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Our Greatest Business Need

Increased Freight Moving Facilities

What Col. E. S. Conway Has to Say About the Proposed Deep Waterway from the Great Lakes to the Gulf

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The United States boasts of its

marvelous system of railroads and waterways, and

well it may. Glancing at a map of our country, showing the various arteries of trade, one would think that provision for promptly moving the products of mines, factories, and farms, were more than adequate to meet all demands, yet the fact is apparent on every hand that, in nearly every section, there is a woeful shortage in shipping facilities.

For many years the question of a Deep Waterway between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico has been agitated, and Chicago took the initial step toward the fulfilment of this much needed public improvement, when she decided to appropriate $55,000,000 to cut a ship canal, in place of an open sewer, from the South Branch of the Chicago River to Lockport, Illinois, with an average width of about 200 feet, and a minimum depth of 22 feet of water.

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COL. E. S. CONWAY.

The fact is that the rapidly increasing output of the products of the soil, the mines, and manufactured goods of all kinds, and the active demand for same, have far out-stripped the growth of shipping facilities.

The managers of our railways freely admit that they have been unable to keep pace with the marvelous developments of the country at large, and yet, the railroad interests as a whole, strenuously oppose the improvement of public waterways by the Government.

The cost of a sewage canal would not have exceeded $20,000,000. Thus the citizens of Chicago, by a practically unanimous vote, showed their faith in an open waterway to the Gulf, to the tune of $35,000,000, freely and honestly spent, in excess of their absolute requirements in constructing a good sanitary canal, which would provide ample sewage facilities for all time.

The Chicago Commercial Association, composed of Chicago's leading business men, very naturally are eager to have the United States Government appropriate the comparatively small sum: necessary to complete the deep waterway to the Gulf. This association made a

wise selection when it chose, as its Deep Waterway Committee, Messrs. E. S. Conway, A. C. Bartlett, and Walter H. Wilson.

The Chairman of this Committee, Col. E. S. Conway, is Vice-President of the W. W. Kimball Company, the largest manufacturer of pianos and organs in the world. He is also "Grand Sire,"chief executive-of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of the World, presiding over the affairs of 1,700,000 members. The annual expenditure of this order for the education of its orphans and in relief is $4,700,000.

When Col. Conway espouses a cause, he goes into it up to his neck, and he is a six footer, and every inch a fighter. Just now, he is a Deep Waterway "on wheels" and, being a Baptist, he enters into the work heartily.

Last month he was chairman of a committee of the Chicago Commercial Association, to attend the convention of the National Rivers and Harbors Congress, which met in Washington, D. C., December 6th and 7th. The Committee consisted of Col. Conway, Chairman, T. Edward Wilder, H. C. Barlow, W. D. Moody, and A. C. Tisdele.

These gentlemen did good work in the convention and outside as well. One of the members wrote a song, set to the air of "Shouting the Battle Cry of Freedom." The song ran as follows:

"We represent the people who want the water

way

Fourteen feet through the valley. We represent the shippers, who have the big

gest say

Fourteen feet through the valley. We want the ships a-running and lowering the

rate

Fourteen feet through the valley. And if we get the water, we'll guarantee the freight

Fourteen feet through the valley.

Chorus.

We're going to have the water,
We're going to have the way;
We've got the tonnage waiting
To make the vessels pay;
And we'll get the fifty million
With Uncle Sam's O. K.-
Fourteen feet through the valley."

The Chicago committee sang this song in the capitol committee rooms, and in

the White House as well, when about 300 delegates of the convention called upon President Roosevelt to present to him the resolutions they had adopted. After the committee had pinned their badge upon the President's breast, Mr. Wilder, of the Chicago committee, led in the song. President Roosevelt took a card from the hand of one of the committee and joined heartily in the singing. He expressed himself as in heartiest sympathy with the work of the convention, and said, "I would very much like to be introduced to your 'poet laureate.' I want him to write as good a song as that about the Panama Canal."

