Mr. Warren's letter of June 12 says: "Captain Todd, of Rosebud, reported having taken all freight offered. The Rosebud goes ont of commission for a time. Not enough freight here to load the Judith" (old N. P. Transfer No. 2). Evans Line. Below Bismarck to Chamberlain, Dak. (350 miles). 1886. Freights down: Agency and town supplies, lumber and shingles, bottled beer. Up wheat, hides, "empties," a few passengers. The steamboats on the Upper Missouri are not in direct competition with railroas as on the lower river, and perhaps never will be. This relieves the rivermen in that section from the necessity for silence which is felt below, but their statements are w be taken with caution unless proved from other sources. In my endeavors to get exact data in regard to the 1885 trade, at Bismarck, I was met by the most extravagant and indefinite accounts. Such facts as I have been able to gather by no means bear out the boast of the upper-river men, that their trade far surpasses, in money value, that of the lover river-the evidence seems to be very much the other way. As regards the Yellowstone River its trade was considerable, as will be seen fr the appendices, until the Northern Pacific Railroad was completed to Glendive in 15 at which time the trade dwindled to almost nothing. Its chances for revival at slim, as Glendive is not over 100 miles from the mouth of the river. There will be found appended the annual reports of commercial statistics for the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone rivers, published in the Reports of the Chief of E gineers (Appendices II, III, IV, V, VI, and VII). ADVANTAGES OF IMPROVEMENT. As before stated, steamboat agents proved very unwilling to communicate in regard to their business, and it is my belief that for the lower river, the figures already given can be safely increased 25 per cent. It may seem surprising, that passing, as it does, the granary States of the world, little grain is transported by the Missouri River. Undoubtedly this is mostly due the railroads, who are apparently the bugbears of the steamboat agents. It is easy to see how, by discriminations and by differences between local and through tarif added to the fact that the country along a railroad is to a great extent vassal to itrailroads can, by their combination, ruin the trade of a single highway. But it is not in these ways only that railroads have succeeded in practically pressing Missouri River traffic. The bridges are the obstacles to river trade. The advantage of a water route lies in the huge cargoes of barges that can be guided by one tow-boat. In a tortuons and swift stream, like the Missouri, a larg tow is difficult to handle at all times, but when the dangers are increased by a num ber of bridge piers not only blocking the highway but giving rise to currents and eddies which not infrequently affect the river channel, the difficulties become so grest that there are, at present, no barges run on the Missouri River. Insurance is too high. Yet, with the proposed improved channel, of 12 feet, barges could largely be used in spite of the bridges. A curious feature of bridge bills is, that where they are built high they invariably have (so called) long spans, but where there is a draw pier, which is a far greater obstacle than an ordinary high bridge pier, the channel span is no longer than in the other case and has besides, directly in the middle, a formidable obstruction. The other side of this case is illustrated by the following extract from a letter of Mr. S. W. Cobb, president of the Saint Louis Merchants' Exchange, and taken from the Republican of May 12, 1886, page 7: "The arrivals and departures of freight and passenger steamers have decreased, and will continue to do so. The fact is due to two causes: The steamers of the past were comparatively smaller. The tonnage or carrying capacity of the steamers of today is much greater than that of the steamboats of former years. In addition to this, the building of railways along the rivers has taken the high-classed freight business from the steamboats, and to-day the business of the steamboats is confined to the cheapest class of freight. Wholesale merchants of Saint Louis, with customers along the Missouri River, advise that the retail merchants doing business at river towns which are not reached via rail generally order their goods by boat, if boat is to leave the day or the day following receipt of order; otherwise ship via rail. They are willing to pay the higher rates of freight and cost of transporting by wagons from their nearest rail point rather than to wait two or three days for a boat." "The arrivals and departures of steamers plying on the 1880 1881 1882. during the past six years were— 1883 1884 1885. "These figures are taken from the reports of our exchange, and are as near correct as statistics can be. There is but one conclusion to draw, and that is, that the steamboat business is becoming less profitable year by year." "The Missouri River is practically unobstructed and its traffic has suffered most." "In the abstract we are justified in the conclusion that the bridges have little to do in destroying river traffic. We ascribe its decay more to rail lines paralleling or tapping the river's territory. "S. W. COBB, But when it is considered that water transportation between the Missouri Valley and Liverpool, for instance, is between 40 and 50 per cent. cheaper than via rail to New York, and that the river can be improved so as to be permanently passable for huge fleets, and that the saving in one year would more than pay for said improvements, it seems a pity that the money should not be forthcoming at once. Table 13 shows the difference in rail and water rates referred to above, and the following extract is very pertinent. It is from a call issued for a convention at Kansas City, in November, 1885, to discuss and urge lower-river improvement. After citing the facts given on page 8, it goes on to say: "In 1878 the river rate was 53 cents per bushel for corn and 74 cents for wheat, including insurance; railroad rate was 8 cents per bushel for corn and 13 cents for wheat. With adequate improvement experience seems to show that grain can bo floated from Kansas City to New Orleans for 7 cents per bushel. "Considering the whole Missouri Valley, and adding 3 cents per bushel for excess of distance to New Orleans from foreign ports over Atlantic coast ports it is believed that 12 cents per bushel will make grain available for transportation from New Orleans at the same rates as from Atlantic ports. "The rail rates for years past from Missouri Valley points to the Atlantic have not been less than 21 cents on wheat and 16 cents on corn, a difference of 9 and 4 cents in favor of the river route. "Taking the figures given on page 8, from census of 1880, we have a saving to the producers of over $22,000,000 by the use of the river route, and this is for one year 8872 ENG 87--188 only. This amount is more than twenty times the amount asked for by the Missouri River Commission for one year. Supposing a very bad year reduces the crops 66 per cent., there is still a saving of seven times what the Commission ask for the ensuing ing season." In order to obtain a depth of 12 feet at low. water wide enough for navigation, a result that can be regarded as perfectly practicable, suppose it were necessary to spend as much as $50,000 per mile, which recent experience almost conclusively shows to be a liberal estimate, the cost of obtaining this channel as far up as Kansas City (386 miles) would be less than $20,000,000, an amount, as before shown, saved to the producers of the valley in one year. To carry the same improvement to Sioux City (803 miles) would cost only about $40,000,000 saved to the producers in two years. Taking the low figure of $20,000 per mile as sufficient to build a single-track railroad, we have for two and a half times as much money a highway free to all, and with six hundred times more carrying capacity. On the other side I get the following from credible authority: For several years past the commerce of New Orleans has been decreasing. Grain is nowadays largely carried as ballast, and vessels are not seeking ports merely to carry away grain. The Atlantic ports have this advantage over the Gulf ports, that their imports bring vessels there for other purposes which can and de carry grain back as ballast and for nothing. Consequently, if New Orleans loses its prominence as an importing center, this loss will very materially influence the route of the products of the Mississippi and Msouri River valleys to a market, even supposing both rivers navigable at low water. Captain Patterson informs me that the lowest available depth in the Missouri River during 1885 was at the Osage, about 3.25 feet. At Miami, when our fleet came out in November, two steamers rubbed, but one get 5 feet. At Marthasville there was about 4 feet, and even at the best during the season only about 6 feet. The information herewith handed to the Commission has been obtained from sources too numerous to mention. But to those who have assisted me, should this reach their oyes, I extend my thanks. Name. TABLE 1.—List of steamers plying on Missouri River, in the district of Saint Louis, giring name of vessel, where and when built, date of last inspection, with certain other detailed information, as indicated below. Depth. |