66 COMMISSION ON COUNTRY LIFE 



advantages in railway rates due to parallel water 

 lines; but the great mass of farmers, while com- 

 plaining of what they affirm to be unjust and 

 exhorbitant railway rates, have given too little 

 thought to the means of relief with which nature 

 has favored them. This is probably due to lack 

 of knowledge of the actual economies of river 

 transportation. For example, one community 

 located 200 miles from a former head of naviga- 

 tion, ships wheat by rail to a market that is 

 1,033 miles distant, at a cost of 21 cents per 

 bushel, yet it showed no interest in the reopening 

 of the channel that would reduce the train haul to 

 less than one fifth the distance. 



This failure to consider the waterways is 

 probably due very largely to the high rates per 

 ton mile charged by railroads for short hauls. 

 Under the present methods of fixing the railway 

 tariffs, local rates are often almost or quite as 

 great as between points far distant, and there is 

 small inducement to use cheap river freights be- 

 cause of the cost of reaching the river banks. 

 The remedy for this lies in two directions: It 

 must come either from a rearrangement of freight 

 schedules, which may involve a complete change 



