- ^^ 
 
 lit 
 
 A traffic history of the 
 Mississippi River System, 
 
 hy 
 Frank Haigh Dixon 
 
 l^
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 //
 
 ^'^"Nrrrj ^^ational waterways Commission f"^"^^^^'"'' 
 
 A TRAFFK HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MTSSrSSlPPI RIVER SYSTEM 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANK HAIGH)Di;s:ON 
 
 I'rofesaor of Economics, Dartmouth College 
 
 SHIX(iT()N 
 
 T rKINTIX<; OKFICK 
 
 1 !»(»!! 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 WTVEP.SJTY Or CALU'CP.^.-*
 
 
 T A BL K OF VON TKNT> 
 
 I 'age. 
 
 Soun-ey uf information 5 
 
 Devplopinoiit of transportation on the Mississippi River system previous to 1860. 9 
 
 I , I'ofore the I imc of steam 9 
 
 1 1 . The stoamlxjat and its comjjetitors 12 
 
 1 1 1 . ( )hio River conimorff' 17 
 
 1\ . I'pper Mississippi commorcc 20 
 
 \' . Missouri River commerce 22 
 
 V I . St. Louis 24 
 
 \' 1 1 . ' 'anal-lake competition 24 
 
 \' 1 1 1 . Rates and fares 26 
 
 1 .\ . Speed and accidents 28 
 
 X . The beginning of railway comijet ition 29 
 
 Decline of river commerce after 1860 37 
 
 i . Tlie war antl the railways 37 
 
 II. Ohio River commerce 40 
 
 111. Upper Mississippi comm(>rce 48 
 
 I \' . St . Louis 52 
 
 \ . Missouri River commerce 54 
 
 \' 1 . Lower Mississippi commerce 55 
 
 Summary 64 
 
 3 
 
 UNI . - 
 
 -::rORNIil 
 
 1949S0
 
 r
 
 SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 
 
 Tiaflic statistics ol' the vvutcrways of tho United States, paiticu- 
 larly oi the river systems, have been very unsatisfactory, and in spite 
 of the care now taken to obtain information from the most rehable 
 sources, they can be re2;arded even at present as only approximately 
 correct. This is due to the fact that the United States Government 
 has never assumed control of waterway traffic as it has of that of 
 railways and hen<^e has nevei' requested fioni water cai'riers unj 
 statistical reports. 
 
 Such statistics as have been collected lai»j;ely come from two 
 sources: First, the oro;anized conunercial bodies of the larger cities, 
 and, second, the reports of the Corps of United States Engineers, who, 
 in their investigations and construction work upon the waterways, 
 have collected under instructions such commercial statistics as were 
 available and as were likely to assist the authorities in judging 
 the probable commercial value of any engineeiiiig project. The 
 United States engineers have in most cases collected their own in- 
 formation, but in some instances they have taken their facts second- 
 hand from the conunercial organizations, so that this vohmtary 
 machinery is frequently almost our only source of information. 
 That the information secured in this wa}^ is far from satisfactory 
 must be apparent at once. In the first place, many of the chambers 
 of commerce have had no systematic plan for the preservation of 
 records: some have lost their records by fire, others by the ravages 
 of war. The annual reports of only one river city — Cincinnati — have 
 been available preA'ious to 1860 and these reports could be secured 
 only as far back as 1S4S. Whatever of information, therefore, is 
 desired from these sources must be obtained from such reprints as 
 have been made by the commercial journals of the time or by the 
 reports of the United States engineers. Moreover, such information 
 us is available is almost useless because it lacks uniformity, is local 
 in its outlook, and is presented in sucli haphazard fashion that no 
 comprehensive picture of river commerce for any one year can be 
 obtained l)y any combination of the local figures. Of more serious 
 importance, however, is the fact that the statistics are probably in no 
 case complete. If a boat captain, after secui'ilig a full load, chose 
 to leave the dock without submitting a record of his cargo to the 
 harbor master, there was no power that could prevent, and complaints 
 of this character M^ere frequent. Again there was no compulsory 
 .system of waybills or records of any sort, and products were fre- 
 quently taken from port to port with no more fornuility than the 
 transfer of the freight money to the purser's pocket. No reliance 
 should l)e placed, tiierefore, upon the statistics of traffic presented in 
 this discussion as a picture of the actual business of any particular 
 year. However, it is fair to assume tiiat they are of some value 
 
 5
 
 6 TRAFFIC HISTOEY OF MISSISSIPPI EIVEB SYSTEM. 
 
 when looked at comparatively. It is probable that the statistics 
 of one year were taken in about the same manner as those of another. 
 Hence,' however inadequate the information may otherwise be, we 
 may fairly draw conclusions as to the increase or decrease of traffic 
 over a period of years. 
 
 Aside from occasional special studies which bear either directly or 
 indirectly upon the subject under consideration, most of the informa- 
 tion here given for the period previous to 1860 is derived from 
 congressional documents, including special reports of government 
 officials, or congressional committees, the annual reports of the Chief 
 of Engineers, United States Army, and from current publications, 
 such as Xiles' Register and Hunt's Merchants' Magazine. Reference 
 should also be made to the careful and detailed history of Mississippi 
 River commerce in the Report on Internal Commerce of the United 
 States for 1887. 
 
 For the period after 1860, the authorities already quoted have 
 been drawnupon. In addition to these sources, annual reports of the 
 chambers of commerce and similar commercial organizations of the 
 principal river cities have been available, including the reports of 
 commercial bodies in Cincinnati, Pittsburg, Louisville, Kansas City, 
 New Orleans, St. Paul, and St. Louis. In addition there are the 
 ollicial publications of the United States Government, which have 
 been very much more satisfactory in recent years, some of which 
 have devoted considerable attention to water traffic. 
 
 The collection of statistics of trafiic on internal waterways, so far 
 as it was authorized hj congressional statute, began with the river 
 and harl)or bills of 1866 and 1867, which required the Secretary of 
 ^^'ar to report on various works and to state the amount of com- 
 merce and navigation which woidd be benefited by the expenditures. 
 This legalized a long-standing practice under which the Corps of 
 Engineers reported the commercial statistics in the manner already' 
 described. On May 8, 1875, an act was passed which provided for an 
 annual report by the Bureau of Statistics of "'the actual cost of 
 transporting freight and ])assengers on the railroads and on the canals, 
 rivers, and other navigable waters of the United States, the charges 
 imposed for such transportation of freight' and j)assengers, and the 
 tonnage transported." A Bureau of Internal Conmierce was set up 
 in the Treasury Department and the (irst report was issued in 1876 
 as Part 11 ol' the Annual Report on Cojumerce and .Navigation." 
 
 These re])()rts continued to l)e i.ssued with some irregularity until 
 the inauguiiition of the Monthly Summaiy ot"(\)mmerce and Fiiumce, 
 in 1901, which devotes a section to internal commeire. The sta- 
 tistics for the river .systems as they appear in this summary are in 
 most cases drawn from the monthlv re))orts of the United vStates 
 engineers, the latter being assisted ui the collection of information 
 by an ad of Congress ol" l<'ebruary 21, 1801, which rc'cpiires agents 
 of all vessels iiavignting waterways under fe(l(Mal improvement to 
 furnish slntcments of their vessel caigoes to the United States engi- 
 neei- ollicci- in locad charge <»!' such improvements. 
 
 o Tht! n'Dort ontitlod "('()inmorc(! and Navipation," devoted solely to foreign com- 
 merco. had hccn i^'^'llr'd aiinuallv f'ince 1822.
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 7 
 
 Other official publications of value which cover the period of the 
 last twenty years include the volume on Transportation by V\ ater, in 
 the Census of 1S90, and the Special Census Report on Transportation 
 by Water in 1!)06, and the Preliminary Report of the Inland Water- 
 ways Commission, 1908, containing nmch information collected by 
 the Bureau of Coi-porations. This material is now being published 
 by the Bureau of Corporations in more extended form in a series of 
 volumes. The first two parts have appeared, and discuss General 
 Conditions of Transportation by Water (pt. 1) and Water-borne 
 Traffic (pt. 2). All of these publications have been freely drawn 
 upon in the preparation of this study.
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF THANSPOHTATION ON THE MISSISSIPPI 
 RIVER SYSTEM PREVIOUS TO IHfiO. 
 
 BEFORE THE TIME OF STEAM. 
 
 In tracing the traffic liistor}' of the waterway system of the Middle 
 West it is unnecessary to give more than ])assing attention to the 
 period preceding tlie nineteenth centurj-. The development of our 
 mternal resources liardly took its heginning until the close of the 
 French and Indian war, in 1763, when Kentuck}- and Tennessee re- 
 ceived their first settlers. During the Kevolution a (considerable 
 trade sprang u]) between the Ohio River settlements on the one hand 
 and New ()rleans and the eastern seaboard on the other, the ship- 
 ments of tlie middle western producers being down the Ohio and the 
 Mississipj)i, but this was suddenly cut oft" with the enforcement by 
 S|)ain of her commercial restrictions on the lower Mississippi after 
 17S"). Not until the j^urchase of Louisiana in 1803, or even until 
 aftei- the war of 1812, was the Mississippi sufficiently free from 
 obstructions or the traders sufficiently protected from annoyance and 
 risk to permit the development of a steady and reliable trafhc. The 
 eighteenth century was to a consideiable degree a time of exploration 
 and discovery, of ])ioneering and adventure, and not a ])erio(.l of set- 
 tled commerce. To be sure, commerce of a primitive kind was con- 
 tinuously present upon these interior waters, but it was only such 
 commerce as exists wherever human beings who have things t > ex- 
 change come into contact with one another. 
 
 The dates of a<lmission to the Union of the hrst river States indi- 
 cate, in a general way, the rapidity of settlement and the growth of 
 a basis for commercial activity. The thites are as follows: 
 
 Kentucky 1792 
 
 Tennessee 1790 
 
 Ohio 1802 
 
 Louisiana 1812 
 
 Indiana 1816 
 
 Mississippi 1817 
 
 Illinois 1818 
 
 Missouri 1821 
 
 In 1810 about one million people were living in the western States 
 and Territories. This number had more than doubled by 1820. 
 The period of economic depression after the Kevolution. the Peace 
 of Amiens, which gave a sudden pause to the ])rosperity of our foreign 
 carrying trade, the embargo, and the War of 1812, all served as spurs 
 to drive the people westward into the new lands along the w^aterwavs. 
 
 As prosperitv increased and the settlers began to have surplus 
 pn^lucts for sale, the need for efficient transportation facilities u])on 
 
 9
 
 10 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 the rivers became increasingly urgent. Devices of all sorts had been 
 resorted to, many of them borrowed from the Indians and pioneers. 
 The canoe, often large and capable of carrying much freight, was one 
 of the earb'est means of transportation. \''ith this went the pirogue, 
 a boat hollowed out of a log and propelled by oars or setting poles. 
 The freight carriers were, at the beginning, either the batteau or the 
 barge. The former was made of rough plank antl was capable of 
 carrying heavier loads than the pirogue. The latter was one of the 
 great burden bearers on the Ohio and Mississippi in the earl}^ days. 
 The barge, carrying 40 or 50 to 100 tons, descended with the cur- 
 rent and was worked upstream by any one of a number of devices, 
 which included sail, oars, poles, "cordelles" (ropes by which craft 
 were towed from the shore), warping, animal towage, and "bush- 
 whacking" (hauling upon the overhanging branches along the banks). 
 
 Audubon, who took a trip up the Mississipjii and Ohio in these chn's," 
 states that a barge would leave Xew Orleans on March 1 and fre- 
 quently would not reach the falls of the Ohio at Louisville until July, 
 and then it brought onl}- a few barrels of coffee or, at most, 100 hogs- 
 heads of sugar. The number of barges in 1808 did not amount to 
 more than 25 or 30 and the largest did not exceed 100 tons burden. 
 These barges made one round trip a 3'ear or sometimes two under 
 unusually favorable circumstances. The trip downstream from Pitts- 
 burg to Xew Orleans took about a month. It was the wearisome trip 
 back which consumed the time. In a favorable stage of water, goods 
 could be sent without break of bulk from Xew Orleans to Cincinnati; 
 but if the water was low, transshipment at the falls of the Ohio at 
 Louisville was necessary. 
 
 The keel boat, a long, narrow craft averaging 12 to 15 feet by 50, 
 with both ends pointed, ran with the current and was poled upstream. 
 This cra,ft carried 20 to 40 tons. There were probably not over 300 to 
 400 of these boats regularly plying the Ohio ni 1810. It is estimated 
 that 150 of them made three voyages ])er season between Pittsl)urg 
 and Louisville. Their })eculiar advantage was in their nai'row build, 
 which j)ermitted tliem to ascend the tributaries of the main rivers for 
 long distances and to proviih^ the ncM'essi'.rv means of comnumication 
 for the settlers of the interior. They disti'ibuted necessaries, sucli as 
 salt and Hour, and did the carrying trade of the i)ortages. As their 
 operators acfjuired knowUMlge of the (hinger points in the streams, 
 their j)i'estige grew and theii- patronage developed. 
 
 Tliis form of craft was adapted for passengei' tiavel by pr()\'iding 
 it with a covered deck. A i-eguiar packet sei'vice ran between 
 Pittsburg and ('iucinnati even befoi'c the begiTuiing of the nineteenth 
 century. I'^i-om an advorl isemeni of (li(> (list packet lin(>, estal)lished 
 in 1704, the iullow ing is taken:'' 
 
 First boat, will leave ('iiuiiiiiati Ihis morning at 8 o'elock and return to Cincinnati 
 HO as to l)c ready to sail af^^aiii in four weeks from this date. No dauf^er need hi- appre- 
 heiidfd from the enr'iny as every person (Ui hoard will he under cover made proof to 
 ritle halls, and convenient |iortlioles for lirinj; out. Each of the hoats is armed with 
 nix pieces, earryinj; a pound l)all; also, a f,'()od number of niusket.s, and amjjly su|)plied 
 with amnuinitiou, stron<:ly manned with choice men, and the maHt(>r of ap])roved 
 knowle(lt;e 
 
 " llulherl, Historic IliKhwayH, vol. 0, ])p. It3-I18. 
 ''Jiinnwall, Trans|)(irlalion Systems in t.he United States, p. ||.
 
 TRAFFIC HI.STOHV Ol' MISSISSIPPI UIVKK SYSTEM. 11 
 
 The crai't most extensively eiiijjloyod in early Iransportation, 
 both hy pioneers and re<:;iilar traders, was the flathoal. 1 his was 
 the boat which never came hack. Constructed ludely and cliea|)ly, 
 (•ostini!; only tVom S'iO to $50, it was used for downstream traffic 
 aloiijj: the l)aid-:s of the Ohio and Mississippi. It was about 40 feet 
 lon^^, built sciuare, and mana<j:e<l by oars. At the end of the journey 
 in New Orleans it was sold for lumber and its former ownei- made his 
 danijerous way back to the ii|)per Ohio as best he could. 'Ihe risks 
 of the trip doubtless led many to undertake it j)urely in the spirit 
 of adventure, yet much reijulai' tradinir was carried on by this means. 
 
 Similar in character to the llatboat was the ark, employed for 
 passenger travel, and the principal reliance of the emigrant. 
 
 In any complete description of early river craft it is necessary to 
 include sailing vessels, which were l)uirt in the Ohio Valley during the 
 last decade of the eighteenth century, and grew in importance. They 
 were exclusively downstream craft, and were the export carriers for 
 these sections, being constructed with a view to through journeys to 
 the Atlantic coast or the neighboring islands. These ships were 
 sometimes built of a capacity as great as 400 tons. They could, how- 
 ever, never attain any permanent place in the commerce of this 
 section, because the}^ were one-way carriers only, because the narrow- 
 ness of the rivers restricted their necessary freedom of movement, 
 and because the irregularity of water supply and the dangers of 
 navigation made boats of deep draft impracticable. 
 
 The dilhculties of navigation at that time can hardly be overesti- 
 mated. Aside from the risks of hostile attack and the difficulties of 
 upstream propulsion, and aside also from the dangers of snags and 
 bars which have attended the later history of river navigation also, 
 there were the diHiculties of guiding the rude and unwieldy craft 
 around the many islands and the numerous sharp bends, particularly 
 in the upper Ohio. 
 
 ^'PVom February to June and from October to December were the 
 best seasons for the navigation of the Ohio, although in the former 
 sea on the floating ice often made the trip dangerous. Head winds 
 were another frequent source of trouble. The river was so crooked 
 that a favorable wind might within an hour become an unfavorable 
 one, and these contrary winds contending with a strong current were 
 not unlikely to drive the boat asliore. Boats sometimes pa.sse(l from 
 Pittsburg to the mouth of the Ohio in fifteen days and usually ten of 
 these days were used in reaching the falls at Louisville. However, 
 it was not unusual for a boat to be two weeks in reaching even 
 Limestone, Ky."" 
 
 After the falls of the Ohio wei'e passed, and this could be success- 
 fully accomplished only in high water. Tiavigation was good for keel 
 boats and barges of 100 to 200 tons. 
 
 The commerce lloateti upon the lower Mississippi and the Ohio in 
 these first decades of the nineteenth century was of various origins. 
 Besides that which came fi'om settlements along the river banks, 
 much traffic came down the tributary streams to be collected and 
 transported on the main river systems. Manufactured articles and 
 luxuries from the Atlantic seaboard destined for \ew Orleans and 
 Vip-river points came to Pittsburg across the mountains, or to New 
 
 " Gephait, Transportation and Industrial Dcvplopnu'nl in the Middle West, pp. 
 G2-().3.
 
 12 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI Rn':EE SYSTEM. 
 
 Orleans bv coasting vessel and tluMi u])8tieain bv barge. The prin- 
 cipal upstream traffic of the barges consisted of sugar and molasses, 
 although groceries and other articles needed in the Northwest Ter- 
 ritory were transported bv this means. Downstream trade was 
 largely in Hour and whisky, but a more miscellaneous traffic was also 
 comnion. Xiles's Register of March 29. ISIT, announces the arrival 
 in New Orleans within the year of 529 flat-])ott<uued boats and 300 
 barges froju the Western States and Territories, bringing a large 
 variety of food jiroducts and household necessaries. This traffic was 
 independent of the boats from lower Ijouisiana bringing cattle, corn, 
 indigo, molasses, sugar, timber, and the like, and was also exclusive 
 of the peddling traffic of those flatboats which disposed of their cargoes 
 at plantations along the river banks before arriving at New Orleans. 
 Very little information is available concerning the cost of trans- 
 portation during these early years. Ringwalt states that the charge 
 between New Orleans and Cincinnati was about $5 to $6 per 100 
 poimds, or at the rate of about 7 cents per ton ])er mile, which was 
 much below the average charge for haulage across the mountains from 
 the east.'* This statement is in ])ractical agreement with that of 
 Robert Fulton, who, in an argument for the buihhng of Erie Canal 
 in 1814, stated that the freight on a barrel of Hour from New Orleans 
 to Louisville was $4.50 per 100 pounds, or %9 per barrel, equivalent 
 to 6.7 cents per ton-mile. This he contrasted with the downstream 
 rate of SI. 50 per barrel, or a little over 1 cent per ton-mile, the lower 
 downstream i-ate l)eing due to the greater ease of navigation and (lie 
 largei" sup|)lv ol' craft. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE STEAMBOAT AND ITS COMPETITORS. 
 
 The application of steam to interior river navigation began with the 
 descent of the Ohio and the Mississippi by the steamboat Enterprise, 
 later called the Xew Orleans-, which left Pittsburg in September, 1811, 
 !:nd reached New Orleans in January, 1812. stopping on the way to 
 receive congratulations and once retracing its path upstream for the 
 purpose of demonstrating to an incredulous public its power to accom- 
 plish the feat. But it was long before the steamboat was to drive the 
 less efficient craft from the rivers. In the first place, much experi- 
 menting was re(|uii<Ml befoi'e a boat could be built that was adapted 
 to copo with the dangers of this uni(pic navigation. Boats weie at 
 first t)iiilt on the ship model with deep holds, and with too great 
 draft for the shoal sections of the rivers. Xot until the peculiar 
 river type had been evolved — broad and flat, capable of carrying 
 1,000 tons when drawing oidy 4 feet of water, and with <lraft of only 
 2^ feet when emj)ty — could the speed and the power be secured to 
 overcome the many obstacles which the rivers offered. 
 
 A secoiul hindiance to I'apid steandxiat developnu'nt was the Tails 
 of the Ohio which, exce|)t in times of high water, divided the stretch 
 between Pittsburg and N'ew Orlcjins into two s(M'tions. Inasnuich as 
 boat building was largely coidincd at (he b(>gimung to the uppei'Ohio 
 and its allliients, whei'c wood was abundant and the fitting out of 
 steandK)als could be more readily accomplished, steamboat com- 
 merce was slow of growth, because of the lack of a basis foi- rapid 
 truflic <l(!velopment in the spjirse settlements along the upper Ohio. 
 
 " I»c\ r.|(>|.iii.'iil <>1 I r:ili-|i<irl;il mil Systems in llic T^Iliti'll StnlCN. p. 17.
 
 TKA KKH' IIISTOHV OF M l.SSlttSU'l'l KIVEK SYSTEM. 18 
 
 A third liiiidraiicc was IouikI in the luoiiopdiy granted to Fulton 
 and Liviii<:;st()n foi- the exclusive (»|)erati<)n of steamboats upon the 
 Mississippi lor fourteen years within the limits of the State of Lou- 
 isiana. If steamboats could not reach with their product the o;oal of 
 river traffic, New Orleans, without payinfj: heavy royalty, there was 
 little to be piined fi'oni the operation of the Mississi|)pi or of the Ohio 
 below the falls. This monoj)oly was weakened in 1S18, virtually 
 abandoned in 1<S2(), and >i;iven its oflicial death blow by the decision 
 of the Su])reme Court in 1S24 in the case of Oibbons v. Ofjden, which 
 (iesti'oyeil the monoi)oly in interstate commeice of the same indi- 
 viduals on the waters of the Hudson. 
 
 It is not surprisini:;, therefore, that tlie number of Hat and keel 
 boats and barges steadily increased clurino; this j)eriod of steamboat 
 beginnino;s. The count ly was settling; rapidly, tranic was glowing, 
 the flatl)oats could cairy heavier loads than the first steamboats, 
 tlieir operators were ex])erienced pilots, who had actpiired custom 
 and good will, and though slow moving, they ranged I'arthei' in these 
 early days than their steam-])i()j)(dled c()m])etitors. 
 
