NAVIGATION RESOURCES OF AMERICAN WATERWAYS 573 



h\ the I'nited States, and tlii.s uatcruay, 

 iiiiu'ty-six miles long, is the lirst .if its kind 

 to be managed liy the I'Yderal ( i< .\ .-rnment. 

 \\-arly all of the canals in the L'nited S'ates 

 belong lo the states or to corporate >ns. The 

 only really important state canal is the Lrie, 

 now being niodcrni/ed l>y the people of Xew 



York. 



The highly valuahle reports of the I'nited 

 Slates Commissioner of Xavigation contain 

 classilied information regarding docnnu-nteil 

 American vessels, the aggregate tonnage of 

 which is ahont six and a half million tuns; 

 hut there is an equal tonnage of nndocii- 

 meiited craft not included in the tahKs pub- 

 lislied I >y the Bureau of Xavigation. Com 

 paratively few people are aware of the fact 

 that American shipping has a total tonnage 

 of over 13.000,000 tons gross register. 



The Bureau of the Census has ahoiit com- 

 pleted a report on "Transportation hy Water" 

 in the United Slates in 1906. This, like 

 the preceding report of that bureau, which 

 uas made in 1889, seventeen years ago. is a 

 valuable document exceptionally complete a< 

 regard- American shipping, but necessarily 

 K >s satisfactory regarding passenger and 

 freight traffic, for the simple reason that 

 full and accurate information regarding 

 traffic cannot be obtained until machinery 

 shall have been provided for the systematic 

 and daily recording of freight and passenger 

 movements. 



In calling attention to the relatively small 

 amount of information concerning transpor- 

 tation by water obtainable from the regu- 

 larly published official reports of the Federal 

 < iovernment. there is no thought of criti- 

 cixing the bureaus by which those reports 

 are compiled and issued. The powers those 

 bureaus possess and the scope of their activi- 

 ties are fixed by law. Congress decides what 

 data the public shall have regarding our 

 navigation resources, and the u-e made of 

 tl.ose resources. As the Inland Waterways 

 Commission states in its preliminary report, 

 this "information is essential to an intelli- 

 gent treatment of the inland waterways, and 

 it is desirable that means !,< employed t,, 

 obtain it;" and the Commission wisely in- 

 cludes in its recommendations ''the adoption 

 of means for ascertaining regularly all facts 

 relating to traffic on the inhnd waterways, 

 and for publishing tin same in a form suit- 

 abb- f. M- ucncral use " 



According to the P port on "Transport.-! 

 lion hy Water" recently made by the Bureau 

 of the Census, American craft of all 



hisive of those in the fishing fleet and 

 those owned hy the I'Ydcral < i"\ eminent, 

 numbered 39,083. and had a combined ton- 

 nage of 13.072.7-0 in i oo? > (if this total 

 there uere I.4JI registered vessels- iho-e 

 employed in foreign comm. rce -and their 

 tonnage amounted to less than a million 

 1039.486) tons gross Thus the craft 

 structed for domestic trade included 37.1142 

 vessels, with a tonnage of I2.J33.2(M) In ad- 



dition to tin's then- was a fleet of 6,910 

 sets with a total tonnage of lo/>, 13..'. em 

 ployed in catching and transporting fish, and 

 a great host 82,443 -of small and 



launches used in the fishing industry 



The census taken in 1906 shows thai there 

 were 37.3-' I vessels actively employed in do 

 mestic and foreign commerce of the I'nited 

 States, ,,f \\hich total 20,032 were operated 

 troni the Atlantic and (iulf coast. -'.537 

 the Pacific coast (including Alaska). 

 on the (ireat Lakes and St. Lawrence. 0.1,22 

 on the Mississippi River and its tribute 

 and 2,140 on our other inland water-;. The 

 gross tonnage of the (ireat Lakes' tleet ua< 

 2.392,863, 18.4 per cent, of the total for all 

 American merchant craft in 1006 ; the ton 

 nage of boats and barges mainly 

 barges on the Mississippi and its tribu- 

 taries was 4,411.907, 34.2 per cent, of the 

 total; and the tonnage of the craft on other 

 inland waters was 259,491, or 2.01 per cent, 

 of all American shipping. The tom 

 the river and canal craft thus amounted to 

 4,6/1,458, or 36 per cent, of the total of all 

 active American shipping. 



The freight shipped on the Great Lakes 

 in 1007 amounted to 83,498,171 tons; the 

 total for the previous year the one c< >\ 

 ered by the census report was 75,610,690 

 tons, which was 42.6 per cent, of the total 

 freight, exclusive of harbor traffic, handled 

 upon American waterways coastwise and in- 

 land. The traffic of the Mississippi River 

 and its tributaries in 1006 was 19,531. " '.' 

 tons, or eleven per cent, of the total. On 

 the other inland waterways the freight 

 gregated 3.710,765 tons, or 2.1 per cent, of the 

 total. The combined traffic on the (ireat 

 Lakes and our other inland wateruuys in 

 1006 was l .iS,,S;S.54S tons. 55.7 per cenl 

 the total water-borne domestic commcr. 

 the L'nited States. 



Such was the traffic in 1906. Compari 

 sons with the previous census of 1880. will 

 show where progress has taken place and 

 what waterways have gained and what have 

 lost in tonnage. The mo>t rapid growth has 

 b. en in the comm. ro ..f the < irea! Lakes, 

 which rose from 25200.078 tons ,,f shipments 

 in 1889 to 75.610. f>oo tons in tijofi. The 

 port-to-port traffic of the Mississippi River 

 and its tributaries in 1906 amounted to 

 10.531.003 tons of freight. There v 

 handled locally in and about the hai 

 8.325.548 tons, making a ;otal of _- 

 ton- for the rivers of the Mississippi Valley 

 In iSV/j the figures were -''). (01.40 j. there 

 having been a deci !" i.54}.7'iS ton- in 



the seventeen years. The freight handled on 

 the other inland waterways of the I'nited 

 Stales experienced a very large decline dnr 

 ing this period, the 'oj.d tonnage of freight 

 -ied having falKn from 11.221.224 '"" 

 in 1889 to 3.04t.''. ;: !"iis in i . 



In order to make tl 



complete the pass, nger luisin.-ss must be in- 

 cluded. The llil-hlv efficient steanii I's of 



