CHAPTER XIII 

 COMMERCIAL RELATIONS: THE GREAT LAKES 1 



163. Commercial importance of the Great Lakes. Most resi- 

 dents of Chicago and many visitors in the city have stood by 

 an open drawbridge and watched a lake steamer pass slowly 

 up or down the river. On such an occasion they may have 

 wondered where the vessel came from and what it was carry- 

 ing, and may have appreciated something of the importance of 

 the lake traffic. While the oceans are the greatest highways 

 of water-borne commerce, the amount of such commerce on 

 inland waters, as the Great Lakes, is large. Indeed, the im- 

 portance of the ports of. these lakes causes them to rank with 

 the greatest of the ocean ports as points of shipment. The 

 traffic through Sault Sainte Marie Canal, connecting lakes 

 Superior and Huron, is about four times as great as that 

 through Suez Canal, even though the Sault Canal is closed 

 by ice about five months of the year. A yet greater amount 

 of traffic passes through the Detroit River, and this stream is 

 one of the busiest waterways in the world. 



164. Advantages of water transportation. It may at first 

 appear strange that much of the commerce of such a city as 

 Chicago, the greatest railroad center in the country, should be 

 carried by water, but there are certain advantages of water 

 transportation which must be mentioned. In the first place, it 

 is often cheaper. It costs a great deal to build railways, but 

 the lake is already here. There is less expense for repairs than 



1 In this chapter and the following one conditions about the Great Lakes 

 are frequently cited as illustrations. Those of other regions where the records 

 have been kept for a considerable period will serve equally well, and such 

 records should be secured as means of demonstrating the local importance 

 of the facts under discussion. 



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