 Many steamboat tri])s both u]) and down stream were made during 
 the years immediately succeeding 1811, but students of transporta- 
 tion are agreed in setting the year 1817 as the one in which steam- 
 boat navigation passed from the experimental stage into a regular 
 service. In that year the steamboat Washington made a trip from 
 Louisville to New Orleans and return in forty-one days, the voyage 
 u])stream consuming twenty-live days. This tri]) dispelled the last 
 of the remaining doid)ts and people from this time on accepted the 
 steamboat as a necessary and noinial fact(U- in their economic life. 
 
 Steam navigation, wliile bringing about its results only giadiuilly, 
 had the elfect of developing trade and, with the disappearance of 
 monopoly, of lowering rates. The rates and fares prescribed by the 
 State of Louisiana witli the grant of monopoly to Fulton and Liv- 
 ingston remained in force until about 1819, when competition drove 
 them down. As typical of these rates the following are given: F'rom 
 New Orleans to Louisville, 4h cents })er pound for heavy goods, and 
 () c(Mits foi- light goods, an average of about n cents j)er pound, or $100 
 per ton, e<)ual to 7.5 cents per ton-mile. 'I he j)assenger fare from 
 New Orleans to Louisville was $125. or !).4 cents ])er mile. The rates 
 were cut in two on downstream traffic. The high ]>assenger fare is 
 
 ?artly accounted for by the fact that it included board on the trip, 
 f twenty-five days be allowed for the uptrip and board be charged 
 at $2 ])er da}', the fare per mile is reduced to 5.6 cents. But no sucii 
 deduction can be made in the case of fieight where the charges seem 
 to have been during tlie mon()|)olistic period up to 1820, j)ractically 
 the same as befoiv the ai)i)earanc(> of steand)()ats. But it should be 
 rememlxM'ed that steand)oats carried almost no freight until 1819, 
 and that for many yeais thereafter they met the com])etition of the 
 more |)iimitive craft. 
 
 The llatboats not tmiy |)ersisled but they increaseil in numl)ei's 
 ami capacity. They finally reached a size of 150 feet by 21 feet, car- 
 rying 300 tons of produce. Th(Mr tiaffic grew and Houi'ished until tlie 
 civil war piactically put an end to it. Levi Woodbuiy, who took a 
 tri]) down tlie Ohio and ^Fississippi in IS.'v'. thus describes tliis form 
 of trading: 
 
 At every villiiyt- \vi> find I'roiu 10 lu 20 tlat-boiiuiut'd boats which, besiden ooru in 
 the ear, pork, l^acon. flour, whisky, cattle, and fowls, have an assortment of notions
 
 14 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RTVER SYSTEM. 
 
 from Cincinnati and fbewhero. Amon<r the?e are corn brooms, cabinet furniture, 
 cider, apples, plows, cordage, etc. They remain in one place until all is sold out, if 
 the demand be brisk; if not, they move to another town. After all is sold out, they 
 dispose of their boat and return with their crews by the steamers to their homes. 
 
 During these years the fiats bore their cargoes to southern ports or 
 to be retailed along the plantations of the Mississippi. Any enter- 
 prising man who could build a "flat" bought up the crops of the 
 neighborhood, put them aboard and was ready to start on the ''fall 
 rise." A})ples and potatoes were the staple through freight. Goods 
 for pecklling included cider, cheese, pork, bacon, cabbages, and apple 
 and peach brandy. The development of the hay traffic from Indiana 
 to New Orleans in the twenties openetl a new field of usefulness for 
 them. They seemed peculiarly adapted to the collection of produce 
 on streams hardly navigable, such as the \Vabash. During all this 
 period the downstream traffic was the heavier, the upstream traffic 
 consisting principally of coffee and sugar among the tropical products, 
 and of manufactured goods and luxuries from the Atlantic seaboard 
 and foreign ports. 
 
 Because the traffic was predominantly downstream and because the 
 light traffic upstream could be taken care of by the steamboats, the 
 keel boat found its usefulness at an end and rapidly disappeared. 
 The flatboats, on tlie other hand, admirabh- supplemented the 
 steamboats by carrying downstream the produce which the steam- 
 boats were not able to handle, b}" navigating streams where the risks 
 of snags and bars were too great for the more valuable vessel, and 
 where the settlements were sparse and the business light, and by 
 converting themselves into lumber at New Orleans and thus removing 
 themselves from the field of competition for the meager upstream 
 traffic. As late as 1840 nearly a fifth of the freight handled" on the 
 lower Mississip])i went by fl;itboat, keel, or barge, principally by flat- 
 boat. Steam towing of flatboats was tried as early as 1829, but was 
 not successful, owing apparently to the lack of proper organization 
 and to the prejudices of the flatboat owners. 
 
 The published statistics of flatboat arrivals at New Orleans are 
 very incomplete. The craft was so informal in its movements that 
 its arrivals and departures could not readily be registered. It should 
 be noted, however, that two-thirds of the annual arrivals took place 
 in Januarv and February. It is estimated that in the decade 
 1820-1 8.sn", .S,000 flatboats annually descended the Ohio. 
 
 The following table |:)resents the most satisfactory statistics avail- 
 able of flatboat arrivals at New Orleans for a series of years: 
 
 Arrirah of llathantx at Nrir Orlcnns. 
 
 1845-40 -2. 763 
 
 1846-47 2, 702 
 
 1847-48 J. Ill 
 
 1848^9 1 . 196 
 
 1849-50 1. 184 
 
 1850-51 1 , 145 
 
 1851-52 1.468 
 
 1852-53 1 . 047 
 
 1853-54 701 
 
 1854-55 (i!4 
 
 1855-56 718 
 
 1856-57. . -.(1
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 15 
 
 These fi<i;iires shov, ;i steady decline in flatboat business up to 1<S6(). 
 Tlie decline in <i;eneral trallic of this form of craft becomes clearer if 
 it be noted that of the 541 arrivals in LS.Ki-o? at New Orleans 119 
 were coal flats from Pennsylvania and 136 were hay flats from Indiana. 
 There was not in this year a sin<]:le flatboat from the upper Mississippi 
 or the ^lissouri, and only 12 from the Illinois. Flatboat tradin<; after 
 the original manner was resumed on a small scale after the civil war, 
 the boats starlinjz; from Pittsbur*:: and W heelin*:;, and was continued 
 until the hi^h price of lumbei' put an end to the pe(hllin<:; business. 
 
 Sailin<i- vess<ds of various kinds also continued to play a part in 
 lower Mississippi trade, esj)ecially below New Orleans, althou<;:h they 
 sometimes ascended as far as Natchez to brin<^ down cotton and 
 sugar. But the steand>oat was ^ainin"; rapidly on all its competitors. 
 In 1826, 57 per cent of the freii2;ht was carried to Xew Orleans by 
 steamboat and only 43 per cent by other means. '^ 
 
 The <j;rowin>i: importance of the steamboat can be shown by pre- 
 sentiuiT statisticallv the arrivals at Xew Orleans for a series of vears. 
 
 Arrival of steamboats at New Orleans." 
 
 Year ending September .SO— 
 
 Number. 
 21 
 
 Year ending September 30— 
 
 Number. 
 
 1814 
 
 1839 
 
 1,551 
 
 1815 
 
 40 
 
 1840 
 
 1,573 
 
 1819 
 
 191 
 198 
 202 
 287 
 392 
 436 
 502 
 608 
 
 1841 
 
 1,958 
 
 1820 
 
 1842 
 
 2,132 
 
 1821 
 
 1843 
 
 2,324 
 
 1822 
 
 1844 
 
 2,570 
 
 1823 
 
 1845 
 
 2.530 
 
 1824 
 
 1 1846 
 
 2,770 
 
 1825 
 
 ' 1847 
 
 ''4.024 
 
 1826 
 
 18?7 
 
 \ 1848 
 
 2,917 
 
 715 
 
 i 1849 
 
 2,873 
 
 1828 
 
 698 
 
 1850 
 
 2,784 
 
 1829 
 
 756 
 
 1851 
 
 2,918 
 
 1830 
 
 989 
 
 1852 
 
 2,778 
 
 1831 
 
 778 
 
 1853 
 
 3.252 
 
 1832 
 
 813 
 
 1854 
 
 3,076 
 
 1833 
 
 1,280 
 
 1855 
 
 2,763 
 
 1834 
 
 1,081 
 
 1856 
 
 2,956 
 
 1835 
 
 1,005 
 
 1857 
 
 2,745 
 
 1836 
 
 1,272 
 
 1858 
 
 3,264 
 
 1837 
 
 1,372 
 
 1859 
 
 3,259 
 
 1838 
 
 1,549 
 
 1860 
 
 3.566 
 
 a Report on the Internal Commerce of the I''nitcd States, 1887 
 
 b This figure is probably incorrect. 
 
 It will be seen that the steamboat arrivals, with certain slight 
 recessions, steadily increased from the begimiinii; of steamboat navio;a- 
 tion until the civil war put a stop to commercial activity. 
 
 New Orleans, at the terminus of river transportation, "irew with 
 great rapidity, and was rated in 1?!40 as the fourth port in point of 
 commerce in the world, exceeded only by London, Liverpool, and 
 New York. Its exports were out of all proportion to its imports. It 
 shipped heavy articles up the river, but for the finer classes of manu- 
 factures it left the Central West almost entirely dependent upon the 
 eastern seaboard. Later, when the West went into manufacturing 
 and Pittsburg and Cincinnati sent their manufactured goods south 
 by river, New Orleans received them and reshipped them to the 
 
 « Report on the Internal Comnierce of the United State?, 1887.
 
 16 
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 plantations, and these shipments constituted most of the upstream 
 traffic from Xew Orleans. There seems to have been very httle 
 direct tr'ade between the western cities and the southern plantations. 
 To present a detailed table of traffic receipts at New Orleans for a 
 series of years is impracticable, because the units of measure in which 
 the products are set down vary so frequently as to make comparison 
 difficult, if not impossible. An incomplete presentation of receipts 
 in tons is here reproduced from the Report on Internal Commerce for 
 1SS7. together ^vith a statement of total value of receipts. The latter 
 is partly estimated and is affected by currency and mai^ket conditions. 
 Xevertlieless, the general conclusion to be drawn from it is obvious. 
 It should be noted that the statistics of traffic do not include rafted 
 products or goods brought to market in small boats by planters, of 
 which no record was kept, but do include products received by way 
 of Lake Pontchartrain, principally cotton, which varied in amount 
 from 1 per cent to 6 per cent of the total. 
 
 Tonnage and value o/rereipla at Xew Orleans from the interior, 1801-1860. 
 
 Year ending Sept. 30 — 
 
 Quantity. 
 
 Value. 
 
 Year ending Sept. 30— 
 
 Quantity. 
 
 Tons 
 327, 800 
 399, 900 
 437, 100 
 401,500 
 449,600 
 399, 500 
 537, 400 
 i 542,500 
 
 '"'' 
 
 
 
 Value. 
 
 1801 
 
 Tons. 
 .38. .325 
 45, 906 
 49, 960 
 
 
 
 67, .560 
 
 77,220 
 
 94,560 
 
 80,820 
 
 100,880 
 
 1.36, 300 
 
 106. 706 
 
 99. 320 
 
 136, 4(K) 
 
 129, .500 
 
 136,240 
 
 176,420 
 
 193,300 
 
 235,200 
 
 257, .300 
 
 245, 700 
 
 260,900 
 
 .307,300 
 
 244,600 
 
 291,700 
 
 .S3. 649, 322 
 4.47.5.364 
 4.720,015 
 4.27.5.000 \ 
 4,371.545 
 4,937,323 
 5,-370,555 
 
 mn 
 
 1835 
 
 1836 
 
 1837 
 
 18.38 
 
 1839 
 
 1840 
 
 1841 
 
 1842 
 
 1843 
 
 1844 
 
 1845 
 
 1846 
 
 1847 
 
 1848 
 
 1849 
 
 1850 
 
 1851 
 
 1852 
 
 1853 
 
 $29,820,817 
 .37,566,842 
 39,237,762 
 43,51.5.402 
 45, 627. 720 
 42. 26;J, 880 
 49,7()3,825 
 49.822,115 
 4.5,716,045 
 .53.728,054 
 (K). 094,*716 
 
 1802. 
 
 1803 
 
 1804 
 
 1805 
 
 1806 
 
 1807 
 
 1814 
 
 1815 
 
 1816 
 
 9,749,2.53 
 8.773 379 
 13,-501,036 
 16.771.711 ! 
 12,(537,079 
 11.9(57,067 
 !.■>, 126. 420 
 14,473,725 
 1.5,063,820 • 
 19.044,640 
 20,446,320 | 
 21.730,887 
 22,886,420 
 20,7.57,26.5 
 22,0&5,518 
 26,044.820 i 
 21,806,763 i 
 28,2-38,432 ! 
 
 1817 
 
 1818 
 
 67,199,122 
 
 1819 
 
 1820 
 
 77,19.3,464 
 90,(K53,256 
 79, 779, 151 
 
 1821 
 
 1822 
 
 81.989,692 
 96, S97, 873 
 KXi, 924,083 
 
 1823 
 
 1824 
 
 1825 
 
 108,051,708 
 
 1826 
 
 134 233 735 
 
 1827 
 
 1854 
 
 185.5 
 
 1856 i 
 
 1857 ■■ 
 
 1858 
 
 1859 
 
 1860 
 
 11 5.. 3.36, 798 
 
 1828 
 
 117,106.823 
 
 1829 
 
 144.2.56, 081 
 
 1830 
 
 1,58.061,369 
 
 1831 
 
 167, 1.5.5, 54t) 
 
 18.32 
 
 172,9,52,669 
 
 1833 
 
 185 211 254 
 
 
 
 At the beginning tlie i)ro(hi(ts were miscelhmeous in character, 
 but they gratUially became specialized, southern products such as 
 cotton, sugar, and molasses predominating. Cotton, which in 1816 
 represented only 12 per cent in vahie of total receipts, came to 
 comprise in the later |)art of the jjcriod from 60 to 75 per cent of 
 the whole. 'Western pnxhice," which was 35 per cent in value of 
 the fot;il I'eceipts in 1S."){), .iMKinnted (o oiilv aboiil 21^ per cent in 
 ]S6().
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 17 
 
 TIT. 
 
 OHIO RIVER COMMERCE. 
 
 Up to 1820 and for some little time thereafter the trade of the 
 lower Mississippi took its origin lar^^ely in the Ohio basin, where 
 settlement was most advanced. In 1820 the State of Ohio alone 
 shipped 200,000 barrels of flour by river; in 1824 the total exceeded 
 300,000 barrels, which was one-quarter in value of all the products 
 w^hich descended the Mississip))i. 
 
 Durintr this ])erio(l much en<z;ineerin<ji; work of varyin<i; utility was 
 executed on the Ohio and its tributaries, which contributed to a 
 greater or less extent to the efficiency of the river system. vSo far 
 as the open channel of the Ohio was concerned, improvement work 
 was begun as early as 1827, although little of value was accomplished 
 before I860." Of the two tributaries at the head of navigation, the 
 Allegheny was given up entirely to flats and rafits and was not 
 navigable for even the lightest draft steamboats except during high 
 water. So long as the supply of luml)er upon its banks endured 
 it furnished traffic for the river. Some of the lumber in the form 
 of rafts of logs was floated to Cincinnati and below; much of it was 
 converted at river ports into flats for downstream trading. To some 
 extent it was converted into boards and shingles on the Allegheny 
 and brought down in arks to Pittsburg, where the arks, relieved of 
 their burden, were loaded with coal for Cincinnati, Louisville, and 
 Natchez. It was estimated in 1848 that one-quarter of the lumber 
 was sold at Pittsburg and the rest was carried farther dowai the Ohio. 
 
 So late as 1859 it w^as stated that the lumber annually run down 
 the Allegheny amounted to over 150,000,000 feet.** 
 
 The Monongahela River, which in its original condition could 
 float light-draft flats and rafts in high and medium stages of water 
 and steamboats at high water, was improved by a private corpora- 
 tion — the Monongahela Navigation Company — which completed six 
 locks before 1860, two of them near Pittsburg being in operation in 
 1841. Upon this river the coal trade of the Ohio originated — the 
 one form of river traflic which has persisted with any vigor to the 
 present time. This trade began about 1840. In 1844 the total ship- 
 ments amounted to 2,500,000 bushels. By 1847 the coal handled 
 was about 12,000,000 bushels. 
 
 lentil 1850 the method of handling was by means of large flat- 
 bottomed boats or barges about 125 feet long and 8 feet deep. Each 
 boat carried from 12,000 to 15,000 bushels of coal. They were 
 ordinarily lashed together in pairs and floated dow^n the river to 
 destination, there to be sold for lumber. Each pair rec{uired the 
 services of about twelve men. Inasmuch as the barges drew from 
 5^ to Ih feet when loaded, they could only be floated safely during 
 seasons of high water. There were generally two such stages a 
 year, and during these relatively favorable seasons fleets of 250 to 
 300 barges set out upon their journey. Because their lading brought 
 them so near the bed of the river and because the}^ protruded so 
 little above the water's surface, they were continuously subject to 
 
 « For more detailed discussion see Report of Commissioner of Corporations on 
 Transportation liy Water in the United States, Part 1, 1909. 
 ^Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, vol. 40. p. 604. 
 
 19830—09 2
 
 18 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 wreck from snags and rocks. Soon after 1850 the method of towing 
 coal flats by steam towboats began. 
 
 Other tributaries of less importance which were impro^'ed to 
 create more efficient connections with the main river, were the 
 Muskingum, upon which the State of Ohio constructed eleven locks 
 and dams, completed in 1840; the Kentucky, Green, and Barren 
 rivers, improved by the State of Kentuckj^ between 1835 and 1845 
 by the construction of locks and dams; and the Wabash River, upon 
 which a lock and dam was built by the Vrabash Navigation Com- 
 pany, chartered bv the States of Illinois and Indiana, in 1846 and 
 1847. 
 
 Of more importance to the commerce of tliis section than any 
 of the Oliio River tributaries just mentioned were the Cumberland 
 and Tennessee rivers, both navigable for several hundred miles by 
 steamboat. Indeed, the Tennessee River with its tributaries is 
 navigable for steamboats a distance of 1,300 miles, and for rafts and 
 flats an additional distance of more than 1,000 miles. Congress 
 and the State of Kentucky made several appropriations for the im- 
 provement of the Cumberland between 1830 and 1840, and in 1846 
 the Cumberland Navigation Company was incorporated to improve 
 navigation below Nashville, but little was accomplished during this 
 period. From inland points in Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky 
 by way of these two rivers came a large quantity of cotton, and most 
 or the tobacco for southern markets and for export. Durino; the 
 few montlis of the je&r when the stage of water permitted, flatboats 
 were extensively emploj^ed in this trade. 
 
 Probably the most important piece of river engineering from 
 the standpoint of navigation, was the building of the Louisville 
 and Portland Canal around the falls of the Ohio between Louis- 
 ville and Shippingport, Ky. This was constructed by a private cor- 
 poration chartered in 1825, the United States Government buying 
 a majority of the stock. It was completed at the close of the 
 year 1830, and in spite of the imposition of what seemed to be 
 exorbitant tolls it had a most stimulating influence upon river 
 commerce. Previously' the flats and steamboats had been obliged 
 to transfer their freight at Louisville to other craft sailing from 
 Shij)]ungport, below the falls, necessitating a laborious }K)rtage of 
 2^ miles, or else, if they desired to make the through trip, the run- 
 ning of the rapids. Either expedient involved heavy expense and 
 loss of time. Running the rapids meant waiting for a favorable 
 stage of water, with loss of interest on capital, additional wages, and 
 loss by depreciation in the value of products, and also the direct 
 expense of pilotage. Transfer at Louisville meant damage to goods 
 arul diayage cost. The opening of the canal united the two river 
 lines between Pittsburg and New Orleans and uninterru])ted through 
 traffic was possible. Boats which had l)een limited to a maximum 
 load of 000 tons coukl now cany 1,700 tons. During the year 1831, 
 406 steand)()ats, 46 keel boats, and 357 flats, a total of 76,323 tons, 
 passed through the locks. 
 
 The growth in steandjoat tonnage on the Ohio may l)e observed 
 from the statistics of the Louisville and Portland Canal. The varia- 
 tion in different years is due to the stage of water, which, when suf- 
 ficiently good, diverted the boats from the canal to the direct route 
 over the falls. Yet the figuics show a fairly steady increase in number 
 of boats.
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 19 
 
 Number of sirambnats pausing through the Louisville and Portland Canal, lS.31-1849 
 
 1831 406 
 
 1832 453 
 
 1833 875 
 
 1834 938 
 
 1835 1, 256 
 
 1836 1, ] 82 
 
 1837 1, 501 
 
 1838 1 , 058 
 
 1839 ■ 1, 666 
 
 1840 1, 231 
 
 1841 1 , 031 
 
 1842 983 
 
 1843 ] , 206 
 
 1844 ] , 476 
 
 1845 1, 585 
 
 1846 1, 626 
 
 1847 1 , 432 
 
 1848 1 , 523 
 
 1849 1,272 
 
 Amono^ the cities alono; this commercial route, Pittsburg, as a 
 result of its stratcfjic location, early assumed a position of importance. 
 It had been the outfittint]:; })ort for emigrants in the pioneer days, and 
 was now, because of its situation at the junction of the Alleirheny 
 and M<)nono;ahela, in a position to profit by the extensive traflic in 
 lumber and coal. It had develo])e(l into an important shipbuilding 
 center, and but for the difhculties of upper Ohio navigation and the 
 extraordinary enterprise of the Ohio commercial interests, might 
 have overpowered the city of Cincinnati to such an extent as to make 
 of it merely a port of call. 
 
 However, Cincinnati during these decades, because of its situation 
 at the head of good navigation, became one of the leading commercial 
 cities of the AVest. During the entire period to 1860 it was surpassed 
 in ])oj)ulation by only one western city, Xew Orleans, and in the census 
 statistics of 1850 and 1860 its total population very nearly equaled 
 that of the seai)ort city. It began building steamboats in 1819, and 
 from that time on was the center of this industr}'. Wheeling, a little 
 below Pittsburg, became early an important outfitting point for flat- 
 boat traffic. 
 
