724 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



of I of 1 mill per ton per mile. This is done in 

 barges, and in very large quantities. 



The New Orleans Chamber of Commerce furnished 

 to the committee a detailed statement of the actual 

 expenses of a tow-boat with five barges (each barge 

 of 1,500 tons' capacity), from St. Louis to New Or- 

 leans (1,250 miles), from which it appears that the 

 expense was T T 5 of 1 mill per ton per mile, or at the 

 rate of 5J mills per bushel of wheat for the entire 

 distance. Also a statement of the actual expenses 

 of the steamer John F. Tolle, 1,650 tons' capacity. 

 value $65,000, showing a cost per ton per mile of 

 3.47 mills, or at the rate of U cent per bushel of 

 wheat for the whole distance. Neither of the last 

 two cases includes any profit to the carrier or inter- 

 est on the cost of vessels. 



The average cost of freight from Cincinnati to 

 New Orleans by water is stated by a joint committee 

 of the Board of Trade and Chamber of Commerce of 

 the former city to be Si mills per ton per mile. The 

 same average charge exists from Louisville to New- 

 Orleans. Even on the Tennessee River, which is 

 hardly navigable for want of proper improvements, 

 the cnarge between Knoxville and Chattanooga is 

 only about 6 mills per ton per mile. 



The following comparison between the Erie Canal 

 and competing railways summarizes a portion of the 

 benefits conferred upon the country by the former : 

 From 1854 to 1864 the total number of tons moved 

 one mile by the New York Central Kailway, was 

 2,132,073,612, and by the Erie Railway 2,587,274,914 

 tons ; by the New York canals 8,175,803,065 tons ; 

 and the average charges of the Central Railway were 

 2.6 cents, Erie Railway 2.22 cents^ and the canals .91 

 cent per ton per mile. Had the freights which were 

 carried by canal for the ten years been carried by rail, 

 the additional freight charges would have amounted- 

 to $122,637,045.97. 



Hon. Joseph Utley, president of the Illinois & Mich- 

 igan Canal, furnishes the committee with the data from 

 which the following comparison of charges is made. 



Comparative charges for the transport of grain to 

 Chicago by rail, from points 100 miles distant on 

 Jive different railroads : 



Average charge per 100 pounds for 100 miles. 



Cents. 



Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific 8 



Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 14 



Chicago & Northwestern 18 



Chicago & Alton 12 



Illinois Central 16 



The first-named road is the only one affected by 

 water competition. 



Perhaps the most unsatisfactory and defective kind 

 of navigation known is that of the Ohio canals, from 

 which arguments have been adduced against artificial 

 water-ways. But even the Ohio canals, only forty 

 feet wide, four feet deep, partially filled with mud, 

 and capable of passing vessels of only 65 tons' bur- 

 den, are by no means an entire failure. True, they 

 do not compensate the lessees who operate them, 

 nor do they pay dividends to the State ; but they dp, 

 to a very considerable extent, hold the railways in 

 check and regulate their charges. Hon. Benjamin 

 Eggleston, who has been connected with those canals 

 in various ways for thirty years, testified before the 

 committee that the opening of those very inefficient 

 canals reduces railway rates from twenty_-five to fifteen 

 cents per hundred between Cincinnati and Toledo. 

 He adds that the canals would long since have been 

 controlled by the railways, but for the fact that they 

 belong to the State of Oliio, and by law the lessees are 

 prohibited from increasing tolls. The practical efi'ect 

 of nearly all the canals in this country, however 

 small and defective, has been to regulate and reduce 

 railway charges. "VVhere they are susceptible of be- 

 ing worked at all, they exercise a potential competi- 

 tion, which always prevents exorbitant rail charges, 

 and thereby indirectly confer upon the public the 

 benefits of reduced cost of transport. . 



Many other illustrations on this point may be found 

 in the evidence submitted with the report of the 

 committee ; but these, taken from all parts of the 

 country and from all kinds of water-carriage by 

 ocean, lake, river, and canal will suffice to show the 

 relative economy of the two modes of transportation 

 for heavy and cheap commodities, and to indicate 

 the means by which cheap transportation may be se- 

 cured. 



The experience of other countries accords with our 

 own upon the relative cheapness of water and rail 

 transport, and the effective competition between them. 

 In England various parliamentary committees, after 

 seeking in vain for means of obtaining competition 

 among railways, report that they can find no practi- 

 cal means of securing that end, and that the only effect- 

 ual and reliable competition which can be expected 

 is between railways and artificial water-lines. In 

 France, where competition has always been discoun- 

 tenanced, it has been found necessary, in some cases, 

 in order to prevent it, to authorize the railways to 

 purchase the canals. Throughout the commercial 

 world the unvarying testimony of practical results is 

 that water is the natural competitor and only effective 

 regulator of railway transportation. 



In view of these facts, and particularly of the bene- 

 ficial results produced by competition afforded by the 

 great northern water-route ; of the verdict of com- 

 merce itself as expressed in the prorating arrange- 

 ments between railways and water-lines ; and of the 

 reduced rates caused by even the most inefficient arti- 

 ficial water-channels (such as the Ohio canals), the 

 conclusion is that for all coarse, cheap, and heavy 

 commodities, water is much the cheapest known 

 means of transport ; and that for long distances, in 

 which a large proportion of the value of a commodity 

 is consumed by the cost of carriage, water-channels 

 will always be an element of prime importance in 

 any successful solution of the transportation question. 



The president of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- 

 pany, in his recent report, pronounces canals " a 

 failure," and assures his stockholders that they " have 

 nothing to fear from this threatened rivalry." 



It is quite certain he did not always entertain that 

 opinion ; for the canals of Pennsylvania, 360 miles, 

 have been purchased or leased by his company, either 

 to prevent their competition, or because they can 

 cany cheaper than the railroad. Some of them have 

 since been improved at large expense, and even those 

 which run parallel with the Pennsylvania Railway 

 are now operated by it. That company can hardly 

 be accused of the blunder of sustaining an effete mode 

 of transportation. 



The efforts which have been made by the New 

 York Central Company to obtain control of the Erie 

 Canal are also indicative of the estimate which rail way 

 managers place upon these " failures." 



The Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company 

 transports freight (principally iron, coal, and other 

 minerals) at less cost per ton per mile than any other 

 railroad in the United States, yet this company also 

 operates two canals. 



It is true that canals of small size, which do not 

 connect natural navigable waters, or which have not 

 the facilities for transporting a large amount of heavy 

 freights, have failed to be remunerative to their own- 

 ers ; a few canals badly located have been abandoned, 

 but it is also true that hundreds of miles of unremu- 

 nerative railroads have been built in this country, and 

 millions of dollars have been lost to those who em- 

 barked in their construction. 



I now beg leave to present to the Senate, in the 

 language ot the report, a brief 



SUMMARY OF THE CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 

 OF THE COMMITTEE. 



First. One of the most important problems demand- 

 ing solution at the hands of the American statesman 

 is, by what means shall cheap and ample facilities be 

 provided for the interchange of commodities between 

 the different sections of our widely-extended country. 



