CANALS. 93 



and haulage, and thus affording a most imperfect estimate of what their 

 potentiahties would be under improved modern conditions. The railway 

 has developed wonderfully in response to the increasing demands of trade 

 and passenger traffic, while inland waterways have, in the United Kingdom 

 for the most part, remained stationary for quite half a century, and many 

 of them have actually retrogressed or even gone derelict. In regard to this 

 whole question of competition between waterways and railways, the fol- 

 lowing extract from Professor Emory R. Johnson's " Inland Waterways " 

 (Philadelphia, 1 893) is well worthy of respect as coming from a distinguished 

 economist who has made a special study of transit problems : — " The best 



_,, _ , regulator of railroad rates is (writes Dr. Johnson), the 



independent waterway.* Competition between rail- 



Kegulator 01 roads and water routes is quite different in kind from 



Railway Rates. .that of railroads with each other ; it is bound to pro- 

 duce cheaper rates, and can do this without detriment to the railroads. 

 There is abundant evidence showing the power of water transportation to 

 lower freight rates. The past and present opposition which the railroads 

 have shown the waterways in order that rates might be controlled indicates 

 clearly enough that the railroads are conscious of the potency of water 

 competition. The railroads see in the waterway an agency which can move 

 certain kinds of freight at lower rates than they can be transported on land, 

 and, without analysing the results of this to see what may be the secondary 

 effects on the freight business by rail of the cheaper transportation charges 

 for these certain kinds of goods, the railroad strives to quash the waterway 

 out of existence. An illustration out of many that might be cited to show 

 the real and effective competition of waterways is afforded by Belgium. 

 Liege and Antwerp are connected by a line of navigation 156 kilometres 

 long, that comes in competition with two railroads somewhat shorter in 

 length. The water rates often come as low as 2 francs 15 centimes to 2 

 francs 30 centimes per ton for the entire distance. In order to compete, the 

 railroads carry at their lowest rate between Li^ge and Antwerp. In train 

 load lots of 200 tons, for exportation by sea, they charge only two francs a 

 ton. This is a special rate, all others being enough higher than by boat to 

 enable the w^aterways to secure a good volume of freight. The cheapest 

 freight rates by rail to be found in the world are those for grain between 

 Chicago and New York ; and why ? Because the cheapest inland water 

 transportation rates in the world are those between the same points. All the 

 railroads of the United States have been steadily lowering freight charges 

 during the past twenty years, and largely, of course, because improvements 

 in track and equipment have made this possible. Those roads, however, 

 that have made the most improvements and the greatest reductions in ra.tes 

 are the great trunk lines leading into New York from the West, those that 

 compete with the Great Lakes, the Erie Canal, and the Hudson River. The 

 average freight earnings per ton mile of all the railways of the United 

 States for the year ending June 30, 1890, were .941 cents.f The ton mile 

 earnings of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad were .730 

 cents, and on the Pennsylvania Railroad, .661 cents; on the Lake Shore 

 and Michigan Southern, .653 cents, and on the Michigan Central, .726 cents ; 

 whereas the average earnings per ton mile on the Chicago, Milwaukee, and 

 St. Paul, and the Chicago and North-western, roads coming but slightly 



* The italics are in the original. 



t For the year ending June 30, 1S91, they were .S95 cents. 



