Show OF MILLIONS WHAT comprehensive SYSTEM OF WATERWAYS improvement MEANS TO FARMERS FIGURES TO SUPPORT FACTS on shipments of grain alone the direct return would mean and proportionately all other products would be affected in a lormer former article we v e gave facts and figures to prove that if ft the compre sive plan of waterway wate ampro improvement eben advocated by the national rivers and harbors con congress conn Kress ross were ere carried out the direct return to the farmers of the country on the single bingle item of grain would certainly be a year and probably would be more than anice twice that sum but grain Is not the only item on which the farmers armors would receive a benefit the fact Is that tor for the farmers and everybody ever body else elbe tor for that the cost of transportation influences practically everything he bus sells dells eats bears ears or uses in any way whatever except water gir air and sunshine the average man Is inclined to laugh when told that he be pays out more for transportation than tie he does tor for taxes or because of the but his laughter does not alter abit tad fact in the least there are three principal methods of 0 transportation the the railway and the waterway and there Is so EO great a difference in the cost of transportation by these different methods ds that it Is worth morth while to study the matter a little the experts of the good roads bureau estimate the cost of lisull hauling ng a ton ot of freight one mlle mile by horse and ai d wagon on the average road in the united states at 25 cents the cost on a thoroughly good smooth road might be reduced to 10 cents poors manual gives mills per ton mile as the average price received received by the rall railways ways in 1907 while the official records kept at the soo show that the average rate on the freight carried into and out ot of lake superior in the same dear was only 8 ot of one mill facts in a nutshell you can better understand ahat these figures dincau it if they are stated in another way they mean that it if you have a dollar to spend in shipping a ton of freight aou ou can send it 4 miles on an avera average geroad road 10 miles on a first class road miles on a railroad and 1250 miles on a lake vessel it Is very easy to see that good roads are a lot better than poor roads but that transportation by horse and wagon is too costly at the best to be used except for small loads and short distances so tar far as interstate traffic Is concerned the wagon road must be left entirely out of consideration it Is just as easy to see what a great benefit would result from the building g of 0 a railway into a region where there was none before and that a still greater benefit would result from so improving a ther that it is made dependably navigable when ben it was not so eo before waterways increase prosperity in three principal ways viz direct saving indirect saving and by what may be called a creative effect the be direct saving is that which occurs on goods actually carried by water and some facts which indicate how great this direct saving is will also make more i plain the vast difference between the cost 0 of f transportation by rail and by water er through the soo canal at the outlet of lake superior there here were mere carried in 1907 tons of freight this was carried an average distance ot of miles at an average cost of 0 8 of 0 one mill per ton mile it if this tad bad been shipped by rail at the average r rt ri t it rate for that year mills its transportation would have cost more than was paid for its carriage by water the total freight carried on all lakes that year was in round numbers tons this tast last tonnage was carried tor for less than it would have cost to send it by rail and the improvements which produce a saving large enough to pay off the national debt in ill less iss than two years cost only proof of good results you call that a pretty fair dividend on the investment and dont ou think it would mould pay to improve all our waterways as fast and as far as we can but says rays some one what reason Is there to suppose that improved rivers would gle give anthina an thing like as good results as haie bac been obtained on the lakes I 1 that Is a a n proper question cu and is entitled to an answer the only waterway in this country which has been improved as a whole Is composed compo Eed of the four lakes above niagara falls but there are many improved rivers in europe from a careful study of the results obtained on these rivers the army engineers estimate that when the improvement of the ohio Is finished freight can be carried thereon for one halt half mill hilll per ler ton mile that means that the dollar which will carry a ton 1276 miles by rail and 1230 1250 miles by lake will carry it 2000 2010 miles by river cost of transportation will viii vary on dIffer 1 iceren elit t alers with iab depth width of 0 current etc but the estimated Ima terl cost coet on a completely improved Improve jN ohio river can be increased by GO CO per sent cent before befaro it will equal the average cost ou on the lakes in 1907 and there Is a margin of nearly per ent before you reach a rate one halt half as high as aa that by roll rall it will pay to improve our |