 Louisville, at the head of the falls of the Ohio, early acquired an 
 importance, because it was the transshi])})ing ])oint between the upper 
 and lower river. The construction of the Louisville and Portland 
 Canal did not tlo away altogether with this geographical division of 
 steamboat lines, and Louisville retained its place of im])ortance as a 
 river port throughout this period. 
 
 Evansville, situated equidistant from the mouth of the Ohio and 
 the falls, was an important distributing point for a well-settled 
 territory; its largest export by water was tobacco, brought in from 
 the Kentucky fields across the river. 
 
 On the lower river,' the more important ports, aside from New 
 Orleans, were Memphis, Vicksburg, and Natchez. Each of these, in 
 1843, shi]iped more cotton by river to New Orleans than it did in 1887. 
 The average annual shipments of Memphis steamers down river were 
 100,000 bales, of Vicksburg, 75,000 bales, and of Natchez, 50,000. 
 Natchez was, however, a more important river point than Vicksburg, 
 because it was the center of a more populous district. Nashville, on 
 the Cumberland, was the center of a rich tobacco country, and sent 
 larj^e numbers of steamboats to New Orleans.
 
 20 
 
 TBAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 IV. 
 
 UPPER MISSISSIPPI COMMERCE. 
 
 The section watered by the sources of the Mississippi was occupied 
 in the early part of this period by mihtary garrisons and Indian 
 traders. But it became before the war a region of active settlement, 
 and furnished to the river a large amount or both freight and passen- 
 ger trafhc. The first steamboat that ascended the upper Mississippi 
 is reported to have reachetl Fort Snelling, near St. Paul, in 1813. But 
 the arrivals from that date until 1840 were few and far between, as the 
 boats could be used only to transport supplies for traders and troops. 
 
 The total number of steamboat arrivals at St. Paul for the years 
 1844-1857 are here given, together with the length in days of the 
 navigation season. 
 
 Number of steamboat arrivals at St. Paul and length of navigation season, 1S44-1S57. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Steamboat 
 arrivals. 
 
 Length of 
 
 navigation 
 
 season. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Steamboat 
 arrivals. 
 
 Length of 
 
 navigation 
 
 season. 
 
 1844 
 
 41 
 48 
 24 
 47 
 63 
 95 
 104 
 
 Days. 
 231 
 234 
 245 
 236 
 241 
 242 
 239 
 
 1851 
 
 119 
 171 
 200 
 256 
 560 
 837 
 1,026 
 
 Days. 
 238 
 
 1845 
 
 1852 
 
 1853 
 
 1854 
 
 1855 
 
 216 
 
 1846 
 
 233 
 
 1847 ... 
 
 223 
 
 1848 
 
 217 
 
 1849 
 
 1856 
 
 1857 
 
 212 
 
 1850 
 
 198 
 
 
 
 The sources of the traffic may be shown in a general way by a 
 statement of the ports of departure of steamboats for St. Paul during 
 the year 1857. 
 
 Arrivals of steamboats at St. Paul, 1857. o 
 From— 
 
 DuVjuque 123 
 
 Prairie du Chien 138 
 
 Galena 213 
 
 Fulton 65 
 
 St. Louis 156 
 
 (Mncinnati 12 
 
 Pittsburp; 27 
 
 On the way to the Minnesota River 292 
 
 Total 1, 026 
 
 The years 1845 to 1860 covered a period of active settlement in the 
 Northwest, and the Mississippi was the most available moans for 
 reaching the new territory. Most of the boats woi-e built in the 
 shi[)yai(ls along the Ohio. They were operated largely by their 
 indivi(hial owners. Duiing the fifties, when Minnesota was rapidly 
 preparing for statehood, and when Wisconsin and Iowa had just been 
 received into the Union, the demand for transportation up the river 
 far exceeded the supply, and almost any price was ])aid for the 
 privilege. The result was that boats often paid for themselves in two 
 years out of their earnings. But the risks of snagging and burning 
 
 oHunt's Merchants' Magazine, vol. 38, p. 117.
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 21 
 
 were very great, and the depreciation on these boats was conse- 
 quently heavy. The best boats for the upriver trade were the stern- 
 wheelers of 200 to 300 tons, which were not liable to be hindered by 
 the midsummer drouo;hts. The boats that made the larfjest profits 
 were those which in tlie later days of this period controlled the jobbing; 
 business and the railway connections at certain ports. This control 
 was effected throu<]:;h tiie creation of j)o()ls between steamboat oj)era- 
 tors, which later developed in many instances into stock companies." 
 
 The three principal paints on the river above St. Louis were Rock 
 Island, Galena or Dunleith, and Prairie ilu Chien. The immi^^rants 
 who settled Minnesota antl Wisconsin reached the river at these points, 
 beinii; transported that far by rail after 1854. But these towns were 
 not only transfer points for passengers. Galena was at this time 
 second only to St. Louis as a wholesale center. Other important up- 
 river ports were Burlington, Dubuque, and Davenport, Iowa, and 
 Quincy, 111. These places had their beginnings as river junctions, in- 
 creased in importance as connections with the interior became closer, 
 and continued even after the advent of railways to confine their 
 interest to the river so long as the lumber supply endured. They 
 were all important lumber-manufacturing towns. 
 
 The freight traffic by steamer seems to have been of the miscel- 
 laneous character natural in an exchange between primitive com- 
 munities lacking railway facilities. Potatoes, barley, and furs are 
 found in the list. Wooden ware was shipped from St. Paul as far 
 south as St. Louis. One of the principal products from the upper 
 river was wheat, which was shipped in 2-bushel sacks. A 200-ton 
 boat would carry 300 tons of grain. There were also shipments of 
 flour, which grew in importance as capital was invested in milling 
 in the Northwest. Flour shipments on the Mississippi for the years 
 1841-42 to 1844-45 were as follows: 
 
 Shipments of flour on the upper Mississippi River. 
 
 Barrels. 
 
 1841-42 439, 688 
 
 1842-43 521, 175 
 
 1843-44 502, 507 
 
 1844-45 533, 312 
 
 But by far the most important product of upper Mississippi trans- 
 portation, from the beginning until its decline at the close of the 
 century, was lumber. This was handled almost entirely in rafts or 
 barges propelled by steamboats. 
 
 In the lower section of the upper Mississippi a large trallic was for 
 many years carried on in lead, principalh^ from the Galena mines, 
 and a smaller tratle in Wisconsin copper. Large quantities of lead 
 were annually transshipped at St. Louis for New Orleans, amounting 
 in value in 1843 to more than SI, 000, 000, and estimated to be worth 
 3^ cents per pound. A small ])art of this total came from ])oints in 
 Missouri by way of the '\lissouri River. 
 
 a Merrick, Old Times on the Upper Mississippi, 1909.
 
 22 TKATFIC HISTOEY OF MISSISSIPPI EIVEE SYSTEM. 
 
 The following table gives the shipments of lead from Galena, 
 Dubuque, and all other up-river ports for a series of years: 
 
 Total shipyjicnts of lead, in pigs, from Galena, Dubuque, and all other ports of upper 
 
 Mississippi, 1841-1854-°' 
 
 Pigs.i> 
 
 1841 452,814 
 
 1842 447,859 
 
 1843 561,321 
 
 1844 624,601 
 
 1845 778, 460 
 
 1846 732, 403 
 
 1847 772, 656 
 
 1849 590, 293 
 
 1850 573,502 
 
 1851 : 503, 571 
 
 1854 402,343 
 
 After 1854, when the railway reached the Mississippi, the lead 
 traffic on the upper river rapidly disappeared. 
 
 The steady growth in the business of this portion of the river 
 may be observed from the statistics of steamboat arrivals at St. 
 Louis from the upper Mississippi for a series of years. These include 
 all arrivals from Mississippi River ports north of the mouth of the 
 Ohio. 
 
 Arrivals of steamboats at St. Louis from upper Mississippi ports, 1841-1852. 
 
 1841 143 
 
 1842 - 195 
 
 1843 244 
 
 1845 647 
 
 1846 663 
 
 1847 717 
 
 1848 697 
 
 1849 806 
 
 1850 635 
 
 1851 639 
 
 1852 705 
 
 The uj)per ^Mississippi business was considerably augmented before 
 it reached St. Louis by that of the Illinois River and the Illinois and 
 Michigan Canal. The latter was opened in 1848, and while inade- 
 quate for extensive traffic, it furnished, nevertheless, some freight 
 to the Illinois River steamers, which transported goods back and forth 
 between Peoria and other interior Illinois j)oints on the one hand, 
 and St. Louis and points on the Ohio and lower Mississippi on the 
 other. 
 
 V. 
 
 MISSOURI RIVEH COMMERCE. 
 
 The liallic of the Missouri River has never reached a position of 
 great imj)ortance, and statistical material bearing upon it is very 
 meager. Such commercial value as the river possessed was confined 
 largely to the period preceding ISGO, and even then its service con- 
 sisted priiuipally in facilitating the fur trade and carrying products 
 to the inilitiiry garrisons on its up|)er reaches. The American Fur 
 
 *Prom Hunt's Merchant's Magazine. >> A pig weighed about 60 pounds.
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 23 
 
 Company and some in(lcM)on(leiit tiaders employcMl a numljcr of 
 steam])oats and other crait, and at least once a year ascended the 
 river to the mouth of tlie Yellowstone with supplies for fur trading, 
 and the United States Army carried its supi)lies })y boat up as far as 
 Foi't Benton. So late as ISGO the total value of the fui' trade of St. 
 Louis was $529, ()()(), of which nearly all came down the Missouri River 
 by boat. The river was also used to a considei-able extent as a means 
 of approach to the Santa Fe trail, which made junction with the river 
 at Independence. The i-iver trade ])ctween St. Louis and Santa Fe 
 was valued in 1848 at S5()0,0()0 per year. 
 
 The first steamboat ascended in 1810, and from then on steam- 
 boating slowly developed. River navigation for the years 1888-1843 
 was as follows: 
 
 Sleainboat navigation of the Missouri River, 18oi>-lS4oM 
 
 
 Year. 
 
 Boats. 
 
 Trips. 
 
 1838 
 
 17 
 35 
 
 28 
 32 
 29 
 20 
 
 96 
 
 1839 
 
 141 
 
 1840 
 
 147 
 
 1841 
 
 162 
 
 1842 
 
 88 
 
 1843 • 
 
 205 
 
 
 
 
 a Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, vol. 18, p. 103. 
 
 The arrivals at St. Louis of boats from the Missouri River for the 
 years 1845-1852 are presented in tabular form. 
 
 Arrivals of steamboats at St. Louis from the Missouri Eirer, 1845-1852. 
 
 1845 249 
 
 1846 256 
 
 1847 314 
 
 1848 327 
 
 1819 355 
 
 1850 390 
 
 1851 301 
 
 1852 317 
 
 This table shows that commerce did not develop rapidly in this 
 section. The hgures are more significant if compared with the 
 arrivals from tlie upper Mississip])i, the Illinois, and the Ohio, which 
 were much in excess of those from the Missouri, and were increasing 
 rapidly. Aside from the difficulties of navigation due to the turbid 
 and uncertain channel, the snags, the floods, and the droughts, 
 there was the fundamental condition present that there existed on 
 the upper Missoui-i j)revious to 1860 little inchistrial basis for an 
 extensive river commerce. After 1860, tlie railways were the active 
 agenc}" in the settlement of this section, and the country once settled, 
 this more efficient means of transportation was almost exclusively 
 resorted to. The Missouri River has played practically no part in 
 the industrial development of the west.
 
 24 TBAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVEE SYSTEM. 
 
 VI. 
 
 ST. LOUIS. 
 
 St. Louis was one of the iinportaiit river cities of this period. It 
 enjoyed the advantage of being a port of transshipment for a very 
 large proportion of the river traffic, and was the great wholesale 
 center of the Middle West. Most lines of steamboats engaged in 
 through traffic on the Missouri, the upper and lower Mississippi, and 
 the Ohio had St. Louis as one of their termini. The only important 
 exceptions were the steamboat lines between Ohio River points and 
 New Orleans, most of which did not touch St. Louis at all. 
 
 Hence, b}^ reason of its location, there are found among the receipts 
 of this city by river all the products wliich the rivers handled, in- 
 cluding the grains and flour, lumber, lead, pork, lard, and bacon, the 
 southern products, sugar, coffee, and molasses, and the miscellaneous 
 food products. In and out of this metropolis the steamboats also 
 carried what was for the time an enormous passenger business. 
 Gold seekers, fur and Indian traders, immigrants, pioneers, and 
 home seekers poured into St. Louis in the fifties, and found their way 
 in and out by the river gate. The number of passengers carried on 
 steamboats to and from St. Louis for the year ending September 30, 
 1855, is reported as 1,045,269." The central location of this city 
 and its growing commercial importance is seen from a statement of 
 the steamboat arrivals. 
 
 Arrivals of steamboats at St. Louis, 1839-1859. 
 
 1839 1, 476 
 
 1840 1, 721 
 
 1841 1,928 
 
 1844 2, 105 
 
 1845 2,050 
 
 1846 2,412 
 
 1847 3, 069 
 
 1848 3, 159 
 
 1849 2, 905 
 
 1850 2, 897 
 
 1851 2, 628 
 
 1852 3, 184 
 
 1853 3, 307 
 
 1855 3, 449 
 
 1856 3, 065 
 
 1857 ; 3, 443 
 
 1858 3,160 
 
 1859 : 3, 149 
 
 VII. 
 
 CANAL-LAKE COMPETITION. 
 
 The first danger that thn'iitciicd the continued pros)KMity of river 
 commerce ciime with the coni|)leti()n of the Krie Canal in 1S25. The 
 people of the Middle West and of the Ohio A'alley were not slow to 
 realize the advantage which a route including the CJreat Lakes and the 
 Erie Canal would have in reaching seaboard markets, over the 
 2,000-mile river trip to New Orleans and the long coastwise jour- 
 
 aHunt'8 Merchants' Magazine, vol. 33, p. 637.
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 25 
 
 ney. So early as 1832 the onterprisino; population of X)hio had com- 
 pleted canals from Portsmouth, on tiie ()hio,to Cleveland, and from 
 Cincinnati to Toledo, and in 1S35 there was shij)j)e(l from this State 
 to New York, by way of the ErieC^anal, <S6,()()() barrels of Hour, 98,000 
 bushels of wheat, 2, 500, 000 of staves, and much miscellaneous frci'^ht. 
 The Ohio canals were built for local reasons and it was the local trade 
 which sustained them durint:; tlu ir years of j)rosj)erity. Yet they 
 served as feeders for both the southern and eastern routes and helped 
 to draw traffic away from its old course." 
 
 Indiana likewise soufiiht to reach eastern markets by the northern 
 route, and constructed a canal from Evansville northeastward to con- 
 nect with the Cinciimati-Toledo enteri)rise. Both in Indiana and 
 Illinois the same competitive conditions existed as in Ohio, but with a 
 stronu'er tendency in the former toward the river route. Not only 
 did sliipments, by way of the Krie Carnal, particularly of wheat and 
 flour, steadily increa. e, but the PcMUisylvania Canal also transj)orted 
 a variety of products, includino; tobacco, which had formerly gone 
 down the river, and took manufactures from about Pittsburg, and 
 large ciuantities of lard, bacon, and other western produce. It im- 
 ported various manufactured goods and household supplies for the 
 people of the upper Ohio Valley. In 1846, Buffalo for the first time 
 exceeded New Orleans in its receij)ts of flour and wheat. 
 
 The Cincimiati Price Current in 1852 contained a letter from 
 Cincinnati merchants urging the greater cheapness of the northern 
 route, and making the folhnving comparative estimate of the cost of 
 shipping a single hogshead of tobacco from Louisville: 
 
 BY NORTHERN ROUTE. 
 
 Dray, Louisville $0. 25 
 
 Frei<!;ht to Cincinnati 1. 05 
 
 Charges in Cincinnati 50 
 
 Freight by canal and lake 7. 75 
 
 Insurance 1.12 
 
 10.67 
 
 BY SOUTHERN ROUTE. 
 
 Dray, Louisville $0. 50 
 
 Freight to New Orleans 2. 50 
 
 Insurance to New Orleans 62 
 
 Charges in New Orleans 1. 75 
 
 Freight by shij) 7. 00 
 
 Insurance 2. 00 
 
 14.37 
 
 The point of highest traffic on the Ohio canals was reached in 1857, 
 when the total amount carried was 1,635,744 tons. B}' 1850 the line 
 of division between products moving south to the river and north to 
 the Lakes had become rather clearly tlefined, and w'as somewhere 
 near the center of the State. The tendency of breadstufl's was 
 toward the Lakes, as already indicated, but beef, lard, pork, bacon, 
 antl corn still went mostly by river. This was in part due to the 
 natural distribution of the su])ply of ])roducts in the State, ami in 
 part to the location of the denumd for the tlilferent kinds of produce. 
 
 o Gephart, Transportation and Industrial Development in the Middle West, pp. 
 118-119.
 
 26 TEAFFIC HISTORY- OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 But it appears certain that the river trade did not suffer seriously 
 from the competition of eastward water routes during the period 
 1825 to 1850. Kather was it changing its character and inchuUng a 
 larger proportion of southern and a sniaUer proportion of western 
 products. 
 
 The following tables give the value of products received at the 
 seaboard and the movement toward the interior in 1851 by the 
 various routes: 
 
 Reported value of products received at seaboard, 1851 .^ 
 
 Via the Mississippi $108, 051, 708 
 
 Via canals and the Hudson 53, 027, 508 
 
 Via the St. Lawrence 9, 153, 580 
 
 Via the New York railroads 11, 405, 350 
 
 Movement toward the interior, 1851. 
 
 Via the Mississippi $38, 874, 782 
 
 Via the Hudson and canals 80, 739, 899 
 
 Via the St. Lawrence 10, 956, 793 
 
 Via the Xew York railroads 44, 556, 000 
 
 These tables, besides showing the relative importance of Mississippi 
 River traffic, bring out the preponderance of export over import 
 traffic at Xew Orleans referred to elsewhere. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 RATES AND FARES. 
 
 No satisfactory material is available on the question of rates during 
 the period preceding the introduction of railways into the West, and 
 only general statements may here be ventured. In 1819, when 
 steamboating on western rivers was first freed from the Fulton 
 monopoly, through passenger rates upstream were about 10 cents 
 per mile, varying somewhat for the longer distances, and 12^ cents 
 per mile for way passengers. The downstream rate was about 6 
 cents per mile. It is probable, however, that these rates included 
 board en route, and allowance should be made for this in comparing 
 them with modern rates. A few typical fares may be quoted. 
 
 Passenger fares by steaviboat, 1819. 
 
 
 Miles. 
 
 Fares. 
 
 New Orleans to Natchez 
 
 2C3 
 
 9()1 
 1,328 
 1,328 
 
 3G7 
 1,065 
 
 129 
 
 $30 
 
 New Orleans to month of Ohio 
 
 95 
 
 New fjriean.s to falls of Ohio 
 
 125 
 
 Falls of Ohio to New (Jrleans 
 
 75 
 
 Kalis of Ohio to mouth of Ohio 
 
 20 
 
 Falls of Ohio to Natchez 
 
 UO 
 
 Cincinnati to Louisville 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 On the u|)])('r Mississippi, the fares had fallen by 1810 to from 4 to 5 
 cents per mile for short distances and 3 cents ])er mile for loitg dis- 
 tances. Deducting the jirice of meals and stateroom, the charge was 
 from li cents to 8 cents per mile. Deck passengers, who were 
 
 oRingwalt, Devclojunent of Transportation Systenifi in the United States, p. 121.
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 27 
 
 expected to provide their own food, traveled at fares wliicli frequently 
 did not exceed a half cent per mile, and this they could still further 
 reduce by assistin^j the crews to gather fuel at the various sto]>])ing 
 places. 
 
 There were no such thin<i;s as typical frei<xlit rates durint^ the era of 
 steaniboating. Rates varied widely with the suj)ply and demand of 
 boats, the stao;e of water, and the quantities of freight oliered, and it is 
 difficult to give any itlea of them at all. For example, one writer 
 quotes a rate in 1819 of 15 cents per 100 ])ounds from Cincinnati to 
 Louisville, or 2.3 cents per ton-mile, and another rate in the same year 
 from Cincinnati to St. Louis of 50 cents per 100 pounds, or $1.44 per 
 ton-mile. Gephart states" that the freiglit rates from New Orlenns to 
 northern cities in 1822 were as follows: General merchandise, 3 to 4 
 cents per pound; cotton, 1 cent per pound; sugar, $7 per barrel. 
 These rates were probably not more than half as high as the rates 
 charged before the appearance of steamboats. So early as 1839, 
 rates were quoted from New Orleans to St. Louis of 75 cents per 100 
 pounds or $0,013 per ton-mile, and from New Orleans to Louisville of 
 50 cents per 100 pounds, or $0,008 per ton-mile, the latter rate being 
 lower because of the greater Qompetition on this line. In seasons 
 when a good stage of water prevailed, between 1850 and 1860, freight 
 was carried from Pittsburg to St. Louis and Nashville at 43 mills per 
 ton-mile, and from Pittsburg to New Orleans at 36 mills per ton-mile. 
 Merrick'' states that freight rates varied on the upper Mississippi in 
 the fifties from 25 cents per 100 pounds for short distances, to SI. 50 
 per 100 pounds from Galena to St. Paul, the latter being nearly 10 
 cents per ton-mile. No package was carried for less than 25 cents. 
 To the rates themselves must be added the cost of marine insurance, 
 which, because of the hazardous nature of the steamboat business, 
 was a very heavy expense. In 1840 the insurance rate quoted was 
 about If per cent of the value of the goods for a distance of about 200 
 miles above New Orleans; then it steadily increased to 4 per cent and 
 above on the upper Mississippi. On the Ohio the rates varied from 2^ 
 to 3f per cent, on the Misso\u'i from 3^ to 6^ per cent.'^ 
 
 Downstream rates for both passenger and freight traffic were 
 usually lower than those levied on upstream business, because, the 
 time consumed being less, the cost of operation was less in fuel 
 and power expended, and, in the case of the passenger business, 
 the expense of boarding the passengers was reduced. But these 
 factors might be entirely offset by the su])ply of and demand for 
 space in the two directions at diflFerent seasons of the year. In fact 
 too much reliance should not be placed upon any casual statement 
 of rates or fares, because, being subject to no control whatever except 
 such as the laws of trade enforced, steamboat captains chargetl in 
 all cases what the traffic would bear. It was frequently much more 
 advantageous to a prospective passenger to pay the exorbitant fare 
 demanded than to stay in port and take his chances with the next 
 boat, and a shipper had to get his products to market at any cost. 
 The days of ]n'osperous steamboating were the days of unregulated 
 monopoly, and the variations in water depth and the uncertainties 
 
 a Transportation and Industrial Development in the Middle West. p. 98, note, 
 bold Times on the Upper Mississippi, 1909. 
 '"Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, vol. 2. p. 80.
 
