Chicago to the Gulf 



683 



in one year (1905) was nearly two and 

 a half times as much as this total cost of 

 all our improvements on the entire Lake 

 System. Surely that was a wise expend- 

 iture of money. 



Let me cite another instance of lake 

 and rail rates. Between Pittsburg and 

 the harbors of Conneaut and Ashtabula, 

 on Lake Erie, there is a very large com- 

 merce, amounting annually to about 

 30,000,000 tons, composed of iron ore 

 and coal. The ore is carried by boat 

 from Duluth, at the head of Lake Su- 

 perior, to Ashtabula or Conneaut, a dis- 

 tance of about 1,000 miles, and a charge 

 of approximately 80 cents per ton. It is 

 then loaded on cars and carried 135 miles 

 to Pittsburg for 90 cents per ton, the 

 rate being 10 cents higher to go 135 

 miles by rail than 1,000 miles by water, 

 and the water rate being about one- 

 seventh of the rail rate. Coal is carried 

 from Pittsburg to these Erie ports at 90 

 cents per ton and loaded on boats for 

 shipment to Duluth and other points on 

 the Lakes, where it is hauled at the rate 

 of 35 cents per ton, the water rate at this 

 instance being one-twentieth of the rail 

 rate. 



THE OHIO RIVER 



There is a very large commerce on the 

 Ohio River, according to the report of 

 the Ohio River Board of United States 

 Engineers. The exact cost of carrying 

 this commerce is not stated by the board, 

 but one of its members, Maj. William L. 

 Siebert, of Pittsburg, who is one of the 

 ablest engineers in the corps, estimates 

 that the cost of conveying freight on the 

 Ohio River between Pittsburg and 

 Louisville in 1905, even in the present 

 unsatisfactory condition of the river, 

 when boats are able only to operate a few 

 months of each year, was 0.76 of one 

 mill per ton per mile, one-tenth of the 

 average rail rate, and that the cost be- 

 tween Louisville and New Orleans was 

 0.67 of one mill per ton per mile, about 

 one-eleventh of the average rail rate. 

 Hence we have the rate on the Lakes 

 0.85 of one mill, or one-ninth of the rail 



rate; on the Ohio, 0.76 of one mill, or 

 one-tenth of that by rail, and on the 

 lower Ohio and Mississippi, between 

 Cairo, 0.67 of one mill, or one-eleventh 

 of average rail rate, which is 7.6 mills 

 per ton per mile. 



This same Ohio River Board, in their 

 report on the project for 9-foot naviga- 

 tion between Pittsburg and Cairo, esti- 

 mate that with the Ohio River improved 

 to that depth the freight charge between 

 Pittsburg and Louisville would be 0.5 of 

 one mill per ton per mile, and between 

 Pittsburg and New Orleans 0.37 of one 

 mill per ton per mile. They quote from 

 an interesting report of Major Mahan, of 

 the Engineer Corps, showing that the 

 Volga River, in Russia, has an annual 

 commerce of about 14,000,000 tons ; that 

 the navigation is about six months of 

 each year; that the freight charge on 

 cereals is 2.22 mills per ton per mile; on 

 manufactured iron, 1.8 mills; on steel, 

 1.6 mills, and on naptha, 1.5 mills. They 

 show, too, that the navigation is nearly 

 all done against the strong current of the 

 river, where it is much more difficult and 

 expensive than slack water. 



As an argument for the adoption of 

 the 9-foot project they say that the 

 steamer Spragne tows to market, from 

 Louisville to New Orleans, sometimes as 

 much as 60,000 tons of freight on one 

 trip. The Kaiserin Augusta Victoria, 

 one of the largest ships afloat, has a 

 freight tonnage of 25,000 tons. The 

 horse-power of the Sprague is 2,175 ; 

 that of the Kaiserin Augusta Victoria 

 17,200, and that of sufficient locomotives 

 to haul the Sprague's cargo on an aver- 

 age grade road, 24,000. 



THE WATERWAY SYSTEM OF GERMANY 



A study of the waterway system of 

 Germany, in a recent excellent work on 

 Modern Germany, by O. Eltsbacher, dis- 

 closes the fact that Germany has devel- 

 oped its waterways to the highest degree, 

 and immense quantities of freight are 

 carried thereon. On the Oder the cost is 

 about 31-3 mills per ton per mile; on the 

 Elbe, 2y2 mills; on the Rhine, 1.8 mills. 