AGRICULTURAL ADVERTISING asked Mr. Conway a few questions regarding the proposed deep waterway, and in answer he kindly dictated the following:

Col. E. S. Conway on the Deep Waterway

from the Great Lakes to the Gulf

The question is often asked by those who have not the time to compare conditions existing in canal and non-canal countries, or sections of such countries, what advantages would accrue to manufacturers, business men and the public at large by the construction of a deep waterway from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. In the limited space at command this question must be answered generally, rather than specifically.

It is estimated that from 60 to 70 per cent of the cost of living is consumed in charges for the transportation of the various commodities necessary for the maintenance of the individual and his family. Therefore, whatever diminishes the cost of carriage, diminishes the expense of living, and becomes an exceedingly important economical question. James J. Hill, president of the Great Northern railway system, said recently, in testimony given before the congressional committee on rivers and harbors, "Given a good channel, and a good craft, no form of trans

portation can compete with water-borne traffic" an assertion that is demonstrated daily the civilized world over.

The rate of carriage by rail varies from 6 to 8.58 mills per ton-mile, the average cost of carriage for all the roads of the United States being 7.79 mills per ton-mile. Ocean freight rates are almost invariably one-half a mill per ton-mile. On the Great Lakes the cost of carriage is about 60 of a mill per tonmile, while on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers transportation charges are about .50 of a mill per ton-mile, which shows that water-borne traffic, including canals and small rivers, costs from one-quarter to one-third that carried by rail. One steamer will take down the Mississippi a barge fleet, carrying from 70,000 to 80,000 tons of coal, at a charge of 50c a ton, while the rail rate is more than four times as much for a less distance. Coal rates from Ashtabula to Duluth are just twenty times greater by rail than by water.

To the shipper the regulation of rates of carriage is fully as important as the rate itself. With constantly fluctuating freight charges, or with charges fixed to meet the demands of large or wealthy shippers, the small produce is simply at the mercy of the transportation companies. Freight will always seek the cheapest means of conveyance, and since water furnishes that desideratum, freight will naturally seek that mode of carriage. The more costly means must always be in competition with the cheaper, and be modified by it.

The improvement of the channel and harbors of the Great Lakes permitted the use of more capacious vessels, but before that time the water rate on wheat from Chicago to New York was 29.61 cents a bushel, and the all-rail rate was 46.10 cents a bushel. Larger vessels brought the water rate down to 5.25 cents a bushel, which forced the railroads to reduce this rate to 10.60 cents a bushel. This reduction resulted in an annual saving to the farmers of the

states bordering on the lakes of more than $20,000,000 on their grain crop

alone.

When the rate on wheat from St. Louis to New Orleans by river was 30.6 cents per bushel, it was 70.2 cents per bushel by rail from St. Louis to New York. But when the river rate fell from 30.6 cents to 4.25 cents per bushel to New Orleans, the rail rate to New York immediately followed it down from 70.2 cents to 11.6 cents. This shows that the lower rate by water will pull down the higher rate by rail, even when the rates are between non-competitive points.

The waterway can never be controlled by a trust or combination, because it is an open highway, upon which any individual who has money enough to build a barge can embark in the business of a common carrier and conduct it as he sees fit. No one has any better or greater right of way than he. He has no fixed charges to pay for maintenance of roadway, stations, or water tanks, and he has no bonded indebtedness to meet nor dividends to pay on stock issued for the cost of construction. The time required to complete the waterway from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi river will depend upon the energy with which the Government pushes the work. It could be completed in two years, and it might possibly take five, depending on the liberality of Congress in making appropriations.

Congress will do whatever the people demand, and it is "up to them" to use their influence with the members of Congress, giving them to understand most unequivocally, that this work is essential to the business interests of the country and must be completed without delay. The coal famine in the West shows the congested condition of the railway traffic, and proves that additional and cheaper transportation facilities must be provided to meet the demands of the growing industrial and commercial interests of the country.

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DR. HARVEY W. WILEY, CHAIRMAN NATIONAL PURE FOOD COMMISSION.

