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Show SMUG 0F1LL1S WHAT COMPREHENSIVE SYSTEM OF WATERVAYS IMPROVEMENT IMPROVE-MENT MEAN 3 TO FARMER. . FIGURES TO SUPPORT FACTS- On Shipments of Grain Alone the Direct Di-rect Return Would Mean $100,000,-0C0, $100,000,-0C0, and Proportionately All Other Product Would Be Affected. In a former article we gavo facts and figures to prove thaL If the comprehensive compre-hensive plan of waterway Improvement Improve-ment advocated by the National Rivers Riv-ers and Harbors congress were carried car-ried out, the direct return to tho farmers farm-ers of the country, on the single item of grain, would certainly bo $100,000,-000 $100,000,-000 a year Hnd probably would bo more than twice that sura. But grain Is not the only ltrn on which the farmers would receive a benefit. The fact Is that for the farmers farm-ers and everybody else, for that matter mat-ter the cost of transportation influences influ-ences practically everything he buys, sells, eats, wears or uses In any way whatever, except water, air and sunshine. sun-shine. The average man Is Inclined to laugh when told that he pa;s out more for transportation than he does for taxes or because of the tariff but bis laughter does not alter tho fact in the leasL There are three principal methods of transportation, the wagon way, the railway and the waterway, and there Is so great' a difference In the cost of transportation by those different methods meth-ods that It is worth while to study the matter a little. The experts of the goo roads bureau estimate the cost of houllng a ton of freight one milt ' by horse and 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. Poor's Manual gives 7.82 mills per ton-mile ton-mile as the average prlco received by the railways in 1907. while the official records kept at the Soo show that the avercge rate on the freight carried Into and out of Lake Superior In tho same year was only . of one mill. Facta in a Nutshell. u You can better understand what these figures mean If they aro slated In another way. They mean that If you have a dollar to spend In shipping a ton of freight you can send It 4 miles-on an average road, 10 miles on a first-class road, 127 miles on a railroad, rail-road, and 1.250 miles on a lake vessel. It Is very easy to see that good roads ,are a lot ter than poor roads but that tran i3tlon by horse and wagon is too costly at the best to be used except for small loads and short distances. So 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 bencfit'would result from the building of a railway Into a region where there was none before, and that a still greater benefit would result from so Improving a river' that it is mad dependably navigable when It was not so before. Waterways Increase prosperity in three principal ways, viz. direct saving, sav-ing, Indirect saving, and by what may bo called a creative effect. The direct saving Is that which occurs on goods actually carried by water, and some facts which Indicate how great this direct di-rect saving Is, will also make more plain the vast difference between the cost of transportation by rail and by water. Through tho Soo-canal at the outlet out-let of Lake Superior there were carried car-ried In 1907. C8.217.21 4 tons of freight. This was carried an average distance of 823.3 miles at an average cost of .8 of one mill per ton mile. If this had been shipped by rail at the aver age railway rate for that yejir (7.82 rAllls). Its transportation would have cost Jj3S,C33,3G4 more than was paid for Its carriage by water. The total freight carried on all lakes that year was, In round numbers, num-bers, 100,000,000 tons. This vast tonnage ton-nage was carried for $'550 000,000 less than It would have cost to send It by rail, and the improvements, which produce pro-duce a saving large enough to pay off the national debt In less than two years, cost only $85,000,000. ' Proof of Good Result. W ouldn't you call that a pretty fair dividend on the investment? And don't you think it would fiay to Improve all our waterways as fast and as far na we can? I ' But." says some one, ''what reason is there to suppose that Improved rivers riv-ers would give an thing Ilk? as good results as have been obtained on lh lakes?" That Is a proper question and is entitled to an answer. The onlv waterway In this country which has be. n Improved as a whole Is composed of the four lakes above Niagara Falls, but there are many Improved Im-proved rivers In Europe From a careful care-ful study of the results obtained on these rivers the army engineers estimate esti-mate that when the Improvement of the Ohio river Is finished, freight can be carried therfon for one-half mill per ton mile That means that the dollar which will carry a ton 127sfc miles by rail and 1.25 miles by lake, will carry It miles by river Cost of transportation will vary on different rivers with depth, width, swiftness of current, etc, but the estimated es-timated cost on a completely improved f.Mo rher can be increased by f.O per -ent. before li will equal the average o;,t on the lakes in H07, and there "a btlll a margin of nearly 400 per - tit. before you reach a rate one-half - h'- as that bv rail. It will pay to |