Production and Consumption . 
37 
general govenraent would loan its credit. That that state would 
be amply competent to take care of the interest and ultimately 
discharge the principal no man can question. 
And then some $4,000,000 expended by the government in the 
improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, would complete 
the job, without embarrassment to the national treasury. Thus 
would the, portage across Wisconsin and the Erie canal be of 
the same capacity. 
The only remaining question, then, on this point, to be dis¬ 
cussed, is the possibility of using barges, suitable for canal ser - 
vice and to ride the heavy seas of the upper lakes. I have no 
guide—nothing better than intuition and analogy to guide me to 
a conclusion on this subject, and yet I have not the shadow of a 
doubt of the feasibility of the plan. Last season, we saw in the 
newspapers, that a raft of logs, containing 1,000,000 feet of lum¬ 
ber, had been successfully towed through a heavy storm from 
Grand Haven to Chicago. A twelve month anterior prediction 
that such a feat was possible, would have been derided as a 
“lunatic hallucination,” But facts are facts on their first, as well 
as subsequent appearance, and if rafts of saw-logs can be made to 
successfully ride the mountainious seas of Lake Michigan, can any 
one doubt that barges may do likewise ? The barges should be 
made with “ tumble-in ” or oval decks, and with hatchways sealed 
water tight. Then lash them with jointed spars, a sufficient dis¬ 
tance apart to prevent contact and abrasion, when being tossed 
about, and w T ith long tow lines, they would ride in fleets of fifty or 
more as safe as the best clippers that ride the waters. 
Here, then, we have a plan, with no formidable outlay of capi- 
ital, by the general government, to transport our cereals and other 
products from any point on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, or 
their extended tributaries, to New York, without breaking bulk— 
without intermediate elevators and storehouses, to act like sponges, 
in sucking up all profits—without middlemen, and without any 
of those tormenting delays and expenses that now “eat up the 
grist before it reaches the mill,” and charging the toll back upon 
the muscle of production. 
The cost of maintaining or repairing, canals is much less than 