 28 
 
 TRAFFIC HISTOEY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 of travel often so crowded the limited traffic season that in the 
 direction of traffic movement passengers and shippers were wholly 
 at the mercy of the steamboat captains. Small wonder that boats 
 were often paid for out of the earnings of a couple of years. Yet 
 they were continuously liable to destruction from snags, bars, col- 
 Usions, explosions, and burning. And even if they survived these 
 terrors, so flimsily were tliey built and so recklessly were they run 
 that most of them were unfit for service after five years. 
 
 The following table is made up fi-om monthly quotations of rates 
 on typical shipments on two steamboat lines which were operating 
 where conditions were probably more stable at the time than on 
 any other part of our inland waterway system: 
 
 Summary of monthly quotations of river rates of freight, Cincinnati to New Orleans, 
 
 1849-185S.a 
 
 Product shipped. 
 
 1848-49. 
 
 1849-50. 
 
 1850-51. 
 
 1851-52. 
 
 1852-53. 
 
 
 $0. 30-$0. 75 
 .40- .75 
 . 45- 2. 50 
 
 $0.25-51.25 
 . 25- . 875 
 .40- 1.00 
 
 $0.35-81.00 
 .40- .90 
 .50- 1.50 
 
 SO. 30-$0. 75 
 .35- 1.00 
 .45- 2.50 
 
 $0.30-81.00 
 
 Pork, per barrel 
 
 .35- 1.00 
 
 Whisky, per barrel 
 
 .50-2.00 
 
 
 
 Summary of monthly quotations of river rates of freight, Cincinnati to Pittsburg, 1849- 
 
 1853a 
 
 Product shipped. 
 
 1848-49. 
 
 1849-50. 
 
 1850-51. 
 
 1851-52. 
 
 1852-^3. 
 
 Whisky, per barrel 
 
 $0. 35-Sl. 50 
 
 $0.35-$0.75 
 .10- .55 
 
 $0.33-50.75 
 .10- .25 
 
 $0.30-$1.50 
 .10- .50 
 
 $0.35 -$1.50 
 
 Merchandise, per 100 pounds 
 
 .10- .50 
 
 .125- .75 
 
 a From Hunt's Merchants' Magazine. 
 
 IX. 
 
 SPEED AND ACCIDENTS. 
 
 Steamboat disasters on the Mississippi during the forty years from 
 1810 to 1850 have been thus summarized:*^ 
 
 Total number of steamboats lost 1, 070 
 
 Tonnage 85, 256 
 
 Cost .$7, 113, 940 
 
 Persons killed and injured 4, 180 
 
 Many of the accidents were due to conditions of navigation over 
 which the navigators had no control, but many more were due to 
 reckless steamboating. So long as there was no rail competition, 
 speed was an ol)iect. A speed record was a profitable means of 
 advertising, and the de.^ire to attain it led to racing and resulted fre- 
 quently in collisions and explo.sions. 
 
 Steaml)()ats were being steadily perfected, and the length of time 
 consumed between river })()rts was constantly reduced. The average 
 rate of speed on the Mis.sissippi and Ohio in 1840 was about 6 miles 
 
 f)er hour upstream and 10 to 12 miles downstream, but this rate was 
 reriuently exceeded. 
 
 The following tables sliow tlie increase in steamboat power during 
 the [)erio(l up to lS(i(). 
 
 « Report on Internal Commerce of the United States, 1887.
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 29 
 
 Average time of steamboats between points nam^d.c- 
 
 Year. 
 
 Time. 
 
 New Orleans to St. Louis 1815 
 
 1823 
 
 1826 
 
 1 1828 
 
 I 1800 
 
 New Orleans to Louisville i 1819 
 
 1826 
 1840 
 
 Louisville to New Orleans 1819 
 
 1826 
 1840 
 1819 
 1840 
 1819 
 1840 
 
 Louisville to Cincinnati. 
 Cincinnati to Louisville. 
 
 2.5 days. 
 12 days. 
 9 days, 12 hours. 
 
 9 days, 4 hours. 
 
 3 days (running time). 
 20 days. 
 
 10 to 14 days. 
 6 days. 
 
 10 days. 
 6 days. 
 
 4 days. 
 40 hours. 
 15 hours. 
 18 hours. 
 
 11 hours. 
 
 a Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, vol. 48. 
 
 The following are taken from a list of speed records of individual 
 boats : ** 
 
 New Orleans to Cairo (961 miles) 
 
 New Orleans to Louisville (1,328 miles). 
 
 New Orleans to Cincinnati (1,457 miles). 
 
 Time. 
 
 6 hours, 44 minutes. 
 
 3 hours, 40 minutes. 
 1 hour, 1 minute. 
 
 , 2 hours, 4 minutes. 
 . 4 hours, 20 minutes. 
 , 10 hours. 
 
 4 hours. 
 14 hours. 
 20 hours. 
 
 9 hours, 19 minutes. 
 18 hours. 
 12 hours. 
 
 X. 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF RAILWAY COMPETITION. 
 
 With the appearance of railways in the West begins the downfall 
 of river commerce. In order to make clear the manner in which 
 railways invaded the territory previously served by the waterways, 
 the following table is presented, showing the more important rail- 
 way lines opened for business previous to 1860 which touched any 
 one of the waterways under consideration, together with the date of 
 opening, the water terminus of the line, and the present name of the 
 corporation: 
 
 Table of 'principal western railways, 1841-1860. 
 
 Name of railway. 
 
 Date 
 
 of 
 open- 
 ing. 
 
 Water terminus. 
 
 Present name of owning or con- 
 trolling corporation. 
 
 OHIO. 
 
 Little Miami 
 
 1846 
 1851 
 
 
 Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago and 
 
 St. Louis. 
 Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and 
 
 Cleveland, Columbus and Cincin- 
 
 do 
 
 nati. 
 Cleveland and Pittsburg 
 
 1852 
 
 1857 
 
 Cleveland, Pittsburg.. 
 Cincinnati 
 
 St. Louis. 
 Pennsvlvania. 
 
 Marietta and Cincinnati 
 
 Baltimore and Ohio. 
 
 b Report on Internal Commerce of the United States, 1887.
 
 30 TEAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI EIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 Table of principal uestern raihcarjs, 1841-1860 — Continued. 
 
 Name of railway. 
 
 Date 
 
 of 
 open- 
 ing. 
 
 Water terminus. 
 
 Present name of owning or con- 
 trolling corporation. 
 
 INDIANA. 
 
 1847 
 
 1 1853 
 1854 
 
 1858 
 
 1851 
 
 1854 
 1855 
 
 1855 
 1856 
 1856 
 18&4 
 
 1857 
 
 1857 
 1858 
 
 1853 
 1859 
 
 1850 
 
 1854 
 1850 
 1837 
 1858 
 1859 
 
 1859 
 1841 
 
 Madison 
 
 Across the State 
 
 New Albany 
 
 Pittsbujg, Cincinnati, Chicago and 
 
 Indiana Central 
 
 Indianapolis and Terre Haute 
 
 St. Louis. 
 Do. 
 Chicago, Indianapolis and Louis- 
 
 
 ville. 
 Evansville and Terre Haute. 
 
 KENTUCKY. 
 
 Louisville 
 
 Rock Island 
 
 Louisville and Nashville. 
 
 ILLIXOIS. 
 
 Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific. 
 
 Galena and Chicago (jointly with 
 Illinois Central). 
 
 Galena 
 
 Chicago and Northwestern. 
 
 Alton 
 
 Chicago and Alton. 
 
 Chicago, Burlington and Quiney... 
 Illinois Central 
 
 Quincy 
 
 Cairo, Dunleith 
 
 Alton, 111 
 
 Cincinnati, Ohio; East 
 St. Louis, 111. 
 
 Prairie du Chien 
 
 La Crosse 
 
 Chicago, BurUngton and Quincy. 
 Illinois Central. 
 
 
 Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and 
 
 
 St. Louis. 
 Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern. 
 
 WISCONSIN. 
 
 Milwaukee and Prairie du Chien 
 
 Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul. 
 Do. 
 
 MISSOURI. 
 
 Pacific of Missouri (40 miles) 
 
 St. Louis 
 
 Hannibal, St. Joseph.. 
 
 Chattanooga 
 
 Missouri Pacific and St. Louis and 
 
 San Francisco. 
 Hannibal and St. Joseph. 
 
 TENNESSEE. 
 
 Western and Atlantic of Georgia 
 
 Nashville, Chattanooga and St. 
 
 Nash\nlle,Chattanooga 
 Chattanooga 
 
 Louis. 
 Do. 
 
 
 Norfolk and Western. 
 
 
 Memphis,Chattanooga . 
 
 Southern. 
 
 East Tennessee and Virginia 
 
 Do. 
 
 Columbus, Kv.; Mo- 
 bile, Ala. 
 
 Louisville, Ky.; Nash- 
 ville, Tenn. 
 
 Vicksburg 
 
 Mobile and Ohio. 
 
 
 Louisville and Nashville. 
 
 MLSSISSIPPI. 
 
 Alabama and Vicksburg. 
 
 
 
 
 It appears from this table that railway builtlino; in the West began 
 in the decade 1840-1850, and that the practice of building compara- 
 tively short railway lines to connect with the waterways developed 
 rapidly diiriniz; the next decade. These water and rail junctions were 
 cstabHshod all llie way down the Ohio and lower Mississippi and on 
 the upper Missi.ssi|)|)i us far north as La Crosse, Wis., as well as on the 
 Cumberland, Tennessee, and Missouri. Among these junction points 
 were Pittsburg, Pa., Cincinnati, Ohio, Louisville, Ky., Madison, New 
 Albany, and Evansville, Lid., on the Ohio Kiver; Chattanooga, Tenn., 
 on the Tennessee River: Nashville, Tenn., on the Cund)erla.nd River; 
 Cairo, 111., Columbus, Ky., Mem|)his, Tenn., and Vicksburg, Miss., on 
 the lower Mississippi; St. Louis and Hannibal, Mo., Alton, Quincy, Rock 
 Island, (lalenn, and Dunleith, 111., Prairie du Chien and La Crosse, Wis., 
 on the ui)per Mi.ssissii)j)i; and St. Joseph, Mo., on the Missouri River.
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 31 
 
 There is some basis in this situation for the statement so often made 
 that railways at the beginninjij were merely short lines conneetino: in- 
 terior eommunities with waterways and were intenfh'd to suj)|)lement 
 and not eonijx'te with waterway facilities. 
 
 For examj)le, the Vickshiir^ and Jackson acted merely as a tribu- 
 tary to the river and transported cotton from the inteiior for ship- 
 ment. Its business in cotton <i;rew from 34, 001 bales in ](S47 to 97,868 
 bales in 1853." The Penn.sylvania Railroad for a time after reaching 
 Pittsburg was dependent upon the Ohio for trafhc connections with 
 the West. The president of the Madison and Inilianapolis, in his 
 annual report for 1850, made the following statement: 
 
 The wharfa.o-e in front of the freight depot at Madison has been completed. The 
 Cincinnati and Louisville i)ackets now receive and discharge their freight and pas- 
 sengers at this point. 
 
 One reason why railways at the beginning did not at once supersede 
 the waterways was that it was some time before they were properly 
 organized and equipped to carry freight. The Baltimore and Ohio 
 in 1831 had carried only 593 tons of freight, but had transported 
 81,905 passengers. The Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton was 
 opened in 1852 for the operation of passenger trains only.'' It 
 refjuircMl some effort on the part of railways to draw the bulky freight 
 away from the waterways. 
 
 Yet, if the policy of cooperation prevailed at the beginning it had 
 only a brief term of existence, for the economic conditions were such 
 as to drive railways inevitably into the position of competitors. 
 Referring again to the railways mentioned in the table, it may be 
 noted that in Ohio the Little Miami, in connection with the Mad 
 River Railroad, formed in 1848 the first through line between Lake 
 Erie and the Ohio River, and that a second through line was created 
 in 1851 by the Little Miami and the Cleveland, Columbus and Cin- 
 cinnati. These highways across the State were inclined, like the 
 canals, to divert trallic northward to the Lakes and thence to the 
 eastern markets. But it was not long that the Lakes had to be 
 relied upon for transportation eastward. The trunk lines of the 
 Atlantic seaboard, spurred on by the rivalry of the seaboard cities, 
 were pushing their way rapidly westward, and many of them took 
 their course through the advantageous opening south of the Lakes 
 and north of the mountains offered by the State of Ohio. The last 
 link ])etween Chicago and New York in what is known to-tlay as the 
 "Vanderbilt system" was completed between Cleveland and Toledo 
 in 1853. The Cleveland and Pittsburg, which formed a part of the 
 Pennsylvania, began operations in 1852, and the Pittsburg, Fort 
 Wayne and Chicago reached Chicago in 1858, forming the first con- 
 tinuous line through Ohio from tlie Ohio River to Chicago. The 
 Baltimore and Ohio, as it passed through the State, extended its 
 line to Cincinnati in 1857 by means of the Marietta and Cincinnati. 
 The State of Ohio was therefore b}' 1860 opened up by rail lines 
 in all directions. The same influences were at work elsewhere. 
 Across the State of Indiana ran several hues, including the Indiana 
 Central and the Indianapolis and Terre Haute. The Tcrre Haute 
 and Alton and the Ohio and Mississippi both paralleled the Ohio River 
 
 o Report on Internal Commerce of the United States, 1887. 
 t> Gephart, op. cit., p. 172.
 
 32 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 and reached out to the Mississippi. The New Albany and wSalem, 
 opened in 1854, was the first Hne entireh' within the State of Indiana 
 connecting the Ohio Kiver, at the foot of the falls, with the Lakes. 
 
 Farther south railroad buildino; was less advanced, yet even in that 
 territory- roads from the East were seeking western waterway connec- 
 tions, with no other possible purpose than to turn traffic eastward which 
 had earlier been moving west and south. For example, the Western 
 and Atlantic of Georgia opened a route from Atlanta to Chattanooga 
 on the Tennessee River in 1850, the Virginia system of railroads 
 made connection with the same city through the opening of the Vir- 
 ginia and Tennessee in 1856 and the East Tennessee and Virginia 
 in 1858. At the same time Chattanooga was pushing its influence 
 westward, and had secured a connection with Nashville on the Cum- 
 berland in 1854 and with Memphis on the Mississippi in 1857. Two 
 years later there was direct connection by rail between liouisville 
 on the Ohio and Xashville, and between Mobile, Ala., and Columbus, 
 Ky., on the Mississippi, a short distance below Cairo. In 1860 the 
 Vicksburg and Jackson was extended to jSIeridian, where it met the 
 Mobile and Ohio, and thus made possible the diversion of trafuc 
 from the Mississippi eastward. 
 
 On the upper Mississippi the first railroad connection with Chi- 
 cago was made at Rock Island in 1854. Previous to this time only 
 a small proportion of the exports of Illinois had been sent to market 
 by the Lakes and the Erie Canal. The Illinois River, navigable to 
 within 100 miles of Chicago, and the ^Mississippi along the western 
 border of the State, had given a southerl}^ direction to a good share 
 of its products. All the products of the west bank of the ^Mississippi 
 and tlie greater part of those of the east bank had gone to New Orleans. 
 But now all was to be changed. The Rock Island connection with 
 the jMississippi was followed by junctions at Galena and Alton in 
 1855, and the next year the Illinois Central had a line paralleling 
 the river all the way from Dunleith, opposite Dubuque, to Cairo. 
 Lines also connected Milwaukee, on Lake Michigan, with Prairie du 
 Chien and La Crosse, on the Mississi|)pi, in 1857 and 1858. West of 
 the river there were no railways of importance previous to 1860, 
 except the Hannibal and St. Joseph, opened in 1859, the Mississij^pi 
 and ^Iissouri from Davenport to Iowa City, Iowa, 55 nu'les, and the 
 Pacific Railroad, constructed westward from St. Louis for a short 
 distance. 
 
 That these various short roads to the Mississippi and the Ohio 
 ceased construction for a time with the attainment of their river 
 junctions was due in no sense to the fact that they regarded themselves 
 as waterway feeders. The leading causes for the suspension of rail- 
 road building were found, first, in the financial situation which 
 culminated in the panic of 1857; second, in the disturbance to busi- 
 ness and credit wnich came with the civil war; and third, to tlie 
 didiculties in the way of l)ri(lging the Ohio and Mississippi. The 
 first two causes recpiire no discussion. The bridge problem was an 
 interesting one. A highway drawbridge had been erected over the 
 Ohio at Wheeling in IS 10, and between 1853 and 1856 the Chicago 
 and Rock Island iiad huiU a bridge across the Mississippi between 
 Rock Island and Daxcnport to make connection with the Missis- 
 sippi and Missouri ivaih'oad in Iowa. Botli bridges had ])een built 
 by stat(! authorization alone, and without th(> sanction of Congress. 
 Both interfered seriously with navigation. For these reasons further
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 33 
 
 bricl<;iii<:; was bitterly f()ii<rlit. The ()])|)().siti()n ol" steainl)()at interests, 
 prompted in part, at least, by a desire to cheek railroad advance and 
 compel alliance with the waterways, had a le<j:itimate l)asis in the 
 contention that unless brid<i,('s were j)rovided with draws, reconstruc- 
 tion of the smokestacks and pilot lupuses of iJic steamboats would be 
 necessary, and that unless the piers were placed wide apart, and 
 spans of 500 feet were constructed, raftin<; and bar<;in^ would be 
 seriously hampered. ( 'on<j;ressional investif^ation followed, resulting 
 in oeneral leijislation under which bri(l*!;es were built in the late 
 sixties and in the seventies. Then the railways continued their 
 course west and south, or made lines continuous which were already 
 in existence on eitluM' bank of the river; but until congressional 
 authorization had been secured, the railways rested in tlieir westward 
 and southward advance. 
 
 Even in the decade previous to the civil war the railways, with 
 their through lines from Chicago to New York and their connections 
 with the Mississippi and the Ohio, had already begun to draw traffic 
 eastward, and to diminish the river commerce to New Orleans in 
 northern products, or in what was known in New Orleans as "western 
 produce." This may be shown in a general way by presenting a 
 table whicli gives for the eleven years j)receding the war the value of 
 "southern produce," in detail, and the aggregate value of other 
 products, mainly from the North and West. 
 
 Value of receipts of produce at New Orleans, 1850-1860.C 
 
 Year ending 
 September 30— 
 
 Cotton. 
 
 Sugar. 
 
 Mola.s.ses. 
 
 '■-^bacco. pOth-, 
 
 Total. 
 
 1850 
 
 $41,885,150 
 48.750.704 
 48.592.222 
 08,759.424 
 54.749,002 
 51.390,720 
 70,371,720 
 80,255,079 
 88.127.340 
 92.037.794 
 
 109,389,228 
 
 812,390,150 
 12,078,180 
 11, 827,. 350 
 15.452.688 
 15,720.340 
 18,025,020 
 10,199,890 
 8,137,300 
 17,900,008 
 24.998.424 
 18,190,880 
 
 82,400,000 
 2,025,000 
 4.020,000 
 5,140,000 
 3,720,000 
 1.25.5.0tX) 
 4.582.242 
 2.085.300 
 4.001.015 
 0.470.817 
 0,250,335 
 
 $0,100,400 $34,049,173 
 7,730,000 1 35.127.539 
 7,196,185 i 30,409.9.-)! 
 7.938.660 1 37.442,973 
 4.228,100 30,912,7.50 
 7,111,370 ! 30,424.713 
 7.982,800 ; 45,119,4-29 
 U. 892.120 i 49,091.510 
 13.028,327 42.798.2.50 
 
 $90,897,873 
 
 1851 
 
 100,924,083 
 
 1852 
 
 108,0.51.708 
 
 1853. 
 
 1.34.233,735 
 
 1854 
 
 115.330,798 
 
 1855 
 
 117,100,823 
 
 1850 
 
 144,256,081 
 
 1857 
 
 158.001,369 
 
 1858 
 
 107.155.546 
 
 1859 
 
 1800 
 
 9,101.750 
 8,499,325 
 
 40.283,879 
 42,881.480 
 
 172,9.52,609 
 185,211,254 
 
 
 
 While the vahie of receipts at New Orleans during these 3'ears in- 
 creased !)3 per cent and while receipts of cotton increased 166 per 
 cent, sugar 50 per cent, molasses 160 per cent, and tobacco about 33 
 per cent, both sugar and tobacco having been still higher in value 
 in some of the intervening years, the value of "other products" in- 
 creased only 26 per cent. These statistics do not show quantities, 
 iience final conclusions can not be drawn from them, but they clearly 
 show the tendency, inuring the years 1854-1858, western produce 
 represented but 18 per cent of the total receipts at New Orleans as 
 compared with 61 ])er cent in the early years of river commerce.** 
 Traffic in large cpuintities still continued to be handled on the Ohio 
 between Cincinnati and Pittsburg and between Cincinnati and St. 
 Louis, and also to a considerable degree on the upper Mississippi 
 
 "Report on Internal Commerce of the United States, 1887. 
 19830—09 3
 
 34 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 as far south as St. Louis, but dependence upon New Orleans as a 
 market was being crradually lessened. 
 
