VOL. LXII
INDIANAPOLIS, MARCH 16, 1907.
NO. 11
PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION.
The Great Problem of Marketing the
Surplus of the Central States.
Outlets Through Natural and Artificial
Waterways.
When Congress adjourned last
week there was pending a very important bill to both agriculture and
manufacturing, and incidentally to
all other interests, providing for
deep water transportation, by way
of the great lakes on the north ami
the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, to
ihe Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Ocean. The contemplated expenditure for this great work is $400,-
000,000. It  is   proposed   to  make
a nine foot water channel in the Ohio
river from Pittsburg to Cairo, and a
fourteen-foot waterway by canal and
Mississippi river from Chicago to the
Gulf of Mexico. In the latter improvement the present canal from
Chicago to the Mississippi river
would require enlarging and deepening to accommodate a large class of
steamers. It is probable that jet-
ftes, dams and locks would have to
be built at places on the Ohio. This
is the outline of great plans which
have been long studied by engineers,
and the pending bill in Congress is
based on the data thus far afforded
by   the  surveys.
The coming, if not present, need oE
this great work, is most tersely set
forth by a letter of Hon. Theodore
I'. Shonts, Chairman of the Panama
Commission,    who writes as follows.
"Notwithstanding our phenomenal
growth in population our capacity to
produce in both field and factory has
more than kept pace with our growth
in numbers. If our prosperity is to
continue, we must have wide mar-
kits for our goods. What better
fields for exploitation exist than the
territory of our next door neighbors
in Central and South America? But
while it is necessary to have the markets in which to sell our goods, it \s
equally necessary' to have the facilities with which to transport them.
I mean by this that the volume of
our export trade to-day is seriously
hampered by the overtaxed condition
of our railways especially at terminal
points; in fact, it is a serious question whether it has not reached its
limit under present conditions Many
of the important railway systems i»
their desire to provide more adequate
accommodations are going so far in
their efforts to raise money for this
purpose as to well-nigh imperil their
< tedit.
Port terminals are already so
siairce and valuable as to render adequate relief in that direction improbable, at any reasonable cost It is
therefore suggested that there be
created a vast interior harbor reaching from Chicago to the Gulf.
"The beneficial effects of sueh a
harbor are many and obvious. In
the tirst place, it would furnish opportunities for the creation of terminal facilities along its entire
length. In the second place, it would
build up and develop tbe entire Mississippi Valley by giving it the advantages of terminal ports brought
close to the doors. In the third
place, and this has a most direct
bearing on our canal proposition, it
would give the people of our great
Middle West, with their geographical proximity and these superior
transportation facilities, a distinct
advantage over the rest of the country in commanding the South American trade."
And so here is the problem, outlined in the map of the Central West,
The Waterways of  the Central West
which   the Indiana  Farmer has prepared and points on this page.    The
territory included in the outline map
embraces chiefly  the    great    surplus
producing  States  in   agriculture  and
manufacturing,     which   are   increasing the output of    surplus    in  both
fields    of    industry  by    leaps    and
bounds.    Here wc are in the interior
far  from  the  great  oceans  of  commerce which must carry this surplus
to world  markets.        But the chain
of lakes on the north and the rivers
to the gulf and ocean point the way
out,    and now    to    utilize them    is
our  problem.       Mr.     Shonts    points
out the    fact that   increased production  has  already  overtaxed  the   possibilities of the railways in shipments
to the soa,    and this condition is rapidly  growing,     for  production  is  increasing    faster  than     railways  are
building to take care of it,    and so it
seems wisdom to find the way out of
the   interior   to   the   markets   of   the
world.
South America, China, Japan aud
the Orient generally, with their hundreds of millions of consumers are
more and more demanding what we
grow and what we manufacture.
Tlic canal being constructed across
the Isthmus of Panama will not be
completed before it will be badly
wanted, and the purpose of this
proposed interior work of canals, connecting the improved natural waterways with the great lakes, is to give
outlet for the surplus to the Gulf of
Mexico and Pacific Ocean-, a surplus
which all therailways are and will be
totally inadequate to carry. Look
at tbe map presented here. The
Ohio river, the canal connecting
Lakes Brie and Michigan with the
Mississippi, the Missouri and other
tributary rivers, flowing through
the surplus-producing States, and
converging into the main waterway,
affords an inviting solution of^ the
problem the railway systems are totally unable to solve. In the midst
of this railway congestion of freights,
this is a timely movement to improve
the natural waterways aud so connect them with the chain of lakes as
will afford thousands of miles of
water navigation, the cheapest in
the world. With such improvement
it is said that each great towboat
could carry forty ordinary traiuloads
to the ocean.
On the north, Minnesota, the Dakotas and Manitoba has a like inviting outlook by water through Lake
Winnipeg and Hudson Bay to the
ocean, lt is said that J. J. Hill, the
noted railway man of the northwest,
has had surveys made and has received bids on opening the Red River
through to Lake Winnipeg and tha
Nelson river from Lake Winnipeg to
Hudson Bay, at a cost of about $10,-
(MIO.000. for a canal that will carry
ocean going vessels. And so the
northweat has promises of water
navigation for carrying their surplus
during at least six months of the
year. That improvement would
shorten the distance to Liverpool.
England by 1,400 miles, compared
with the present lines of outlet, via
the great lakes, and would cheapen
transportation greatly to the world's
markets  for  the  northwest.
The many  lines of railway center-