Honors for Amundsen 



7 1 



Concurrently have come in- 

 ventions for the rapid handling of 

 cargo, so that one of these great 

 cargoes of iron ore or grain can 

 be, and some times is, loaded in 

 a couple of hours and unloaded 

 within five hours. Covering a 

 voyage between Lake Erie ports 

 and the head of Lake Superior 

 such a vessel makes a round trip 

 in from 7 to 12 days according as 

 she goes without cargo one way 

 or is loaded each way and sub- 

 ject to congestion at either ter- 

 minal. 



Such has been the progress 

 and demand for transportation 

 that the railroads are so choked, 

 especially at their terminals, that 

 they are, and have been, exhaust- 

 ing every device that ingenuity, 

 involving concurrence of action 

 between railroads and shippers, 

 can suggest to prevent mileage 

 service of the average freight car 

 being reduced below the already 

 alarming point, said to be within 

 past ten years from 30 miles to 

 20 miles per day. 



The Great Lakes system is fur- 

 nishing in its cheap water trans- 

 portation about one-third as much 

 ton-mile service in its eight months 

 season as the combined service of all the 

 railroads of the United States in the year. 



The average ton-mile cost by our rail- 

 roads, which is, generally speaking, half 

 or less than the cost in Europe, runs over 

 8 mills. The favorably located and best 

 equipped may come down to one-half of 

 this but not lower unless we regard a very 

 few exceptional cases to which a general 

 rule could not be applied. The ton-mile 

 cost in the Great Lakes haul is about one- 

 tenth the average of the rail haul and say 

 one-fifth that of the most favored rail 

 routes with the exceptions stated. 



While Henry Clay protested, strong, 

 helpful men of business forced a pass- 

 age between the east and the magnificent 

 northwest of the United States and Can- 

 ada which we see todav. The state of 



ESKIMO AT KING WILLIAMS LAND 



Michigan was induced to take upon her- 

 self the building of a lock at the Sault. 

 To accomplish the cherished idea it is 

 said that some of these men traveled 50 

 miles on snow-shoes through a winter 

 wilderness to attend a meeting, lest the 

 project fail or falter. 



It did not fail because it was the des- 

 tiny of the great American and Canadian 

 Northwest to become the chief grainery 

 of the world. It was the destiny of the 

 United States to become the imperial 

 factor in iron and steel and in industrial 

 pursuits ; and the destiny of the United 

 States has never yet halted for lack of 

 human instruments. 



So the Indian legend that Gargantua, 

 the great chief and demi-god, when he 

 found the waters of Lake Superior rising, 

 put on his great boots and walked around 