 The year immediately ])recedin2; the outbreak of the war, 1859-60, 
 was the best year on the river for New Orleans. The city received the 
 heaviest shipments and the steam river tonnage entered at the ])ort 
 was the largest ever recorded. There reached New Orleans that sea- 
 son b}' river 2,187,560 tons of freight, and the total river trade of the 
 city was valued at $289,565,000." The significant fact concerning 
 this trade, however, was its comparatively local character. Of the 
 total steamboat arrivals at New Orleans for the year 1859-60, 
 amounting to 3,540, 1,835 were from the State of Louisiana and 576 
 from the neighboring States of Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas. 
 New Orleans had no railway worth mentioning in 1860, but the city 
 controlled the entire river trade, commerce, and crops of the State of 
 Louisiana. By means of the Red River, she secured a hold on the 
 crops of northern Texas. The greater portion of Indian Territory, the 
 larger part of Arkansas, all the Ouachita and Arkansas valleys, a por- 
 tion of the White River trade running up into Missouri, were at the 
 command of the Crescent City. The State of Mississippi was subject 
 to New Orleans, except for its eastern portion through which the Mobile 
 and Ohio Railroad now ran. Western Tennessee and a large portion 
 of Kentucky still sent their products south, and probably one-fifth of 
 the produce of the Ohio Valley and one-third of that of the u])per 
 Mississippi still found its way to New Orleans. But the significant 
 thing was that the western produce then moving south was wholly 
 for local consumption and not for export. It was to supply the 
 planters with food products and supplies, in order that they might 
 devote their attention exclusively to cotton raising. The export 
 business in northern products had turned eastward. 
 
 The traffic of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and their tributaries 
 had been ta])ped at many points. Produce formerly traveling to New 
 Orleans by flatboat from tlie upper Tennessee was now carried largely 
 to Charleston, Savannah, and other seaboard cities. The receipts at 
 New Orleans from northern Alabama were less in 1860 than in 1845, 
 notwithstanding a steady gain in the prosperity of that section. At 
 Cincinnati a large portion of the flour and grain formerh" sent down 
 the Ohio now went to Pittsburg by river and thence by rail; or by 
 canal to Toledo, and thence by lake and canal or rail to the seaboard, 
 or to some slight extent '' all rail." With the establishment at Galena 
 of through connections with the east in 1855, the lead trade on the 
 river which had gone via New Orleans to New York and Europe 
 suddenly droi)ped off and soon disa|)peared altogether. 
 
 At Cincinnati, for the year 1857, there were received a total of 
 886,900 tons of merchanclise, and there were shipped 528,110 tons, 
 of which a little over 10 per cent in and out was handled by rail. 
 This was an increase of 17 per cent in rail tonnage over the year 
 previous. At Louisville, in 1857, 13 per cent of the flour, 8 per 
 cent of the wheat 29 per cent of the corn, 26 per cent of the whisky, 
 and 10 jx'rcent of the coffee were received by rail. At St. Louis, of 
 the Hour received in barrels 15 per cent came by rail in 1857, 27 per 
 cent in 1858, and 3:5 j)er cent in 1859. I)aveii|)or(, Iowa, the river 
 terminus of the Mississij)})! and Missouri Railroad, opposite Rock 
 Island, 111., received in 1857 large quantities of lumber, shingles, 
 
 « Report on Inleriial Coiniueire of the United States, 1887.
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 35 
 
 railroad iron, coal, and corn 1)V way of the Chicafijo and liock Island 
 Railroad, and wheat, pork, Hour, and wool from the West by the 
 Mississippi and Missouri llailroad. By way of the river the principal 
 product received was lumber, which amounted to nearly twice that 
 received by rail. The aggregate exports and imports for the year 
 were estiniated at 93,683 tons, of which 87 per cent was handled 
 by rail. But Davenport had tlie first bridge across the Mississippi, 
 and thereby had earlier secured rail connections with the P^ast. 
 
 The following table, presenting the shipments of flour and grain 
 in bushels from Chicago for a series of years, shows in a striking way 
 the influence of railway extension westward from the city. It will 
 be observed that in 1854, the fh'st year of railway connection with the 
 Mississippi River, the shipments were doubled. 
 
 Total shipments cnstivord of flour and (jrain/rom Chicago, 1838-1863. « 
 
 Bushels. 
 
 1838 78 
 
 1839 3, 678 
 
 1840 10,000 
 
 1841 40, 000 
 
 1842 586, 907 
 
 1843 688, 907 
 
 1844 923,494 
 
 1845 1 , 024, 620 
 
 1846 1 , 599, 819 
 
 1847 2,243,201 
 
 1848 3, 001, 740 
 
 1849 2, 895, 959 
 
 1850 1, 858, 928 
 
 1851 4,646,591 
 
 1852 5, 873, 141 
 
 1853 6, 422, 181 
 
 1854 12,902,320 
 
 1855 16,633,645 
 
 1856 21,583,221 
 
 1857 18,032,678 
 
 I860 31,109,059 
 
 1863 54,741,839 
 
 pLThese instances cited do not completely cover the extent and power 
 of the railroad influence in the decade before the war, but it is unneces- 
 sary to go further into detail. The examples are tyi)ical of the 
 situation. 
 
 The develo])ment of transportation agencies before ISGO may be 
 summarized broadh^ by the statement that up to 1850 watev routes, 
 including the coastwise and gulf lines, constituted the principal w^ays 
 of freight movement, while the business on the Lakes and interior 
 rivers was increasing. Railways were preeminently passenger lines. 
 Before 1850 railways in the East had begun to compete with the water- 
 ways, but, so far a.s they existed at all in the West, they were feeders 
 to the water lines. Cojnpetition with the waterways of the Mississippi 
 Valley came frojn the water route formed by the Hudson, I^lrie Canal, 
 and Lakes, with the cooperation of short railway feeders. But in the 
 decade 1850-1860 railways made a good beginning toward the assump- 
 tion of that competitive relationship which was soon to prove so dis- 
 astrous to the water lines. In some instances the competition by 
 1860 had become so serious as to endanger the existence of river 
 traffic. 
 
 o Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance, January, 1900.
 
 DECLINE OF RIVER COMMERCE AFTER 1860. 
 
 THE WAR AND THE RAILWAYS. 
 
 The war served at once to close all southern ports to commerce, 
 and destroyed the greater part of the river trade. Steamboats 
 continued to a small extent to ply the waters of the upper Mississippi 
 and the Ohio, but throu<:;h traffic southward ceased altoo;ether. 
 Railway buildino; continued. The rail lines which most seriously 
 threatened river commerce were located north of the Ohio, and were 
 undisturbed by military operations. Although hampered b}^ lack 
 of capital, extension of lines was not wholly checked, and the progress 
 in railway l)uil(ling made (hu'ing the time of disturbance was suflicient 
 to increase materially their competitive power. Bridges across the 
 Mississippi and Ohio were authorized by Congress in 1866, and the 
 connections between the two banks of the river were soon thereafter 
 made. The building of the Union Pacific gave an added impetus to 
 the westward moving railways, all of which were eager for this 
 transcontinental connection. The Union Pacific was opened in 1869. 
 In 1867 the Chicago and Nortii western and the Chicago, Burlington 
 and Quincy controlled lines reaching to the Missouri River. In 
 1869 the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific was running througli trains 
 from Davenport to Council Blufi's, and early in 1870 the Illinois 
 Central was operating under lease a line from Dubuque to Sioux City. 
 In 1867 a line was completed from Milwaukee to St. Paul via Prairie 
 du Chien. The Pacific Railroad of Missouri was completed from 
 St. Louis to Kansas City in 1865. Farther south, where the ravages 
 of war were more severe, progress was naturally slower. Mobile 
 and New Orleans were united by rail in 1870, and in 1874 a continuous 
 line had been formed from Chicago to New Orleans paralleling the 
 Mississippi by the extension northward to join the Illinois Central at 
 Cairo of the New Orleans, Jackson and (ireat Northern and the 
 Mississippi Central. 
 
 The following table shows the growth in railway mileage from 
 1851 to 1868 in the States bordering the rivers. It will be observed 
 that in all excei)t the Southern States there was railway building 
 during the war period, and that in some cases, notably Illinois, Iowa, 
 and Ohio, th(> progress from 1860 to 1865 was remarkable. 
 
 37
 
 38 TBAEFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 Total number of miles of railway in designated States, 1851-1868. 
 
 State. 
 
 1851. 
 
 1855. 
 
 1860. 
 
 1865. 
 
 1868. 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Illinois 
 
 638 
 86 
 116 
 
 1,486 
 1,406 
 
 887 
 
 2,946 
 2,103 
 2,790 
 
 3,331 
 
 2,217 
 
 3,157 
 
 213 
 
 1,010 
 
 891 
 
 925 
 
 567 
 
 1,296 
 
 38 
 
 898 
 
 335 
 
 40 
 
 122 
 
 3,398 
 
 2,600 
 
 3,440 
 
 572 
 
 
 i87 
 68 
 139 
 242 
 466 
 
 905 
 655 
 817 
 534 
 1,253 
 38 
 862 
 335 
 
 1,235 
 
 
 1,523 
 
 
 1,354 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 93 
 
 813 
 1,436 
 
 
 86 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 60 
 50 
 
 278 
 203 
 
 898 
 335 
 648 
 
 
 
 
 920 
 
 
 
 
 
 Diirino; this period of waterway inactivity the raihvays were not 
 only extending: their lines, but they were makins; more efficient their 
 existing facilities. Consolidation of connecting lines into single 
 systems for the purpose of increasing the efficiency of long-distance 
 operation was proceeding rapidly. In the sixties appeared the first 
 of the fast freight lines, which facilitated enormously the handling of 
 through business from the West. Cooperation of railways in the con- 
 struction of union stations, connecting tracks, and similar facilities 
 increased in the decade 1860 to 1870. It is interesting to observe 
 that one of the causes assigned for the building of cars by ship- 
 
 Eers was the fear of the railways that the restoration of river 
 usiness after the war would have such a serious effect upon their 
 business that it would be unwise for them to make the necessary out- 
 lay themselves. The fact that northern agricultural production 
 actually increased during the war" and that there was a growing 
 demand in Europe for our breadstuffs were favoring conditions. 
 Shippers became accustomed to the new transportation agency. 
 They found it more eflicient, and it relieved them of the burden of 
 marine insurance. In short, business relationships were established 
 which carried over after the waterways were again available, and, 
 except at certain periods when circumstances were exceptional, the 
 rivers did not even approach their former position of im])ortance. 
 
 The consolidation of connecting railway links had given the 
 eastern trunk linos control of their western connections, and with it 
 the power to reach out to the source of traffic and control its transit. 
 By the end of the sixties, the railways had gained a considerable 
 degnic of coididcuice in theii ability to c()m])ete with western rivers 
 and lakes. In 1809 it was said that grain could be moved by rail 
 from St. Louis to the north Atlantic seaboard for a much smaller 
 sum than the usual rate for carrying it from St. Louis by steamboat 
 to New Orleans. In 1872 the railways carried to market 83 per cent 
 of the grain and provisions of the West.'' Tiie overland movement 
 in cotton, which liad iun<»unt(ul in 1852 to only 175 bales, reached 
 109,000 biiles in 1800, 350,000 hi 1870, and 1,134,000 in 1880. 
 When business wms resumed on the river in 1805 the Cincinnati 
 Price-Current estimjited the decline in the shij)m(Mit of western pro- 
 duce south by river at from 75 to 90 per cent, the produce still 
 
 " Sliij)tiiftiiH of flour am! K'niin from Chicago east increased from 31,000,000 bushels 
 1 iw;(l lo r,r,, OOO.OOO ImihIioIs in I8(i;}. Sec lahlc, p. ;}5. 
 '^ Iliiigwall, op. (it., p. liM.
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MlSSISSirPI UIVER SYSTEM. 39 
 
 shii)pod in this manner beinoj for local consumption only. The 
 (liveision of commerce from river to rail at St. Jjouis was aided by the 
 fact that in river traflic transfers at this point were necessary. 
 Because of the shallowness of the upper river, vessels of much less 
 draft o})erated abov(^ tlu^ city than below. Because of this break 
 in shipment, the railways found their oj)portunity to step in and take 
 the busintvss. 
 
 Passen_tj;ers naturally s()uji;ht the more rapid means of travel, and the 
 passen<i;er steamboat, whicli had played such apart in the settlement 
 of the West, be<!;an after the war to diminish in importance. Passen- 
 j:;er transportation is now confined to excursion trips southward 
 in the winter and northward in the summer, and to ferry and short- 
 distance local service. Stenmboats have since 1860 been constructed 
 with special reference to the carrying of freight. Since the war, 
 also, has appeared on a larger scale the towboat, or pro])eIling steamer, 
 built with powerful engines, stern wheel, and shallow draft, to handle 
 the tows of barges, flats, or rafts. It has been a factor in the devel- 
 opment of the coal trade of the Ohio River, it played a necessary 
 Sart in the development of the barge line between St. Louis and 
 ew Orleans, and it has been and is still regularly engaged in the 
 declining rafting operations of the upper Mississippi. Its stern 
 wheel gives it peculiar facility in backing and turning and in handling 
 its tows and rafts successfully around the innumerable sharp bends in 
 the rivers. The barge became employed extensively as a freight 
 carrier, because the shallow depth of the rivers made a develop- 
 ment of steamboat capacity w4th vessels of deep draft an impossi- 
 bility. It was necessary to devise a shallow craft which could 
 spread out over the water and which could be loaded above the 
 water line rather than below decks. By this change in transporta- 
 tion methods a very great reduction in cost was obtained. 
 
 With the exception of the civil war, there was probably no single 
 influence which played so large a part in diverting traflic from the 
 lower Mississippi to the railways as the condition of the mouth of 
 the river. So long as exports from New Orleans were carried in 
 clipper ships with sharp keels which drew when loaded not more than 
 16 to 18 feet, there was a reasonable probability that they could get 
 over the bar in Southwest Pass with tlie aid of towboats. Doubtless 
 the poor channel diverted some commerce from this port, yet the 
 demand for cotton abroatl led vessels to make special effort to reach 
 New Orleans, and commerce at this port continued to grow. But 
 with a change in build and size of snipping seeking the port, the 
 shallow entrance became impracticable. When there was added to 
 this the unreasonable charges and the ar])itrarv regulations of a 
 monopolized towboat company, the situation became intolerable. It 
 was not relieved until 1877, when the Eads jetties at South Pass were 
 completed. Towing charges and insurance rates both fell at once, 
 and the dangers of stranding and the costs of delay were no longer 
 to be feared. There have been other physical difficulties also in the 
 way of the development of lower Mississippi commerce. Aside from 
 those due to a shifting chaimel and the presence of snags, ice and 
 low water have been constant hindrances. Between St. Lotus and 
 Cairo, navigation has been regularly suspended for a greater or less 
 time each year because of ice. The average number of days of inter- 
 ruption per year for the ten years 1871 to 1880 was thirty-iive. A
 
 40 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM; 
 
 more serious interference over this same stretch has been the frequent 
 low water, due both to hick of water supply and to the sediment 
 brought down by the Missouri. The full advantages of river com- 
 merce can not be attained unless boats which draw 8 feet of water 
 when loaded can be employed. At times vessels ch'awing only 4 feet 
 could alone be used at what is estimated to have been double the 
 cost. The Select Committee of the Senate on Transportation Routes 
 to the Seaboard found that during the nine years 1865 to 1873 the 
 average number of days in whicli the water was less than 8 feet was 
 one hundred and fifty nine. For the ten years 1871 to 1880 the aver- 
 age was one hundred and twenty-six days. From 1900 to 1909, 
 however, dredges have continuously maintained an 8-foot depth dur- 
 ing the navigation season. Below Cairo a 9-foot navigation is sel- 
 dom obstructed by either ice or low water. The frequently reiter- 
 ated charge that certain kinds of products were injured by the climate 
 of New Orleans, and that this had led to a diversion of traffic east- 
 ward, was investigated by the Select Committee on Transportation 
 Routes to the Seaboard in 1874, and found to have no legitimate 
 basis except, possibly, to some shght extent in tiie case of corn. 
 
 The passage of the interstate-commerce act in 1887 aroused the 
 well-nigh forlorn hope of the steamboat interests. These interests, as 
 a rule, had not been able to raise their rates because of the sharp 
 competition of inchvidual steamboat owners. They had watched the 
 raihvays lower their rates at competitive water points until they had 
 taken the business, and then, to some extent, at any rate, recoup 
 themselves by higher exactions from shippers at inland points which 
 had no water facilities. The interstate-commerce law forbade dis- 
 crimination, and complaints were promptly presented to the com- 
 mission with reference to the river situation. But two months after 
 the passage of the act the commission rendered a decision in the 
 petition of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and others, reliev- 
 ing the roads from the necessit}^ of conforming to the long and short 
 haul clause where water competition was present. With this deci- 
 sion went the last hope of the steamboat men that they could main- 
 tain themselves against the su])eri()r service of the railways, and 
 orders for new steand^oats, which had been held u]) awaiting the com- 
 mission's action, were canceled. 
 
 II. 
 
 OHIO KiVEH ('<)>im?:rce. 
 
 An the Ohio Kiver \'alley had earliest develoj)ed its waterway as an 
 eflicieiit transj)ortali()ii agency, so it was the hi'st to be iiilluenced by 
 the cxten.'-ion of railways. By 1875 the iour leatling east and west 
 trunk lines with western connections at Chicago, St. Louis, Louisville, 
 and C incinuiiti had become the imi)ortant commercial highways, and 
 had greatly indiieiiced the coiii'se of trade in the States south of the 
 Ohio and of Missouri. The commercial centers of this section were 
 now St. Louis, Ijouisville, and ( iiiciiHiali, in competition with Mobile, 
 New Orleans, and (ialvesjon. The three foimer drew their suj)j)lies 
 j)rin(i|)iilly i'roni At lantic seapoits. By 1880 ( incinnati had I'ealized 
 the I'utihty ol the waterway as an aid in the conipet itix'e struggle, 
 and in that yeai' had completed her ( incinnati Southern Ivailway to 
 ( 'hat t anooga wit li t he purpose of securing a grip on sout liern territory.
 
 TRAKFIC IIISTOKY UK M ISSlSSU'l'l KIVKK SYSTEM. 41 
 
 C/ompetition between the two forms of tiunspoitiition liud a 
 steiulyinji; effect upon water rates. The river rates had earher been 
 (letcnnined wholly by the supjjly of and demand for trans|)ortation, 
 and this had been inlluenced <;"reatly by the condition of na\i<iation. 
 But by 1870 it ap|)eared that an eidiancemcnt of the water rate dur- 
 infi; a season of low water had a tcMulency to divert traffic to the rail- 
 way, and that the boats could therefore no lon^<'r enjoy the full benefit 
 of their situation. To some extent, agreements for jjnnatin^ on 
 thr<)uj2;h traffic were entered into between rail and water lines. For 
 example, the Chesa])eake and Ohio prorated with Ohio steamboats 
 on an allowance of two miles of waterways for one of rail. These 
 agreements, however, were diflicult to arran<2;e and to keej) in force 
 because of the lack of boatin*:; or^ianization and the necessity of 
 makin<i; contracts with so many indixidual steamboat owners. 
 Nevertheless, ))roratini:; arran<;ements l)etween railways and the 
 ])ackets ojx'ratinjx on the Ohio for the pur])ose lar^i;ely of handlin*:; 
 Pittsburg steel i)roducts continued until about 1900, when they wei'e 
 terminated in response to the desire of railways serving the Pitts- 
 burg district." 
 
 The gradual absorption of the general merchandise traffic of this 
 whole section by the railwaj^s may be illustrated in the commercial 
 development of Cincinnati. The trade of this city was until about 
 1S()() chi(>lly (lepend(>nt upon the Ohio River and its connections, ex- 
 cej)t for that portion of its products which went north by canal and 
 the Lakes, "^riie outbreak of the war arrested the commerce of Cin- 
 cinnati, and the diversion of traflic to the railways, following upon the 
 restoration of normal industrial conditions, not only made Louisville 
 and St. Louis more active competitors of Cincinnati than before, but 
 also brought Chicago into the field as a pow erfnl rival. The river trade 
 was inactive from 1861 to 1872, the down-river traffic below Louis- 
 ville being limited by the capacity of the Louisville and Portland 
 Canal, which admitted oidy boats of a maxinnim capacity of GOO to 
 700 tons. In that year, lioweA^er, the enlarged canal was completed. 
 Two years later the tolls were reduced and in 1880 were abolished 
 altogether. These improvements made p()ssil)le the employment of 
 boats of 1,700 tons upon an unimpeded river and gave some impulse 
 to river commerce. But so rapidly did traffic on the Ohio decline 
 that by 1887 there was but one regular steamboat line between Cin- 
 cinnati and New Orleans. No boats ran from New Orleans to the 
 Cund)erland and Tennessee rivers, and there was no regular Louis- 
 ville boat. 
 
 The following table of Cincinnati ex})orts shows the steadily 
 increasing ])i'ei)onderance of rail traffiQ: 
 
 Exports from Cincinnati, 1855-1880. b 
 
 Year ending August 31— 
 
 Shipped by 
 river. 
 
 $20,733,234 
 77,498,017 
 43,832,099 
 45,537,607 
 
 Shipped by 
 rail and canal. 
 
 1855 
 
 $18,044,160 
 
 1865 
 
 110.292.294 
 
 1875 
 
 157 571 924 
 
 1880 
 
 208. 2S9, tiOO 
 
 
 
 "Report of Commissioner of Corporations on Transportation by Water. Part II. 
 b Report on Internal Commerce of the United States, 1880.
 
 42 
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 The shipments by canal were a small and declining; amount, and 
 the large })roportion of slii])ments shown in the second column were 
 handled by the railways. 
 
 The sanie tendency may be also illustrated by a table of steamboat 
 arrivals at Cincinnati for a series of years. 
 
 Number of arrivals of steamboats at Cincinnati, 1848-1880. 
 
 Year. 
 
 From New 
 Orleans. 
 
 From 
 Pittsburg. 
 
 From 
 St. Louis. 
 
 From other 
 ports. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1848 
 
 319 
 
 880 
 
 292 
 210 
 206 
 111 
 U5 
 27 
 93 
 
 2,499 
 1,809 
 2,264 
 3,127 
 2,339 
 2,442 
 2,785 
 
 3,780 
 
 1855 
 
 159 407 
 185 330 
 
 2,585 
 
 1860 
 
 2,985 
 
 1865 
 
 41 
 107 
 
 71 
 103 
 
 211 
 
 151 
 
 62 
 
 182 
 
 3,490 
 
 1870 
 
 2,712 
 
 1875 
 
 2,602 
 
 1880 
 
 3,163 
 
 
 
 The only arrivals in which there has not been a shar]:> decline are 
 those from "other ports," which consist, principally, of local and 
 ferry service. 
 
