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An Interesting Report On The Mississippi Valley

An Interesting Report On The Mississippi Valley image
Parent Issue
Day
16
Month
June
Year
1881
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Am nteresttag report has been made by tlit! roinmittee of the Cincinnali Board oí Trade on river navtgation, to Mr. Vr. I.. ltobinson, President of the Board. The object of tlie committee is to set forth the resources of tliu Missiaslppi Nalltv and the advantages of cheap transportation by river. Seaking of valleyol' the Mississippi, the report saya: "Greut Ihïtain obtained her manufacturing Bapremaejr and mine power upon one-ninth of the imont possessed liy theseven states drainedby tho Ohio and its tributarles. She was surrounded by oceans, and had cheap and facile transportation; She "had but to set her smps auoat, anu tne mantels or tne world rose at her feet. Improve the Ohio river and its tributaries, asshould be done, and these seven state3 will be nin'e times as powerful as Great 15ritain in commanding the markets of the world." Touching the cheapness of water transportaron, the report says: "The average cost of transporting coal from l'ittsburg to ('inciinuiti, a distunce of 500 miles, is irom two and oue-half to three cents per ton, and from PiUsburg to New Orleans, a distanco of 1,500 miles, from seven to eight cents per ton. Towboats are now regularly taking barges, laden with grain, from St. Louis to New Orleans, the aggregate tonnageof whit-h is from 7,000 to 8,000 tons, and the voyage is made in from seven toten days. ing the iirst three niouths in the years Erom 1875, to 1883, inclusive, tliere were shipped fiom Pittsburg to Cincinnati 45,520,000 bushels of coal. At the coat of one cent per mile for trunsportation, which is a low rate for railroada, a bushei of corn worth 50 cents will abaorjb itself in freight by being conveyed 1,700 miles on a railroad. A bushei of corn can be transported down stream on any of the western rivera at a cost of live cents for 1,700 miles, or one tenth of its value." The extent of our intemal commerce is thus set fort h : " The coal trade of Pittsburg alone employa 80 steam tugs, 1,200 square barges and 500 llats, representing a capacity of C50.000 tons and a capital of $1,000,000. It is esümated that the country Büppliéd with water ilion by tin; MigBissippJ and its tributaries ptodoced, in 1879, ninety per cent of the corn, seventy-three per cent of the wheat, eighty-tliree per cent. of the oats, sixty-iour per cent. of the tobáceo, and seveuty-soven per cent. of tlit; cotton grown in this country, and being in value about one-half the interna] commerce of the whole United States, whieh is estimated ut ibout $38,000,000,000. If tliis esliimite, wliicli is based upon the most reliiible information ntlaiuable, is correct, the interna] commerce cf this valley is about twelve times as great as the total foreign CommerCe of the United States. It is claimed by Governor Wilt., of Louisiana, that the Government has received in one year twice as much íh taxes on western tobáceo alone as it luis laid out on western riv(Tsin ninety years; that t gete 50,0(X)000 annually in taxes on western whiskey; that the duties on imports. which are bought with exporta from the vallcy states, amount year by year to 1100,000.000, and yet all this vast income to the Goverament get.s no recognition or consideration worth the tion. From tlie fact that complete records of the tranaportation by rail have beun kept, and tal by river wholly neglected, unfavorable and unjust comparisons have been freely used in argument against appropriatáans for the itnprovement of tlie rivera, aiid ínembers of Congiess from the eastern states, who have never seen the west and kiiow nothing of its grealness, whose ideas are s narrowas theirowa diminutive rivera, who are unable to comprehend the fact that steamboats can transport freight in unbroken bulk from PlttSburg, Pa. to Fort Benton, Montana, a distance of 4,333 miles, and that lighter craft can ascend the Allegheny to Olean, X. V., 325 miles above Pittsburgh, and the Missouri to Great Falls, where the river leaves the KiK-ky .Mountains, Uiat freight may also be transportad in unbroken bulk from St. Anthony's Falls to tlie Gulf of Mexico, a distance of 2,101 miles, are the men who parade the witfair comparison betvveen river and rail transportatlon in order that they maydefeat the juat claims of the western river interes ts."

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Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Democrat