Analyst, Illinois State Food Commission; Dr. Charles J. Whalen, Health Commissioner of the City of Chicago, nor Mr. Paul Pierce, publisher of What to Eat, seemed to concern themselves as to the purity of the excellent bill of fare. They pitched in and ate and drank just like ordinary mortals, who eat and drink what tastes good, and "ask no questions for conscience sake." One

couldn't tell, by the way they

Toastmaster J. R. Katherns, president
of the club, began at the bottom of the
program and introduced Mr. Paul
Pierce as the first speaker of the even-
ing, who spoke on the subject,
How the National Pure Food Law Will Affect
Food Advertising

Paul Pierce, Publisher, What to Eat
Mr. Pierce said in part:

The pure food agitation, and the resultant enactment of the national food law has done

more to advance America's food industry than any step that has ever before been taken in the country's history, it is creating publicity of greater value to the food producers and to the manufacturers of the legitimate, staple, standard brands of food products, than all the advertising in the past combined-not all the food manufacturers realize this fact.

America has become much greater than many of our people realize. No longer are our manufacturers dependent upon home trade. America has become the food market place of the world. On our great cattle ranges of the West, graze the herds that are to provide most of the nations with their meats. On our great Northwestern fields, waves the wheat that is to furnish most of the people of the world with their bread. Our butter and cheese, beverages, and relishes, and all manner of tinned products enter the market of all the nations. To the men who cater to this world

PAUL PIERCE

trade, the enactment of the pure food law, and the agitation for pure foods have been a blessing that many of their minds have failed to grasp. True, the food conditions in America and the agitation for pure food have been advertised to the world and the first effect, no doubt, has been temporarily disastrous. The after effect is to inform the world that food conditions in America have been revolutionized; that drastic national and state laws have been passed, and that, in consequence of this governmental supervision, American foods are now to be the purest of any in the world. All the nations will reach out for our food products as models of purity and wholesomeness. Foods labeled, "Made in America," will be as famous as once were the wares bearing the trade-mark "Made in Germany."

The agitation for pure foods and the resultant enactment of the national food law are also the greatest things that ever happened for the advertising man. It will result in an era

of advertising such as the country has never known before. It doesn't cost the food manufacturer any more for a page advertisement in the magazines or newspapers than it costs the manufacturer of boats, fire-arms, automobiles, pumps, razors, opera glasses, diamonds, and so on, and yet he gets from ten to a hundred times the service. Every man, woman, and child eat foods, yet the boat man, the automobile man and so on, find it most profitable to buy space by the pages in the magazines, and the food man sits back and wonders whether it will pay him to advertise. Where one man in five thousand may buy a boat once a year, the five thousand people in five thousand eat foods every day of the 365 days in a year, and most of them eat three meals every day. Thus there are about 5,375,000 meals eaten to where there is one boat purchased. There are nearly seventy-five thousand firms in this country doing an interstate business in food products. Food advertising has just started. It is bound to be the bulk of advertising in the future, because of the now favorable conditions under the national food law.

The national food law is going to create food advertising by the manufacturer and distributors of food products, because

First-It is going to make it possible for a man to manufacture and sell a food product without putting that product in competition with a fraud.

Second-It is going to create food advertising, because it will create new names and new terms for food products, and these new names and new terms must be advertised.

Third-It is going to create advertising because it will force the manufacturer who is engaged in interstate commerce in food products and whose products, therefore, must comply with the national food law, to advertise to meet the competition of the manufacturer within the state, who is manufacturing products to sell within the state and whose products do not have to comply with the national food law.

Fourth-It is going to create food advertising, because it has already, and it will continue to create the greatest interest in the consumer, who is already educating himself to judge and discriminate as to the products he buys.

Fifth-It is going to create advertising because of the necessity to reassure the public on this food subject, which public has become very timid as to many classes of food prod

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ucts.

Sixth-It is going to create advertising because it will destroy the business in cheap, fraudulent, adulterated, private brands that do not comply with the national food law.

Seventh-It will create advertising because it will bring about a more profitable and satisfactory relation between the manufacturer of legitimate, standard brands and the jobber.

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