 The following table gives the steamboat trafhc out of Cincinnati 
 for the years 1855 and 1905, and shows its change in character and 
 its marked decline. The comparison is disturbed, but not wdiolly 
 destroyed, by the variety of units of measure em])loyed: 
 
 Principal shipments by river from Cincinnati, 1855 and 1905. 
 (Compiled from reports of Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and Merchants' Exchange.] 
 
 Article. 
 
 Ale, beer, and porter barrels. 
 
 Alcohol do . . . 
 
 Apples, green do . . . 
 
 Beef do. . . 
 
 Do tierces . 
 
 Beans barrels . 
 
 Brooms dozens. 
 
 Butter barrels. 
 
 Do tubs. 
 
 Do firkins, kegs. 
 
 Butterine pounds . 
 
 Bran, etc sacks. 
 
 Bagging pieces. 
 
 Cattle head . 
 
 Candles boxes . 
 
 Castings pieces. 
 
 Do tons. 
 
 Cement and plaster barrels. 
 
 Cheese casks. 
 
 Do boxes . 
 
 Coffee bags. 
 
 Do sacks . 
 
 Cooperage pieces . 
 
 Corn : busliels . 
 
 Do sacks . 
 
 Corn meal barrels. 
 
 Cotton bales. 
 
 Crockery packages, cases, etc. 
 
 Eggs barrels. 
 
 Do -. cases . 
 
 Feathers sacks. 
 
 Do pounds. 
 
 Flour barrels. 
 
 Fnilt, dried potmds. 
 
 Do bushels. 
 
 Fresh iii(>at.s pounds. 
 
 Fumiturc packages. 
 
 1855. 
 
 19, 956 
 3, 427 
 
 17,584 
 
 13,977 
 1,297 
 
 18,275 
 1,300 
 
 24, 196 
 
 11,456 
 2,485 
 
 10,285 
 131,191 
 
 80, 263 
 2,073 
 
 4 
 102,352 
 
 42,283 
 108, 105 
 
 64,344 
 2,772 
 10, 021 
 
 5,014 
 '7,'3i9' 
 
 199, 276 
 "is, 029' 
 
 1905. 
 
 9,523 
 '3,664 
 
 440 
 56,630 
 
 916 
 
 231 
 3,591 
 
 7,615 
 10,079 
 
 11,083 
 8,042 
 
 127 
 2,846 
 
 3,151 
 
 3,300 
 
 6, 663 
 93, 000 
 
 11,400 
 17,723
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OV MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 43 
 
 Frincipal shipments by river from Cincinnati, 1855 and 1905 — Continued. 
 
 o Iron and steel
 
 44 TRAPFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI EIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 The commodity predominant in Ohio River commerce, in fact the 
 only commodity of importance now transported on the Mississippi 
 River system, is bituminous coaL For over twenty-five years this 
 has far surpassed all other commodities in tons carried. For the 
 sixteen years 1886 to 1902 the total amount of freight carried 
 througl/the Louisville and Portland Canal was about 81,000,000 
 tons, of which nearly 75 per cent was coal. 
 
 Transportation of this commodity began ver}^ early in the nine- 
 teenth century with the aid of the flatboat already described. But 
 the dangers of the upper Ohio in a "rise" and the difficulties of navi- 
 gation in low water made the floating of coal flats too precarious to 
 be profitable. Ohio River coal handling assumed importance about 
 1850, when steam towing or. better, propelling was permanently intro- 
 duced, and the business was extended beyond the Ohio River itself 
 as far as New Orleans. This traffic on the Monongahela has steadily 
 increased because of the extraordinary cheapness with which it can 
 be handled, and it alone has saved river commerce in this section 
 from destruction. While the size of craft employed and the efficiency 
 of propelling steamboats have been increased, there has been no 
 fundamental change in the method of handling the traffic during the 
 last quarter century. There are three typical craft employed, which 
 are, in the order of size, the coal boat, the barge, and the flat or float. 
 The coal boat, drawing 10 feet of water, has a capacity of over 1,000 
 tons or 25,000 bushels^ It costs about $800, and was formerly com- 
 monly sokl with its cargo at destination. The barge, with a little 
 less (h-aft, has about half the capacity of the boat, but is better 
 built, costs about SI, 000, and is returned empty for reloading. This 
 is used more commonly in the trade which does not extend beyond 
 Cairo or St. Louis. The float or flat is a still smaller craft, of about 
 200 tons or 5,000 bushels capacity, drawing about 4 feet, and costing 
 $400. This fragile craft has also commonly been broken up at the 
 end of its voyage. These three kinds of floating equipment, together 
 with fuel boats and the steam towboat, constitute. the fleet. 
 
 The method of handling as the fleet proceeds tlownstream is 
 simply that of a ])rogre.ssive accumulation of units into larger aggre- 
 gates, as navigiition grows more reliable. The oiigin of the traflic 
 is on the Monongahela River, where the coal is now loaded mechanic- 
 ally from the mines into the barges. However, the coal has always 
 been in sufficiently close proximity to the waterway to make water 
 handling ])rofitable, even before the introduction of mechanical aids. 
 At the hegirming of the coal business, flats and rafts were floated 
 down the riv(>r at high and medium stages of water. The river was 
 first im|)foved by a ])rivate company, incorporated by the State of 
 Pennsylvania in 1836, whose works were ac(|uire(l by the United 
 States in 1897. The river is now navigable by means of locks to 
 Faii'niont, W. Xn., 131 miles above Pittsburg. Coal is pro|)elled 
 down this river in small tows to Pittsburg Harbor where the boats 
 and baiges are moored awaiting a favorable stage of water, when 
 they are sent in large aggregates to ])oints below on the Ohio ami 
 Mississippi. Fleets of 25 boats, bai'ges, and flats containing 350,000 
 to 500, ()()() bushels of coiil are now handled fioni Pittsl)urg to Louis- 
 vill<'. Tliere they are moored above the falls of the Ohio at rJell'er- 
 soinille, Ind., are towed in sections throu";h the Louisville aiul
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 45 
 
 Portlund C-anul, oi" entire over tlie l';i,lls as tlu' sta<i;e ol" water deter- 
 mines, ami are reassembled l)elo\v the falls into still lar<z;er fleets for 
 the final stretch of their journey. One of the lar<;est fleets I'ccorded 
 carried from below the falls 56, ()()() tons, or 1,400, ()()() bushels of coal. 
 
 The rapid increase in this trallic in the eighties was due, so far as 
 southern demand was concerned, partly to the rapitl ^^rowth of manu- 
 factiu'inj^ at New Orleans and other Louisiana and Mississi])|)i points 
 reached by the river and its tributaries, aiul partly to the demand 
 for coal in the T^ouisiana sui:;ar houses. Nine-tenths of the Louisiana 
 sufjjar j)lantations were then on the bank of some stream, and coal 
 could be delivered to them directly by water in these shallow bar«jes. 
 This coal is still used by the su<i;ar and rice mills of J^ouisiana. It is 
 also in demand in the gas, domestic, and steam coal trade of New 
 Orleans, by coastwise and ocean steamships, and by railway loco- 
 motives. None of it is used at any distance from the river bank; 
 none is sent for sale to domestic ports beyond New Orleans. Of the 
 total annual receipts at New Orleans of about 1 ,()()(), 000 t(ms, about 
 500,000 tons are used by ocean steamships, and about 400,000 tons 
 are unloaded on the west bank of the river lar<2;ely for railway use. 
 
 Coal is now landed to some extent at important ])oints along the 
 river system, such as Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis, Yicksburg, 
 Natchez, and Baton Rouge. Moreover, the coal barge furnishes a 
 most satisfactory and economical method of provitling the river 
 steamers with fuel. The old picturesque method of "wooding up" 
 disappeared with the exhaustion of tlie wood supjily, and barges of 
 coal are npw moored to the river banks at designated points. The.se 
 the steamers pick up, unload while in motion, and then moor again 
 to the bank, where th(>v are afterwards collected by the towboats 
 and assembled for the return trip to Pittsburg. With the exhaustion 
 of the timber supply of the Allegheny River, and the necessity of 
 obtaining lumber from the Pacific coast, the coal barges are being 
 returned to the mines in larger numbers, and less of them are being 
 sold with the cargo. 
 
 The perfecting of this method of coal transportation has kept 
 always in mind as the one object the attainment of the greatest pos- 
 sible economy of service. This has been accom|)lished by the use of 
 propelling boats which do not attempt to make great speed, but 
 which have the power to guide the huge unwieldy fleet of barges 
 safely to their destination, and also by the method of s])reading out 
 the cargo over a wide area by means of craft as shallow as possible, 
 in order to minimize low-water difficulties. As a result, coal is car- 
 ried from Pittsburg to New Orleans at a little less than half of 1 
 mill per ton-mile, a rate which is quite beyond the reach of railway 
 competition." The develoj^nent of the u])per river business in coal 
 ma}^ be shoAvn, a])]iroximately, by the following table, which gives for 
 the 3"ears 1844 to ISSO the number of bushels of coal and slack shipjied 
 from the Monongahela according to the books of the Monongahela 
 Navigation Company, and from 1890 to 1907 the number of bushels 
 passed through the locks of the Monongahela River, as shown by 
 
 official reports. 
 
 *_. 
 
 o In view of the fact that the same corporation owns the mine, the loading and 
 unloading facilities, the boats and barges, and to some extent llie wharves, this rate 
 is a mere matter of bookkeeping, and too niucli reliance should not be placed upon it.
 
 46 TEATFIC HISTOEY OF MISSISSIPPI BIVEB SYSTEM. 
 
 Coal and slack shipped from the pools of the Monongahela slack water, 1844-1885 A 
 
 Bushels. 
 
 1844 737, 150 
 
 1850 12, 297, 967 
 
 1855 22, 234, 009 
 
 1860 37, 947, 732 
 
 1865 39, 522, 792 
 
 1870 57, 596, 400 
 
 1875 63, 707, 500 
 
 1880 84, 048, 350 
 
 1885 82, 459, 050 
 
 Movement of coal through Monongahela River locks, 1890-1907. b 
 
 1890 116, 302, 600 
 
 1895 104, 589, 900 
 
 1900 145, 446, 575 
 
 1905 212, 233, 500 
 
 1907 257, 086, 500 
 
 It is unnecessary to follow statistically the water traffic in coal 
 from port to port down the river, but the following summary of the 
 business of 1907 is illuminating. In that year there passed through 
 Lock No. 3 on the Monongahela Riyer, which is approximately the 
 total coal traffic at its origin, 8,957,712 short tons. There was 
 receiyed in the Pittsburg district in this year from the Monongahela 
 locks 6,840,816 tons, a small portion of this being mined within 
 the pools between the locks, and hence not included in the first 
 figure. There passed Dayis Island Dam on the way down the riyer 
 2,883,965 tons. There was receiyed at Cincinnati from the Mononga- 
 hela Riyer 1,244,720 tons, and a slightly smaller quantity from the 
 Kanawha and other riyer sources. Through the Lousiyille and 
 Portland Canal and oyer the falls of the Ohio at Louisyille, there 
 passed 1,154,991 tons on their way to destinations farther south. 
 The receipts by riyer of coal at New Orleans are estimated at about 
 1,000,000 tons'per year. 
 
 While the coal traffic has steadily grown, as already indicated, the 
 growth during the last ten years has been almost wholly in the 
 section between the mines and Pittsburg and Cincinnati. Below 
 Cincinnati there has been no marked change in riyer traffic during 
 this decade. Moreover, it is not to be assumed that this product is 
 handled exclusively or even predominantly by water. For example, 
 of the total coal shipped into and tlu'ough the Pittsburg district 
 during the years 1900 to 1906, the railways handled an average of 
 71 per cent and the waterways 29 per cent. For the Pittsburg 
 district alone, however, a larger proportion has always been received 
 by water. In 1906 the proportion carried by water to Pittsburg 
 was 57 per cent, while to the territory west of Pittsburg it was only 
 11 per cent. At Cinciiniati, wliere the I'cceipts consist almost wholly 
 of bituminous coal from the Monongahela and Kanawiia rivers, the 
 proportion of coal recc^ived by river fell from 93 per cent in 1880 to 
 60 })(!r cent in 1895 and 33 ])er cent in 190(). Of the total shipments 
 out of Cincinnati in 1906 only about 6 ])er cent went by river. It is 
 impracticable to ship coal in any quantity by water to St. Louis, and 
 only a small amount, used for gas-making purposes, is brought in from 
 Pittsburg by river. 
 
 « Report on Internal Commerce of the United States, 1887. 
 b Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance. 
 
 ^
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 47 
 
 Passinfj from coal to other iiiipDrtaiit sources of traffic, a Jjiief suiu- 
 niary of the rej)ort of tlie Coinniissioiier of ('or|)oraf ions on Transpor- 
 tation by Water in the United States will suffice to present the existing 
 situation. Of the tiaffic at)ove l^ittsl)ur<:, that on the Allej^heny is 
 reduced to l)ulk freij^ht, as railways parallel the river and handle 
 <j;eneral niei-chandise. This frei<]:ht consists principally of lumber, a 
 raj)idly decreasin": (luantity, rafted downstream, coal carried a short 
 distance upstream for the use of steel mills, and gravel, sand, and 
 stone dredged along the river and carried to f)oints in Pittsburg 
 Harbor. The total traffic amounted to about 2, 500, ()()() tons in 1906. 
 The ^lonongahela is likewise paralleled by railway lines, which take 
 care of the merchandise business. Of the traffic outside of coal, the 
 only ])roducts of imj)ortance are sand and gravel, of which the pre- 
 <l()minant movement is upstream. Coal constituted <S4 ])er cent of 
 the traffic in 1007 and sand and gravel nearly 15 per cent. Of the 
 commerce of Pittsburg Harbor in 1907, 75 oer cent consisted of coal 
 and 22 per cent of sand and gravel. Small slii])ments of iron and 
 steel products still take place. Of the total commerce uj) and down 
 stream at Davis Ishuul Dam below Pittsburg in 1907, SO per cent was 
 coal. Sand was next in order, with 17 |)er cent of the total tonnage. 
 At Wheeling the total receipts and shipnu^nts by river for the year 
 1906 amounted to only 161,550 tons, mostly general merchandise. 
 The Muskingum River has a small miscellaneous traffic of fittle 
 im])ortance. Down the Little Kanawha are floated saw fogs and rail- 
 road ties, which nearly absorb the entire tonnage. The total traffic 
 of this river does not reach 100,000 tons annually. Of the traffic of 
 the Kanawha, nearly 90 per cent in 1906 consisted of coal shipped 
 almost wholly to (-incinnati. Timber and railroad ties are the otlier 
 products of importance. The Big Sandy Kiver had a traffic in 1906 
 of 205,452 tons, of which 94 per cent consisted of timber and ties. 
 The Census Report on Transportation by Water in 1906 shows river 
 receipts at Cincinnati of 2,131,(S47 tons and shipments of 231,368 
 tons. Some traffic is found on the Kentucky Kiver, consisting 
 principally of lumber and loose logs, and to some extent of coal, but 
 the total amount is not large. At Louisville, according to the 
 Census Report on Transportation by Water in 1906, the river receipts 
 were 1,116,955 tons and the shipments 86,772 tons. Coal constituted 
 more than half of the receipts, stone and sand ])eing important items. 
 
 Through the I^ouisville and Portland Canal and by way of the open 
 river in good stages of water the river traffic moves southwartl. Of 
 the total tonnage passing Louisville by these two avenues in 1907, 
 88 per cent was coal. The other items of sullicient importance to be 
 separately mentioned were iron ore, manufactured iron, and lumber. 
 At Evansville, according to the Census Report on Transportation by 
 Water in 1906, the river receipts, consisting principally of coal and 
 lumber, amounted to 358,371 tons and the shipments to 57,762 tons. 
 The Green and Barren rivers have a small tonnage, com])osed largely 
 of timber and ties and some coal. The Cumi)erland Kiver, although 
 navigable for 500 miles, has a total tonnage not to exceed 600,000 
 tons, consisting largely of forest prtxlucts, especially railroad ties. 
 The Tennessee, navigable in the main river for 1,300 miles, hud a 
 tonnage in 1906 of 1,578,760 tons, consisting principally of iron ore 
 and sand transported locally.
 
 48 TRAFFIC HISTOEY OF MISSISSIPPI EIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 The census figures show a total traffic on the Ohio system of 
 15,797,000 tons in 1889 and of 15,227,000 tons in 1906. The decHne 
 in miscellaneous traffic and in lumber is offset by the increase in coal 
 movement, so that according to the report of the Commissioner of 
 Corporations on Transportation by Water in the United States the 
 volume of traffic, with lumber, sand, and coal included, seems to have 
 increased to some extent. But the striking characteristic of the com- 
 merce of this valley is the comparative lack of through business to 
 the lower Mississippi which characterized it during the first seventy 
 years of the nineteenth centur3^ With the exception of coal and to 
 a slight extent lumber, commerce is now confined to short-distance 
 movements between local points. In spite of the fact that along the 
 Oliio River between Pittsburg and Cairo there are forty railway cross- 
 ings or terminals, this local trafhc reaches back but a few miles from 
 the river bank. Traffic requiring transfer and a rail haul of any con- 
 siderable distance no longer makes any use of the river, but is handled 
 the entire distance by rail. 
 
 III. 
 
 UPPER MISSISSIPPI COMMERCE. 
 
 It will be recalled that previous to the civil war the upper Missis- 
 sippi was the sole highway into the Northwest and that freight and 
 passenger tralHc by water developed extensively. After railways 
 reached the river in 1854 and 1855, close relations were established 
 between rail and river, and pioneers and their supplies traveled by 
 this avenue to their destination. But after the war the upper river 
 was soon paralleled by railways, and lines were also extended north- 
 westward from Chicago and Milwaukee direct to Minnesota and Wis- 
 consin river points. This promptly put an end to the steamboat 
 passenger business and began the transformation of the freight 
 trafhc into a purely local trade. 
 
 Moreover, these railway lines tapping the river at so many points 
 served as efhcient distributing agencies for traffic brought down the 
 river by steamboats, and this had its influence toward the destruc- 
 tion of through river trade. For example, of the southbound river 
 tonnage which passed the bridge at ])ubu(iue in 1878 more than half 
 was stopped at Fulton and Rock Island and transferred to railways 
 for shipment to Chicago." 
 
 The building ol" railways west of the river already described had 
 brouglit tliat vast territory almost completely into sid)jection to rail 
 transportation. By 1879 seven-eighths of the surplus pro(Uicts of 
 the trans-Mississippi States north of vVrkansas crossetl the Missis- 
 sippi River on railways at St. Louis or between that city and St. 
 Paul, and was transported East to local or foreign markets. Only 
 ()08,555 tons were moved south by river in 1878, as compared with 
 4,58)^,844 tons moved east by rail by way of St. Louis and points 
 north, from the territory west of the Mississippi. During 1878 the 
 eastward shipments from St. Louis by rail excee(kMl the southern 
 shipments from that city by river.'* 
 
 "Report on Internal Commerce of the United Slates, 1879.
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 49 
 
 This ti'iuloncy to divei't ti-aflic from the wnleiw ay was accent iiattHl 
 by the K)nji; suspension of upper Mississippi naviii:ation (hniii^ the 
 winter months, ))y the vai'iations of the statue of water, and hv tFie 
 hick of facihties for ach^quate meehanieal and eomniercial handhnj^ of 
 ])ro(hu-ts at river points. It was not surj)risinn; that seUers of western 
 pi'ochiee shouhl prefer to send tlieir shij)nients tt) (.Miie.a«j:o rather than 
 to some river town whieh had no wharves or docks, no warehouses, 
 no unloachnp; machinery, and no crecht ov bankinjij facilities beyond 
 what was necessary to meet a nai'row Io(!al (h'niand. Not only in 
 lloatin<2; equij)ment on the rivers, but in all mechanical aids and in all 
 the various devices of orijani/.ation that a.ssist commercial exchange, 
 tlie I'iver sA'stem was totallv lackin*;. In ISSO there were 1.3 rail- 
 way l)ri(jo;os l)etween St. ]'aul and St. Louis, and not a city with com- 
 mercial power sufficient to divert tiallic from its eastward course. 
 Products once loaded in trains west of the Missi.ssippi j)roceeded 
 direct to Chicago and other large connnercial centers, and water traffic 
 declined. 
 
 The character of the traffic on the Missi.ssippi and its tributaries 
 during the ten years after the close of the war changed materially. 
 As already noted, upper Mississippi l^iver traffic, except hunber, to be 
 later discussetl, had been largely diverted from its southwai'd course. 
 On the lower Mississippi what remained to the stciunboats consisted 
 to a large degree of the lower classes of freight cai'ried locally from 
 point to point along the river. This trafhc the railways luul not 
 cared to struggle for, but higher classes of freight from liver towns, 
 and practically all freight from the important interior centers in 
 States south of Missouri and the Ohio River, were now moved their 
 entire tlistance by rail. 
 
 It would hardly be worth while to trace in detail the decline in 
 general-merchandise traffic, which began about 1<S70. Railway lines 
 were extended on both banks of the river and at a tlistance l)ack from 
 the water, and were in a ]Kisition to control all the merchandise traffic 
 which they cared to hamlle. On the upper Mississippi, because of the 
 uncertainty and brevity of the navigation season, water carriage has 
 not to any great degree affected rail charges. Farther south, how- 
 ever, the railways have made special rates to divert river business. 
 
 General-merchandise traffic on the upper river is now wholly con- 
 fined to the trading of small steamers between local j)oints, exce|)t for 
 such traffic as is handled by one ])assenger line between St. I^ouis and 
 St. Paul, which is operated largely for excursion pur])oses. No one 
 of the formerly important river towns, such as Burlington, Quincy. 
 Alton, Davenport, Rock Island. Clinton, Dubu(jue, Lacros.se, and 
 Winona, has any considerable river traffic to-day. As alreaily stated, 
 grain was carried before the war during the prosperous days of steam- 
 boating to the maximum capacity of the boats. This continued in 
 diminishing quantities into the decade 1880-1890, some of it being 
 transshij)j)ed by the barge line from St. Louis to New Orleans. But 
 this has now ceased altogethei'. Wheat raised near enough to the 
 river t(^ make water handling possible and ])rofitable is now consumed 
 almost whollv by local mills. Conditions of navigation have discour- 
 aged flour ship]H'rs and that trade is at an end. l^aige tra<h' in mer- 
 chandise freight does not exist on the uj)per Mississip|)i. According 
 to the CensUs Rejiort on Transportation by Water in 1906, the total 
 
 19830—09 4
 
 50 
 
 TEATFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI EIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 receipts and shipments of the upper Mississippi, exclusive of logs and 
 rafts, amounted to 1,193,010 tons, of which 728,000 tons were stone 
 and sand. 
 
