CHAPTER XXI 



No two rivers in the civilized world, capable of 

 carrying so much freight, are carrying so little as the 

 Mississippi and the Missouri. To no communities in 

 the whole world is the freight item of such transcend- 

 ent importance as to the people of these great valleys. 



American agriculture is under a tremendous handi- 

 cap, in that our great food producing areas are in the 

 midst of the continent, far removed from tide water, 

 and hence, from the world's markets, where the prices 

 of farm products are fixed. Our Government must 

 advance millions to our great railway companies to 

 meet maintenance and operating expenses. The peo- 

 ple of the country are being subjected to tremendous 

 inconvenience and loss for lack of transportation facili- 

 ties. Why should not our Government advance a few 

 millions for steel or wooden barges, and for otherwise 

 developing transportation on these great waterways, 

 thus enormously reducing expense, fuel and man- 

 power along transportation lines, beside relieving the 

 freight congestion at almost every terminal point ? 



When in Belgium, a few years ago, I learned that 

 though the Government owned nearly all of its rail- 

 ways, it was, for every six miles square of land (equal 

 to one of our townships), maintaining more than one 

 mile of internal waterways. Prominent business men 

 there credited these internal waterways for Belgium's 



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