How Farm Prices May Be Raised by Barge Line Develop- 

 ment Down the Mississippi 



Lachlan Macleay, Secretary Misaiaaippi Vailey Aaaociation 



Lachlan Macleay 



IN speaking: of the problem of get- 

 ting a fair price for the products 

 of the farms, it has been said "the 

 farm price be- 

 comes the retail 

 price less the costs 

 of assembling, 

 transporting, pro- 

 cessing, and distri- 

 buting." Assum- 

 ing that this is a 

 correct statement, 

 then any agency 

 that reduces the 

 cost of getting the 

 products of the 

 farms to their mar- 

 kets will result in higher prices on the 

 farms, and the farmer, therefore, has 

 a direct cash interest in Inland Water- 

 way development which will lower 

 these transportation costs. 



It is 7346 miles from Buenos Aires, 

 Argentine, to Liverpool, where the 

 world price of wheat is made. From 

 central Kansas to Liverpool via the 

 port of New Orleans, it is 6010 miles, 

 — 1336 miles less distance, and yet 

 Kansas wheat pays nearly 12c per 

 bushel more to get to market than Ar- 

 gentine wheat. The average rail haul 

 to seaboard in Argentine is 141 miles 

 against an average rail haul from 

 Kansas to seaboard of 800 miles. In 

 1927 Argentine corn was marketed on 

 the Pacific Coast, United States of 

 America, in competition with Illinois, 

 Iowa, and Nebraska corn, and despite 

 the duty paid, I am told by reliable 

 authority that it undersold our Middle 

 West product so much that we lost the 

 market almost completely. 



Argentine Corn Competes 



What do you think of wheat moving 

 12,691 miles from Melbourne, Aus- 

 tralia, to Liverpool for 19.8 cents per 

 bushel as against 27c a bushel for an 

 800 mile rail haul from Kansas to New 

 Orleans? Buenos Aires is 6,722 miles 

 from New York, and Illinois is only an 

 average of about 900 miles, and yet 

 Argentine corn, despite the duty, often 

 finds a profitable market in New York, 

 New Jersey, Boston, and Philadelphia. 



The average earnings of Atlantic 

 ocean carriers last year is given by the 

 Shipping Board as 3 mills per ton mile. 

 The average earnings of Class A rail- 

 roads is given by the Interstate Com- 

 merce Commission as 11.1 mills per ton 

 mile. The average earning of the Fed- 



eral Barge Line on the Mississippi 

 River was 4.12 mills, and it made a 

 profit on that figure after paying all 

 of fts costs and depreciation. 



The Federal Barge Line is handi- 

 capped by shortage of equipment to 

 take care of the full volume of traffic 

 offered to it. It has not adequate ter- 

 minal facilities, and its river channels 

 are not more than two-thirds com- 

 pleted. In addition to these physical 

 handicaps, it is being bitterly opposed 

 by powerful east and west rail lines, 

 despite all of which it carries grain 

 from St. Louis to New Orleans for 

 11 %c per cwt., as against a rail rate 

 of 18c per cwt. and shows a profit on 

 that rate while it brings back Yucatan 

 sisal to make the farmers' binder twine 

 at a saving of 20 % under the rail rate, 

 and makes a profit on that. It brings 

 north a thousand cars of sugar a 

 month and save s the public $60 per 



car. 



Carries Grain Cheaper 



I could go on enumerating com- 

 modities the Barge Line handles at a 

 saving for the shippers and consumers, 

 almost covering the entire list of 

 staples used by the people of the Val- 

 ley. 



It is carrying grain from the Twin 

 Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul to 

 New Orleans for export at a rate of 

 14.8 cents per cwt., as against a rail 

 rate of 35 %c, and bringing back sisal, 

 binder twine, sugar, and coffee, also 

 farm machinery from Moline and Rock 

 Island for use on the farms of Min- 

 nesota, Wisconsin, North and South 

 Dakota. 



If the Barge Lines can do as well 

 as they are doing while battling agfainst 

 the present handicaps to their oper- 

 ation, it is a fair assumption that they 

 can do much better when these diffi- 

 culties have been overcome. I am 

 not making an extravagant statement, 

 nor an over-optimistic one, when I 

 tell you that on many commodities the 

 Barge Lines will be able to cut their 

 present rates in half, and they will 

 move coal, lumber, and steel products 

 at tremendous saving^s when their 

 equipment, terminals and channels are 

 adequate and completed. 



Need More Facilities 

 There is urgent need for grain ele- 

 vators at Barge line terminals on the 

 rivers so that the farmers' grrain can 

 be put on the river barges at the near- 



est port to the farm anol move by water 

 to the nearest port to its ultimate mar- 

 ket. A grain elevator at Memphis, 

 Tenn., for instance, will be of great 

 value to grrain growers in the north 

 and northwest who can then ship by 

 water at a substantial saving a larger 

 part of the 50,000,000 bushels of 

 coarse grains and wheat that are used 

 annually in the southeastern states. 

 This would move from the farm by rail 

 to the river, by river to Memphis, and 

 then by rail to destination, thus en- 

 joying the advantage of low cost water 

 transport for a great portion of its 

 journey. 



There is a big market for hay in 

 Cuba and the West Indies. High 

 freight costs shut out the Middle West 

 entirely, and while in our country 

 there is in some hay-gfrowing sections 

 as much as three years' crops in stor- 

 age awaiting a market that will get the 

 grower even his production cost. Ca- 

 nadian hay is moving into Cuba at 

 rates that our shippers cannot com- 

 pete with. 



I ' I Canadian Rates Lower 

 Speaking of Canadian rates, you 

 may be interested in a comparison of 

 American with Canadian rail rates on 

 grain from the farms to the seaboard 

 for export which was made in testi- 

 mony favoring the Denison Barge Line 

 Bill by George J. Miller, Executive Sec- 

 retary of the Missouri River Navigation 

 Improvement Association. His testi- 

 mony showed that from points in Al- 

 berta province, Canada, averagring 

 1,200 miles to Port Arthur on Lake 

 Superior, the rate on grain per 100 

 pounds is &5c. The rail rate from 

 Port Arthur to Quebec for export, 

 1372 miles, is 18.34 per cwt. or a 

 total of 43.34 cents for a total rail 

 haul of about 2,600 miles. From Mani- 

 toba to Port Arthur, an averagre of 

 650 miles, the rate is 18c per cwt. 

 From Saskatchewan to Port Arthur, 

 an average of 800 milei^, the rate is 

 20c. I 



In the United States the average 

 650 mile haul from Nebraska and 

 Kansas points to Chicag^i carries a 

 rate of 35c per cwt., as against the 

 Canadian rate of 18c. 



The average rate on export grain for 

 an 800-mile haul from the Middle West 

 to seaboard is 38c per cwt. as against 

 the Canadian rate of 20c. 



(Continued on page 8) * i 