 The growth of railway traffic in this section coincident with the 
 decline of river traffic is shown hj a comparison of business done in 
 1870 and 1880 by railways serving the Mississippi Valley, some of 
 them paralleling the river, others crossing it. 
 
 Table shorving tons of freight carried and tons of freight carried 1 mile by certain western 
 
 railways, 1870 and 1880. 
 
 Name of railway. 
 
 Tons of freight carried. 
 
 1870. 
 
 Chioaeoand Alton 1,261,432 
 
 Chicasfo, Burlington and Quincv 1,052,754 
 
 Chi a'o. Milwaukee and fet. Paul 1.522.753 
 
 Chifa?o and N'orthwestem I 2,222,978 
 
 Chi -aijo and Rock Island 85(;, f ( 8 
 
 Illinois Central I 1, ( 23, 994 
 
 Hannibal anl S\ Joseph ' 411.831 
 
 Ohio and Mississippi I . 528,702 
 
 1880. 
 
 3,071,788 
 6, fi39. 180 
 3,210.353 
 5.574,(35 
 2, 9' (>. 763 
 2,703,582 
 71(i, 739 
 1,284.254 
 
 Tons of freight carried 1 
 mile. 
 
 1870. 
 
 145,000,000 
 147,409.207 
 181,428,573 
 3(:4.747,240 
 130,(83.871 
 2(5.409.400 
 70,858,854 
 
 1880. 
 
 484, 474, 730 
 1,(124.4(1, 793 
 504,870,154 
 8( 5, 909, 542 
 (:-8C',458,954 
 381,288.400 
 120,065,740 
 
 o For the year 1876. 
 
 The traffic which during the most of this period used the upper 
 river to the exclusion of the railway was that of logs and lumber of 
 various kinds, which were floated loosely in the upper tributaries 
 and then converted into rafts and propelled downstream to various 
 points between St. Paul and St. Louis. ^'.lost of this traffic origi- 
 nated on the Wisconsin rivers, the St. Croix and Chippewa })rinci- 
 pally. Lumbering was carried on during the winter months, wlien 
 snow made transportation for short distances to the rivers easy. In 
 the spring, with the break-up of the ice, the logs were floated down 
 these streams, and when they reached the navigable river, where 
 guidance through the bridges was necessary, tlie}^ were taken in 
 charge by towboats. Every town of any size from St. Paul to St. 
 Ijouis was either a lumber manufacturing and distributing point for 
 the logs delivered to them or a mere distributing cenler for the rafts 
 of latlis, shingles, and various forms of manufactured lumber brought 
 down from the mills on the upper river and tributaries. As early 
 as 1876 there were 73 mills in operation on the main river between 
 St. Paul and St. Louis." Supplies of lumber were shipped from these 
 points by rail from 10 to 100 miles east of the river, and from 500 to 
 1.000 miles west. 
 
 T^ut even this source of traffic has been slowly slipping away. 
 TMiereas in 1876 there were 100 raft boats engaged in towing logs and 
 lumber on Ihe upper } ississipjii. in 1006 there were only 20. Sta- 
 tistics of the amoiint'of Nvhite |)ine now floated on the river are not 
 available, l)ut the estimated number of feet of logs, lumber, and 
 shingles transported is here given for a series of years up to 1891. 
 The wide variations in di '(M'ent years are due to conditions of naviga- 
 tion. 
 
 a Report on Internal lommerte of the United States, 1887 .
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 51 
 
 Number of feet ofvhite pinejldhled on the upper Mississippi River (estimated): 
 
 Feet b. m. 
 
 1875 1, 0(iO, 000, 000 
 
 1876 • ] , 350, 000, 000 
 
 1878 1,1 5:^, 000, 000 
 
 1880 2, 000, (JOO, 000 
 
 1886 1, [iU,, 000, 000 
 
 1891 1 , 240, 000, 000 
 
 The decline in this form of IrairK' is duo in ])art to tiie coiiditions 
 of navif^ation. Actual low water, the uncertainty of an ade^juate 
 stage of water, and the delays ckie to log jams have cHverted much 
 trallic to the railways. Tt is doubtful, however, whether the short 
 navigation season of Wisconsin and Minnesota has had any great 
 influence, for the winter season has been admirably adapted for the 
 primary lumbering operation. The most important cause of decline 
 has been the exhaustion of the lumber supply along the river courses, 
 making it more feasible either to ship logs by rail to the mills or to 
 move the mills into the forests and ship out by rail the manufactured 
 lumber. Capital for lumber manufacturing has for a decade been 
 leaving the Alississippi Valley and engaging in southern and Pacific 
 coast operations. 
 
 The following table j)resents the traffic through the government 
 canal around the Des Moines and Keokuk Rapids from its opening 
 in 1877 down to the present time. While different kinds of trallic 
 vary in amount from 3^ear to year in accordance with conditions 
 affecting the particular industr}^, and while the canal statistics do 
 not show the entire trallic except in seasons when the water was too 
 low for passage through the rapids, nevertheless a survey of the 
 facts for the entire period shows strikingly the decline in the com- 
 merce of this section of the river. 
 
 Traffic through the Des Moines Rapids Canal for a series of years from its opening in 1877. 
 [Compiled from reports of United States engineers.) 
 
 Year ending June 30— 
 
 Steam- 
 boats. 
 
 Barges. 
 
 Passengers. 
 
 General 
 merchan- 
 dise. 
 
 Grain. 
 
 1878 
 
 070 
 802 
 9(i7 
 840 
 7(0 
 
 1,107 
 913 
 889 
 784 
 990 
 595 
 
 1.022 
 924 
 
 548 
 454 
 651 
 270 
 444 
 705 
 245 
 l(i9 
 218 
 318 
 235 
 288 
 477 
 
 
 Tons. 
 53,346 
 (;4, ( 58 
 78, 989 
 44,9 2 
 29,043 
 43,359 
 54,215 
 54, 1-20 
 50,001 
 52.815 
 .33,1(0 
 .iO.018 
 71.453 
 43.182 
 22.035 
 25.105 
 14.451 
 14.098 
 13.849 
 
 BvLsheh, 
 737,415 
 
 1879 
 
 1880 
 
 1881 
 
 1882 
 
 1883 
 
 1884 
 
 1885 
 
 188(i 
 
 1887 
 
 1888 
 
 1889 
 
 1890 
 
 5.008 
 13,231 
 10.003 
 
 8,588 
 
 9 192 
 13.057 
 13.005 
 22,221 
 20.797 
 
 8.330 
 22.SS0 
 14.529 
 14.752 
 14.141 
 27.488 
 33.90(i 
 38,005 
 48.825 
 
 2.192,(42 
 2,197,4(9 
 1,154.092 
 781.817 
 729. 174 
 470.580 
 77t..432 
 4(5.(81 
 3(i(i.432 
 143.037 
 ;J8 1.559 
 397.788 
 
 1894 
 
 (il9 312 
 ma 340 
 882 381 
 928 285 
 810 (i44 
 999 144 
 
 83.150 
 
 1895 
 
 55.729 
 
 1900 
 
 (i. 902 
 
 1905 
 
 3.700 
 
 IX)6 
 
 24. (-35 
 
 1907 
 
 12.:;71 
 
 
 

 
 52 
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 Traffic through the Des Moines Rapids Canal for a series of years from its opening in 
 
 .Z 577— Continued. 
 
 Year ending Jtine 30— 
 
 Logs. 
 
 Lumber. 
 
 Laths. 
 
 Shingles. 
 
 1878 
 
 " FcH 
 
 Ffelb. m. 
 
 25.000,000 
 
 33.347,612 
 
 21.832.478 
 
 52,256.235 
 
 17,150.011 
 
 13.093,325 
 
 57,018.151 
 
 43.119.797 
 
 22.769.823 
 
 178,754,876 
 
 16(), 827, 752 
 
 118, .',08, 045 
 
 140, 078. .3-29 
 
 117,c60.783 
 
 155,625,800 
 
 78.8.57,6.57 
 
 17,190.000 
 
 3.622.000 
 
 7,358,000 
 
 'Number. 
 
 4,000.000 
 
 8,721.796 
 27,8(>3.640 
 11.6,57,6.55 
 
 3,112.825 
 11.. 5.58,000 
 15,924.645 
 13.473.205 
 
 4,302,800 
 19.961.781 
 S3.(;42.4i0 
 50.221,099 
 44.316.167 
 42.112.415 
 5.5.0(H,938 
 18, .502. 200 
 
 8.262.000 
 637.000 
 
 4.232.000 
 
 Number. 
 3.700,080 
 
 1879 
 
 8.056,000 
 
 13,11.0,900 
 
 11,013,410 
 
 4,47.5.000 
 
 1.040,000 
 
 9.399.764 
 
 2.779.670 
 
 3. 195. SCO 
 
 24.837.000 
 
 34.505.000 
 
 26.3.33.320 
 
 26.089,300 
 
 11,749 600 
 
 1880 
 
 30, 561 . 150 
 
 ISSl . . .-. 
 
 15.091,000 
 
 1882 i 
 
 4, 8S5. 250 
 
 1883 
 
 4,435.000 
 
 1884 
 
 25, 182. 250 
 
 1885- 
 
 25. 018, 750 
 
 1886 
 
 8.253,000 
 
 1887 ... .... 
 
 90. 450, 922 
 
 1888 
 
 1889 
 
 49.848.840 
 37.413,810 
 
 1890 
 
 
 1894 
 
 
 1895 . . . 
 
 29.545.910 
 32.142,5.50 
 
 4.475,000 
 425.000 
 
 6. 700, 000 
 
 55. 670, 204 
 
 1900 
 
 24. .564, 771 
 
 1905 
 
 1903 
 
 1907 
 
 4.6,55.000 
 
 400,000 
 
 1.300.000 
 
 Of the traffic on the lower poitioii of the upper river that alone 
 requires special mention which is handled on the Illinois River, mostly 
 between St. Louis and Peoria. The total traffic on this river was 
 given by the census in 1906 as 207,828 tons, of which the largest sin- 
 gle item was grain. Of the two canals of this section which feed into 
 the Mississippi the Hennepin Canal, which enters the river by way of 
 the Rock River near Rock Island, was opened to navigation late in 
 1907 and handled in that year 3,742 tons of freight and 2,862 pas- 
 sengers. The Illinois and Michigan Canal from Chicago to La Salle 
 is now partly replaced by the Chicago Drainage Canal, but the re- 
 maining portions of the earlier waterway control its depth and its 
 commerce. Traffic on the Illinois and Michigan Canal, which in 1889 
 amounted to 917,000 tons, was only 6.470 tons in 1906. 
 
 IV. 
 
 .ST. LOUIS. 
 
 St. Louis, constituting one terminus of most of the steamboat lines, 
 has shared the fate of these lines in its river business. To make this 
 decline clear, it is only necessary to present from the records of the 
 St. Louis Merchants' Exchange the following statistics, showing at 
 intervals the receipts and shipments of St. Louis by the different 
 rivers and the total receipts by rail. It gives, moreover, a striking 
 picture of the decline of Mississippi River commerce as a whole.
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI KIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 53 
 
 Shipments aiul receipts of freight, in tons, at St. Louis, hi/ rait and river, for specified 
 
 i/ears, 1871- 1906. '^ 
 
 (Compilpd from Si. Louis Merchants' ICxchariRe reports.] 
 SHIPMENTS. 
 
 Ohio. 
 
 112,652 
 
 12'J,025 
 135.:<00 
 
 i7.i;«) 
 
 
 Year. 
 
 Upper 
 Mtssissippj. 
 
 Lower 
 MIssi.sslppl. 
 
 1871 
 
 78,907 
 90,225 
 55,200 
 48,295 
 -'2.&J7 
 30, 780 
 30,075 
 25,730 
 30, 000 
 
 477,970 
 307 ''31 
 
 1875 
 
 1880 
 
 
 1885 
 
 
 1890 
 
 
 1895 
 
 Ml 1.1') 
 
 1900 
 
 
 1905 
 
 1900 
 
 
 3,1, JIM 
 34.!H)5 
 
 KKCEIPTS. 
 
 1871. 
 1876. 
 1880. 
 1885. 
 1890. 
 1895. 
 1900. 
 1905. 
 1900. 
 
 230, 887 
 198, 100 
 220.095 
 117,445 
 128.900 
 78, 170 
 50,070 
 31,190 
 31.140 
 
 313,211 
 128,020 
 223,925 
 110,950 
 222, 075 
 239,090 
 274,445 
 107,520 
 100,070 
 
 lois. 
 
 Missouri. 
 
 10.9311 
 
 44,438 
 
 18,470 
 
 25,100 
 
 9,935 
 
 10.415 
 
 805 
 
 10,330 
 
 3,020 
 
 10.035 
 
 7,040 
 
 5,505 
 
 5,020 
 
 1,225 
 
 0,225 
 
 4,705 
 
 7,835 
 
 3,505 
 
 140, (JOO 
 153.995 
 1,55, (i05 
 84,830 
 22, 770 
 :«),000 
 20,905 
 8,725 
 14,550 
 
 72. 579 
 30, KiO 
 59,025 
 10,875 
 21.350 
 3,270 
 2, 725 
 3,580 
 2,485 
 
 101,073 
 I40,S05 
 .'14,195 
 i;(3,.1't.1 
 10.'. .100 
 35.440 
 2.700 
 125. 755 
 100,120 
 
 SHIPMENTS. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Cumberland ^.^^ White, 
 ,,1 .Arkansas, 
 
 Tennes.see. ^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 Total t).v 
 river. 
 
 Total 1>\ 
 rail ■ 
 
 • Iraiid total. 
 
 I 
 
 1871 ; 2,534 
 
 1875 1 1, 560 
 
 1880 1,315 
 
 1885 1 9.955 
 
 1890 15. 075 
 
 1895 17, 535 
 
 1900 , . . . 15, 275 
 
 1905 1 8,020 
 
 1900 6,880 
 
 42,995 
 1,480 
 0,100 
 4.750 
 fi, 180 
 1.340 
 
 770, 498 
 ta9.095 
 1.037.525 
 534, 175 
 (K) 1.802 
 303,35.1 
 245. .180 
 
 959. 882 
 1.301,450 i 
 2,75.1.tiS0 
 3.537,133 
 5.270,850 
 5. .349, 327 
 9,180.309 ' 
 
 .SO. .175 15. -22.1. 973 
 89.185 17,672,006 
 
 1.730.380 
 1.940,545 
 3.793,205 
 4,071,308 
 5.872,712 
 5,052,tB2 
 9,425,889 
 15,300.548 
 17,761,191 
 
 RECEIPTS. 
 
 1871 
 1875 
 1880 
 1885 
 1890, 
 1895 
 1900 
 1905 
 1906. 
 
 875 
 345 
 015 ,. 
 370 . 
 135 I 
 575 
 825 
 870 
 935 
 
 4,170 
 100 
 
 132,940 
 
 98. 085 
 
 73.340 
 
 1.210 
 
 1.770 
 
 .S.S4,401 
 • «(«. 525 
 S93.8tiO 
 479.005 
 
 rm.{. 7:«i 
 .vw.s;«> 
 
 .112.01(1 
 .'VI.S.1() 
 327.070 
 
 2.298,321 
 3. 232, 770 
 ti. 090, 524 
 O.7(>4.108 
 9.%9.291 
 10,489.344 
 15. .375 441 
 23. 915.0^0 
 27.292,017 
 
 3, 182, 722 
 3.89ti..'95 
 <•>, 990. 384 
 7, 243, 233 
 10.033.021 
 10,9J8.174 
 15 887.451 
 24,-05.540 
 27,620,287 
 
 o These ntrnres exclude lutnher. lops, and shinele<; handled in r\\U». 
 
 St. Jjouis suffered seriously iu her upper-river eoimuerce from the 
 diversion eastward by the railways of tralfie from the varit)us river 
 points. As early as 1S7.5, 00 per cent of the lumher jiroduct floated 
 on the upper Missi.ssippi was diverted before it reachc(I St. Louis, antl 
 in 1874 this pro})ortion reached 94 per cent. In 1S71 the receipts at 
 St. Louis from the upper Mississijipi were three times the shipments, 
 but in 1906 they were about equal in nmoimt and insij:jnificant in
 
 54 TRAFFIC HISTOEY OF MISSISSIPPI EIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 quantity. The loss in river receipts of lumber from the upper Missis- 
 sippi has been partly compensated for by the receipts of southern 
 pine brought in barges from the Tennessee and the lower Mississippi, 
 but the amount handled by rail is now far in excess of that by water. 
 Shipments of lumber to interior points of consumption are now 
 almost entirely by rail. 
 
 In contrast to business by way of the upper Mississippi, the ship- 
 ments to the lower Mississippi until 1895 exceeded the receipts. 
 This is largely due to development of the barge lines to New 
 Orleans, which will be later described. This barge traffic, which was 
 largely in bulk grain, ceased in 1903. River grain receipts are now 
 entirely in sacks, handled by packet steamboats from points up and 
 down the Mississippi, including also the Illinois and the Missouri 
 rivers. The total receipts by river in 1906 of wheat, corn, oats, barley, 
 and rye were only 866,199 bushels. Almost no grain is now shipped 
 from St. Louis bj^ water. Of cotton receipts, less than 1 per cent iri 
 1906 came by water. Commerce by way of the Illinois, Missouri, 
 Cumberland, and Tennessee has declined to but a fraction of its 
 former size, and that of the Red, White, Arkansas, and Ouachita 
 rivers has disappeared altogether. The total receipts and shipments 
 at St. Louis for 1906 of the first four rivers mentioned did not amount 
 to 50,000 tons. 
 
 Shipments to the Ohio River ceased before 1890, but receipts from 
 there still continue, amounting in 1906 to half the total river receipts. 
 This was entirely coal from the Monongahela River. River com- 
 merce at St. Louis which in 1871 constituted 34 per cent of the total 
 rail and river tonnage, aggregated in 1906 only nine-tenths of 1 per 
 cent of the total traffic. 
 
 V. 
 
 MISSOURI RIVER COMMERCE. 
 
 Missouri River commerce reached its height i^revious to the civil 
 war and much of the equipment was destroyed during that struggle. 
 The discovery of gold in Montana in 1862 furnished a slight incentive 
 to waterway travel, as the Missouri was the only possible means of 
 reaching the gold fields. Such passenger traffic as was developed 
 after the war consisted of gold seekers, pioneers, Indians, and United 
 States troops. Some attempt w'as made to handle through freight 
 trafiic between St. Louis and the head of navigation at Fort Benton, 
 2,300 miles away. In 1867, for example, 71 steamers left St. Louis 
 for Fort Benton and the upper Missouri, averaging 260 tons each 
 and carrying a total of 16,655 tons. The average time consumed 
 in the jouiiiey was about two weeks." 
 
 Hie river seems very early to have been divided for navigation 
 purposes into three stretches — that from its mouth to Kansas City 
 or Omaha; that from Sioux (^ity, Iowa, to Bisuuirck, N. Dak.; and 
 that from Bismarck to Fort Benton, Mont., or, in low water, to the 
 moutli of the Yellowstone. The boats which could reach these 
 up])er waters were of small capacity. The traffic never developed 
 significant proportions and the details are hardly worth reproduction. 
 
 «Ex. Doc, 'lOth Cons., 3d sess., vol. 2.
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSII'IM lUVER SYSTEM. 55 
 
 It is sufTicient to say that tlie clownslivaiii tradic in tiic most prosper- 
 ous times, and in the best stau;<'s of water, consisted principally of 
 ores and hulHon, wool, hides, and skins, and the u|)streain traliiC of 
 supplies for the pioneers and militaiy ^'arrisons. In ISSl there 
 were five lines ol steamboats which made tlieir heatlquarters at 
 Bismarck, and 21 ])oats plied between that town and |)oints on the 
 Missouri, makinj; in the season loO to 175 trips. 'Ihese boats carried 
 into Montana 13,780 tons of ])rivate frei<rht and 3.()()0 tons of j^'overn- 
 ment frei<rht, besides 1,300 ])assen</ers, 2,400 Indians, l.SOO head of 
 horses and cattle, and GOO head of sheep. '1 he ex|)orts fiom the 
 upper river so far as ascertained includcil 2;>,000 bu'lalo hides, 180 
 tons of wool, 253,7")0 tons of hides, and furs and wolf skins." 
 
 But the invasion of this tenitory by the niilways practicallv put 
 an end to what httle commerce the river interests had developed. 
 Railway rivalry dates from the close of the war, and soon after 1870, 
 the Missouri Kiver alons; its entire lenp:th was subject to the severest 
 railway comjietition \\hich any waterway in the countiy experi- 
 enced. In 1906, above Sioux City, Iowa, only 10 boats were eniiaj^ed 
 in freight and, passenp^er trafl'.c, the fieijrht cariied including 9,040 
 tons of grain, 8,250 tons of live stock, 5,507 tons of hunber and wood, 
 11,780 tons of sand and building mateiial, nnd 8,850 tons of general 
 merchandise. A line of boats handling grain ami general nieichan- 
 dise also operated from Bismarck to points on the Yellowstone Kiver. 
 This part of the river is niainl}' used to-tlay by gasoline barges car- 
 rying goods to and from railw ay crossings. From Sioux City to the 
 mouth of the Missouri the princi{)al traffic was sand and stone, with 
 a small movement of lumber, grain, and general merchandise. In 
 1906 the total tonnage luuulled on the lowei" Missouii was onl}' 
 573,348 tons. 
 
 The small ]\art played by the Missouri Kiver in internal-waterway 
 commerce is due not alone to the intense and successful railway com- 
 petition which has j^revailetl throughout its drainage area. It is 
 due in part to the tortuous, treacherous, and fre(|uently obstructed 
 channel, upon which the expentlituies of the Government, amounting 
 up to June 30, 1907, to §11,191,000, have had as yet httle, if any, 
 effect in the improvement of navigation. Capital, even if not fearful 
 of railway competition, has little desire to engage with an unruly 
 stream in a struggle of which the issue is so doubtful. 
 
