Chicago to the Gulf 



new trackage and terminal facilities. 

 Suppose that only 25 per cent additional 

 tracks, with necessary terrninals and 

 equipment, is to be built during the next 

 five years, for with less the country can- 

 not conduct properly the volume of busi- 

 ness even now in sight. Our total rail- 

 road mileage is about 220,000 miles. A 

 25 per cent increase would mean the 

 building of SS,ooo miles of new track, 

 much of which would be additional tracks 

 to existing lines ; and if five years were 

 allowed for the work, it would be neces- 

 sary to build 11,000 miles each year. But 

 that is not all. One-third would have to 

 be added to this amount for terminal and 

 passing tracks. Add 33 per cent to 

 55,000 miles, and the total is 73,333 

 miles ; or, in round numbers, 75,000 miles 

 of track as the requirement for the coun- 

 try to meet immediate needs. As most 

 of these additional tracks would be built 

 where traffic is heaviest, for double- 

 tracking existing lines, it must be expen- 

 sive work. Grades should be lowered, 

 curvature reduced, and highway and the 

 other bridges built and expensive termi- 

 nals created. 



No practical man would accept a con- 

 tract for furnishing the facilities re- 

 quired, including additional equipments 

 and terminal facilities, for less than 

 $75,000 per mile. The question of termi- 

 nals alone is most prohibitive. Terminals 

 now in use were acquired when property 

 was cheap, and can be enlarged only by 

 heavy outlay. In many cities it is not 

 even a question of cost, since the area 

 necessary to handle railroad business 

 properly is not to be had at any price, 

 and does not exist within the business 

 section where terminals must be located, 

 unless the business itself were destroyed 

 to make room. The new work, then, 

 would amount to $5,500,000,000 in round 

 numbers, or a yearly average of $1,100,- 

 000,000. This is the sum which should 

 be spent before the commerce of the 

 country can be moved properly. It is 

 just twice the total amount of the bonded 

 debt of the United States after the close 

 of the civil war. It is more than twice 



the entire currency in circulation in the 

 country, and only a little less than twice 

 the deposits in all the savings banks in 

 the United States put together. 



A fifteen-foot canal or channel from 

 Saint Louis to Nezv Orleans would go 

 further to relieve the entire Middle West 

 and Sotithzvest than any other work that 

 could be undertaken. With such a depth 

 of n'atcr a single pozverful tozvboat zvould 

 carry from thirty to forty train-loads. 



POTENTIAL GREAT RIVER HIGHWAYS OE 

 AMERICA * 



This idea of connecting the Lakes with 

 the Mississippi River and the Gulf is one 

 of the greatest and widest conceptions of 

 the age, fully as important, in my judg- 

 ment, to the American people as the Pan- 

 ama Canal itself, and I earnestly hope 

 that the Commission of Engineers cre- 

 ated by this bill to survey that part of 

 the route south of Saint Louis will en- 

 counter no insurmountable difficulties. 



If Mr Hill is right, and deep rivers are 

 needed to relieve freight congestion, why 

 not improve the great Missouri River, 

 which the engineers tell us is navigable 

 up to Fort Benton, Montana, 2,285 miles 

 from its mouth, thereby relieving the 

 appalling congestion in North Dakota 

 and Montana which now exists, and 

 carrying invaluable benefits to all the citi- 

 zens of its imperial valley? Why not 

 give the Upper Mississippi at least six 

 feet of water up to Mr Hill's home in 

 Saint Paul? If Mr Hill is right about 

 the Lower Mississippi, would not the sit- 

 uation be relieved by improving the Ohio 

 River to a depth of nine feet from Pitts- 

 burg to Cairo — a distance of 1,000 miles 

 to the greatest freight-producing section 

 of the Union and the most populous and 

 prosperous river valley on our continent? 

 Why would not the congestion in Ten- 

 nessee and northern Alabama be relieved 

 by improving the Cumberland and Ten- 

 nessee Rivers, which are splendid 

 streams, susceptible to first-class naviga- 



* Speech by Hon. Joseph E. Ransdell, of 

 Louisiana, in the House of Representatives, 

 January 31, 1907. 