 VI. 
 
 LOWER MISSISSIPPI (O.MMERCE. 
 
 One of the most interesting attempts to resuscitate the commerce 
 of the lower Mississij)))i after the war is found in the organization of 
 companies for the ojieration of barge lines between St. T.ouis afnl^ 
 New' Orleans. The invasion of river territory by the railways had, 
 for reasons already noted, led to the abandonment of the old pas- 
 senger packet steamboat in favor of towboats or j)r<ipelling steam- 
 boats with tows of barges or Hats which held the freight. This has 
 already been shown in the descrij)tion of the Ohio Kiver coal trade. 
 This method appeared again in the St. I^ouis barge lines, but with 
 
 " Ex. Doc. 48th Cong., Ist sesa.. vol. 4.
 
 56 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 this difference, that the barges were much larger and more expen- 
 sivel}^ constructed, and that the propellers were huilt with a greater 
 view to speed than was the case with the Ohio boats. It was intended 
 that these lines should handle general merchandise as well as grain, 
 and should deliver their products speedily and on schedule time at 
 New Orleans. 
 
 The boats carried fuel for a round trip and no passengers except 
 the crews. They made stops only long enough to pick up additional 
 barges at points along the river, and in this way could avoid steam- 
 boat delays and make a high average speed. 
 
 The barges had a capacity of from 50,000 to 60,000 bushels of grain 
 each, and could be loaded c[uickly from elevator spouts. A tow boat 
 often left St. Louis with from 4 to 6 barges attached. At New Orleans 
 stationary and floating elevators received the grain. The character 
 of trafhc other than grain handled by the barges is best illustrated by 
 the description of a shipment from St. Louis in 1880 quoted by the 
 St. Louis Republican. The contents of the barges were as follows: 
 
 4,371 barrels of flour. 
 1,296 barrels of meal. 
 1,090 barrels of grits. 
 5,258 sacks of corn. 
 
 802 sacks of oats. 
 
 650 sacks of bran. 
 1,296 packages of lard. 
 
 204 packages of meat . 
 
 150 bales of hay. 
 24,992 bushels of bulk corn. 
 
 This total was estimatefl as equivalent to 155 carloads of freight. 
 
 In 1875 there were only 4 tugboats and 30 barges employed 
 between St. Louis and New Orleans, but in 1887 four barge lines were 
 operating 16 tugboats and 120 barges. These barge lines were later 
 consoliihxted into one corporation known as the "St. Louis and 
 ■Mississippi Valley Transportation Company." 
 
 The most important traflic of the barge lines was tliat in bulk 
 grain, and tlie commercial history of this commodity is worth a 
 moment's attention. In the early part of the nineteenth century 
 New Orleans had received large quantities of cereals by river for 
 export to foreign ports and to Atlantic seaboard cities. This traflic 
 fell off after the invasion of the primary grain markets by the rail- 
 ways, with tlie result that in 1873 New Orleans exported less than 
 2^ per cent of the corn and less than one-half of 1 per cent of the 
 wheat. Grain, particularly corn, still moved soutli for local con- 
 sumption, but in increasing proportion by rail. Tlie Select Oom- 
 mittec on Transjiortation Routes to the Seaboard stated that the 
 (export of wheat from New Orleans in 1873 was 243,027 l)ushels out 
 of a total export of 50.733,672 bushels, of which New York liandled 
 21,221,254 bushels. Of corn <>46,457 bushels were exported in 1873 
 from New Orleans out of a total from the United States of 38,541,930 
 bushels. 
 
 In the liiiiidling of grain out of S( . Louis (here ;i,pp('a.is Ncry early 
 to iiave Ix'CMi genuine competition between rail and water routes. 
 '1 he lirst shipment of grain from St. Louis cast by rail took j)lace in 
 1805, and fi'oin that date tlie railways extending to the Atlantic sea- 
 boai<l frequently engaged in i-ate wars, at one time tiansporting
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI KIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 57 
 
 <^iiiiii fioiu St. Loui.s t(* tlic si'ii.l>()uril at as low a rale as 9 cents jicr 
 bushel. In 1S7.S a pool was formed (Mnl)racin<; all the road.s conned- 
 in^i; the Atlantic- iseahourd with St. Louis and other conipetin^ western 
 points. 1 he laihvays, bein^ bound to maintain theii- rates, could no 
 lonf!;er meet the watei' rates. This, coming coincidently with the coin- 
 |)letion of the jetties at the month ol" the river, <iave such a stimulus to 
 livercommerce that almost the cut iic <i,raiii exports fi-om St. Louis went 
 to New Orleans. But this sudden burst of |n-ospeiity was .short lived. 
 The railways were at war a^ain in ISSl, and the liver boats weie 
 unable to carry "jrain at war rates. For a time thereafter the <^rain 
 traflic by river (luctuated with the condition of harvests, and with tlie 
 signinti; or breakinjij of treaties of j)eace between the railways, but 
 after 1896 it entered upon a decline, and in 11)0.3 it ceased altoj^ether. 
 To the destruction of l)arj!;e-line tralllc not alone railway competiti(jn. 
 but also a rapid depreciation of e(|ui|)ment and hi<j;h marine insur- 
 ance rates contributed. The following table, compiled by the Bureau 
 of (\)rj)orations," shows th(> trallic in grain from ISTO to 1!)()M. 
 
 Shipmetitt) of bulk grain from St. Louis to New Orleans riu Mi-sifixsippi Hi nr boats, 
 
 1870-1903. 
 
 [Compiled (roui Si. Louis Merchants' Kxchouge reports.] 
 
 Year. 
 
 Wheat. 
 
 Corn, 
 Bushels-. 
 
 Rye. 
 Buxliels. 
 
 Oats. 
 Builiels. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1870..." 
 
 Bushels. 
 66,000 
 
 BusliClJi. 
 66.000 
 
 1871 
 
 309,077 
 1,711.039 
 1,373.969 
 1,047,794 
 
 172.617 
 1,737,237 
 3,578.057 
 2,857,056 
 3,585,589 
 9,804,392 
 8, 640, 720 
 2,529,712 
 9,029.509 
 4,496,785 
 8,180.039 
 7,501,730 
 7,365.340 
 5,844,042 
 12.398,955 
 8.717,849 
 1,482.731 
 3, -228, 645 
 3.293.808 
 1,26:1,310 
 l,2ol.8a3 
 8. :}58, 087 
 3,827.96;{ 
 3,006,488 
 1.748,517 
 2,871,870 
 
 535,705 
 
 226,400 
 1,025,221 
 
 
 3,000 
 
 312,077 
 
 1872 
 
 
 
 1,711,039 
 
 1873 
 
 
 
 
 1 , 373, »(i9 
 
 1874 
 
 365,252 
 
 135, %1 
 37, 142 
 
 351,453 
 1,876,639 
 2,390,897 
 5,913,272 
 4,197,981 
 5,637,391 
 1,4.35,043 
 1.318,688 
 50.000 
 
 743, 439 
 3,973,737 
 1,247,952 
 1,651.950 
 1.409.440 
 6,940,215 
 5, 149, 708 
 3,710,3tW 
 1,042,193 
 
 438.614 
 1,732,563 
 1.191,032 
 2, 747, 994 
 
 234.720 
 
 169,241 
 1,828,244 
 2,308,714 
 1,724,220 
 
 
 10,000 
 
 1 , 42.3, 046 
 
 1875 . 
 
 
 ;«>x, 578 
 
 1 876 
 
 
 
 1.774.. 379 
 
 1877 
 
 171, »43 
 
 609,041 
 
 157, 424 
 
 45,000 
 
 22, 423 
 
 15,994 
 
 2ft5,4.30 
 
 344,864 
 
 36,093 
 
 
 4, 101.. 353 
 
 1878 
 
 108,867 
 30,928 
 
 5,451,603 
 
 1879 
 
 6,164,838 
 
 1S80 
 
 15,762,664 
 
 1881 
 
 i;j2, 82.3 
 150,320 
 389. 826 
 487,221 
 401,787 
 598, 755 
 217,722 
 160,584 
 89,707 
 89,960 
 
 12,993,947 
 
 1882 
 
 S.:«3,417 
 
 1883 
 
 1 1 . a^9. 808 
 
 1884 
 
 6,(i47,558 
 
 1885 
 
 8,667,919 
 
 1S86 
 
 8,843,924 
 
 1887 . 
 
 
 11, .5.56, 799 
 
 1888 
 
 
 7,252,578 
 
 1889 
 
 17,432 
 45,"o66" 
 
 14,158,044 
 
 1890 
 
 10.217.249 
 
 1X91 
 
 8.4t>.s,54«i 
 
 IH92 
 
 36,587 
 75,430 
 40,000 
 
 8.414.940 
 
 1,S93 
 
 
 7,079,598 
 
 1894 
 
 
 2, .345. 503 
 
 1895 
 
 
 1,690,417 
 
 1896 
 
 
 43«"i,558 
 265,379 
 633,505 
 249,998 
 273,049 
 
 10..527.2»»8 
 
 1897 
 
 {90,908 
 212,7-20 
 
 5.475.;n2 
 
 1898 
 
 6,600.707 
 
 1899 
 
 2. 233, 2;« 
 
 UJ03 
 
 
 .{,314,160 
 
 1901. 
 
 
 2,3(i3,949 
 
 1902 
 
 28,212 
 
 28,409 
 
 2,591,735 
 
 1903 
 
 2.749,441 
 
 
 
 
 
 For the seventeen years from 1SS7 until l!>()o the avera.u'e pub- 
 lished rates on s:rain from St. Louis to Liverpool by river to New Oi- 
 leans were from 5 to 9 cents j)er bushel lower than tho.s<' via rail to 
 New York. If these published rates were the actual rates char<;eil, 
 it is evident that other considerations were sullicient to offsei .i con- 
 
 o Transportation by Water in thf» T'lnioil Siatos, Part TI.
 
 58 
 
 TKAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 siderable advantage in the transportation charge. The following table 
 gives the comparative rates for this period : 
 
 Average published rates of freight St. Louis to Liverpool on wheat, in cents, per bushel, 
 
 1887-1903.a 
 
 Year. 
 
 Via river 
 and New 
 Orleans. 
 
 Via rail and 
 New Yorlt. 
 
 Year. 
 
 ' Via river 
 and New 
 Orleans. 
 
 Via rail and 
 New York. 
 
 1887 
 
 IS 
 
 15^ 
 
 m 
 
 15f 
 
 14 
 
 14.71 
 
 11.69 
 
 12i 
 
 24J 
 
 22.95 
 
 24.97 
 
 21.48 
 
 23. 55 
 
 21 
 
 21.72 
 
 18.71 
 
 18.33 
 
 1896 
 
 13.50 
 12. 89 
 14.24 
 12.33 
 14.64 
 9.48 
 8.53 
 10.00 
 
 19. 67 J 
 20.33 
 
 1888 
 
 1897 
 
 1889 
 
 1898 
 
 20 32 
 
 1890 
 
 1899 
 
 17 88 
 
 1891 
 
 1900 
 
 18.41 
 
 1892 
 
 1901 . . 
 
 14 03 
 
 1893 
 
 1902 
 
 15 33 
 
 1894 
 
 1903 
 
 16.02 
 
 1895 
 
 
 
 
 o Report St. Louis Merchanls' Exchange, 1908. 
 
 Lack of railway facilities in the South before the war and the exe- 
 crable condition of the roads led the planters to locate their cotton 
 lands along the river banks, and transportation of cotton was almost 
 wholly by water. Alabama planters sent their cotton b}^ way of the 
 Tennessee River to New Orleans, and such points as Memphis, Vicks- 
 burg, Natchez, and Shreveport became important collecting and 
 shipping ports. In the decade 1850-1860 cotton w^as by far the most 
 important product received by river at New Orleans. 
 
 With the development of railways in the South after 1865, tlie 
 establishment of cotton-manufacturing plants at various points in 
 the South, the extension of cotton culture westward beyond the Mis- 
 sissippi into territory not served by waterwaj^s, and the change in 
 the methods of purchasing, compressing, and shipping cotton, the 
 waterw^ays became of decreasing importance. The immense cotton 
 territory extending up the Mississippi and along the Red, Ouachita, 
 Arkansas, and White rivers, which had sent its cotton to New Orleans 
 wholly by water, began to ship its product by rail. By 1880 ship- 
 ments of cotton from the Arkansas and the White rivers had prac- 
 tically ceased. The Red and the Ouachita still clung for a time to 
 traflic which was too remote from a railway to be economically han- 
 dled in that manner. But in 1881 a branch of the Texas and Pacific 
 was completed which paralleled the Mississippi to Baton Rouge, and 
 followed in general the direction of the Red River as far as Shreve- 
 port. This soon rechiced the commerce of the Red River to insig- 
 nificance. 
 
 In tlie early (hiys Vicksburg was one of tlie most important com- 
 mercial (h'pendencies of \ew Orleans, shipj)ing immense (juantities 
 of cotton and receiving supplies for distribution inland. But th(^ 
 Yazoo country was lost to the river when the Yazoo and Mississij)pi 
 Raihoad, running througli the Mississippi delta region, was opened 
 in 1884. In 1899 this railway carried 483,000 bales of cotton or 
 40 per cent more than all the rivers combined. The Natchez, .lack- 
 son and Columbus Railroad was com])leted in 1882. Natchez, for- 
 merly the most important river town between New Orleans and 
 Ijouisvillc, was soon thereaft(>r without any regular pack(^t liiu^ from 
 New Orleans. By 188" Ihic'e-fourths of the cotton of Natchez and 
 Vicksburg was being h.-mdlcd by rail. Northeastern Mississippi,
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 0\) 
 
 northern Georo;ia, western Tenne.s.see and Kentucky in thi.s neriod 
 be<jjan sendinc^ their cotton by rail to Savannah, ( harleston, and Nor- 
 folk. Mcmpliis, altlioujj^h still receivin<; a considcrabh* quantity 
 of cotton by river, 2o,'M)'2 ton.s in WHH), send.s out nio.st of it by rail- 
 way. 
 
 New Orleans has been compensated lor her river losses by rail 
 receipts from Texas plantations, so that the total cotton receipts at 
 New Orleans have steadily increased. The following; table slunvs 
 the receipts of cotton at New Orleans lor a serii's of years, and tlie 
 percentage received by river: 
 
 Receipts uf cotton at ^ew Urleamfi 
 
 Year. 
 
 RweipU 
 by rail. 
 
 BaUi. 
 
 4;«.495 
 
 40<i.076 
 
 (i27.577 
 
 1,018,201 
 
 1,722.473 
 
 l,9;i5.177 
 
 1,833,7.55 
 
 2,082,053 
 
 Receipts 
 by river. 
 
 rcrcentac* 
 by river. 
 
 1873 
 
 BtUn. 
 
 908.877 
 
 7.50,080 
 
 1,087. .522 
 
 080.37<i 
 
 08. 8 
 
 1875 
 
 04.8 
 
 1880 
 
 03.5 
 
 1885 
 
 40.0 
 
 1890 
 
 425,828 19.8 
 
 1899 
 
 343.450 1.5.0 
 
 1904 
 
 192,842 1 9.6 
 
 1907 
 
 231,381 1 10.0 
 
 
 
 
 Reports New Orleans Cotton Exchange. 
 
 The decline in grain and cotton traffic on the lower Missi.'^sijtpi is 
 t}'pical of the movement on this section of the river. By 1887 there 
 was not, with the exce])tion of J^ayou Sara, a town on the lower Mis- 
 sissippi of over 1,000 population which was without railway connec- 
 tion with New Orleans, St. Louis, or Menii)liis. To the boating inter- 
 ests was left undisturbed only the local cominerce between the river 
 villages. Evansville, Puducah, and Wheeling had no longer tlirect 
 lines of stejimers to New Orleans. The ( incinnati trade had been 
 reduced to one-quarter of its former size, and one line ()f through 
 steamers was sufficient to care for the (incinnati and Louisville trade 
 with New Orleans. The latter city had almost entirely lost its earlier 
 trade in "western products," as the following table shows: 
 
 Western produce exported from New ()rhiuu,J'or the years 1856 and ISSG.' 
 
 
 Arliclc. 
 
 
 Year endln 
 185C. 
 
 B June 30— 
 1886. 
 
 Wheat flour 
 
 barrels.. 
 
 251.501 
 
 1.177,700 
 
 3. MO. 150 
 
 4,075.900 
 
 20,0tiC..901 
 
 25.833 
 
 24,832 
 
 Beef 
 
 
 pounds.. 
 
 1-2C.,540 
 
 
 
 r.do.... 
 
 149.481 
 
 Pork 
 
 
 do.... 
 
 801,588 
 
 
 
 do.... 
 
 :{47,196 
 
 
 
 eallons.. 
 
 3,540 
 
 
 
 a Report on Internal Commerce of the I'nited States, 1880. 
 
 Since 1887 the situation has not iiui)roved and to-day the river 
 from St. Louis south, aside from the transportation of cotton on its 
 lower stretches, and the receipt and conveyance of coal from the 
 Ohio, is a negligible transportation factor.
 
 60 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 There are no longer any through passenger or packet boats from 
 St. Louis to New Orleans. All through freights (except on barges) 
 must usually be transferred from packet to packet at Memphis and 
 Vicksburg. Occasionally a few passenger boats make the through 
 trip upstream or down for the benefit of excursionists, but only 
 a few times a year." Between St. Louis and Cairo there is nothing 
 but local traffic between river towns. The total tonnage handled 
 in 1906 amounted to 458,000 tons, of which the largest items were 
 coal 171,000 tons and logs 120,000 tons. Cairo was formerl}^ an 
 important river shipping point for grain, but the railways destroyed 
 the water traffic by low rates, and by granting certain transit privi- 
 leges and establishing switch connections. It is a typical instance of 
 the struggle of efficiency against inefficiency, which will be referred to 
 again in the conclusion to this discussion. 
 
 Between Cairo and Memphis the through business is controlled 
 by railways on both sides of the river and, except for coal south- 
 ward and lumber northward, the traffic is insignificant and local. 
 One packet line only operates between Memphis and St. Louis and 
 Cincinnati. Between Memphis and Vicksburg there is a considerable 
 traffic in logs and lumber brought down from the tributaries. South- 
 ward the logs are propelled in rafts, but northward they are handled, 
 like lumber, in barges. The season is a long one, usually about nine 
 months, and the radius of movement is 250 to 300 miles from Memphis. 
 In 1906 about three-quarters of a million tons were handled. 
 
 Cotton begins to appear in the river statistics from Memphis south- 
 ward. Iron and steel products to some extent come down the river 
 to Meinphis from the Pittsburg district. From Memphis southward 
 are shipped general merchandise and plantation supplies; return 
 shipments, which are considerable, consist of cotton and cotton seed. 
 Commerce on the White River in 1907 amounted to 128,000 tons, 
 most of which was logs, ties, and lumber. On the Arkansas in 1907 
 the total tonnage was 105,000 tons, largely logs and lumber. 
 
 Between Vicksburg and New Orleans the local tradic is greater, 
 and miscellaneous merchandise plays a larger part. Only a few 
 local lines remain in operation from ^ icksburg south, as this stretch 
 of the river is under almost complete railway dominance. Yazoo 
 River commerce amounted in 1907 to 228,000 tons, the largest items 
 being Unnber and logs. The Red River still ships some cotton, 
 lumber, and plantation supplies, the extent of the traffic varying 
 with the condition ol" navigation, and cotton and lumber still come 
 from the Ouacliita. Of the total commerce on the Mississippi i)roj)er 
 between Vicksburg and New Orjeans, iimounting in 1906 to 2,55-1 ,000 
 tons, 832,000 tons, or 33 per cent, consisted of coal from the Ohio, 
 and 859,000 tons, or 34 per cent, of gravel, sand, and stone. 
 
 The commerce of the river j)ort ol New Orleans has been discussed 
 already in connection with tiie coal, grain, and cotton trade. Aside 
 from the.se products, and the lumber and logs received from the 
 Missi.ssi|)pi tributaries, there is some traflic in rough rice, in petro- 
 leum, and in miscellaneous mercliandise. The total river commerce 
 of New Orleans is estiiunlcul bv the Bui(>!iu of Corpoi'ations to be over 
 1,800, ()()() Ions. If tiiis fi.'ure be c()m[)ared with a total in 1880 of 
 
 oR. Doc. No. 50, eist Cong., 1st sess.
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI KIVER SYSTEM. Gl 
 
 2,959,250 tons, not including rafts, it will be seen that tlicrc lias been 
 a heavy falling off in river commerce at this jxjrt. 
 
 Neither has this port been able, even with tlic aid which railways 
 have all'orded in later decades, to maintain its position as an export- 
 ing and importing point. In ISliU, 27 per cent of the total exports 
 from the L nited States went by way of Aew Orleans and 0.;-{ per cent 
 of the imports were received through this port. In IhSG the j)ercent- 
 age of exports was 12 per cent and of imports l.l per cent; in 1907 
 the percentage of exports^ was 9.07 i)er cent and of imports '.i:2\ per 
 cent. However, other causes, beyond the scope of the present dis- 
 cussion, have affected the position of New Orleans as a coiniucicial 
 port. 
 
 The present condition of traflic on the lower Mississip])i may be 
 clearly shown by the reproduction of a table presented m a re<-ent 
 report of a board of United States engineers." 
 
 ttH. Doc. No. 50, Gist Cong., Ist aeea.
 
 62 
 
 TRAFFIC HISTOEY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 r9 03 • 
 1 OS « 
 i d <D ^ 
 
 
 J2 6 I 
 
 I- 
 
 O Id ' 
 
 g-SgM 
 
 Its 
 
 Moo O ^ OM 
 ^ CO lO OOC O 
 
 cooo t^ r^ 
 
 g ^ CO t^ -^^lO 
 
 Ot^ O CO -^Oi t>. 
 
 " ^ »-" CV| (M t* »iS 
 
 CO lO — < ^HC^ ,-( 
 
 o ifT^ -^ uo* oT 
 
 oo ooo -^ ^o 
 
 C^O O—O C^ r-iO 
 
 1-" ^ O 00 — 4 o 
 
 »0 O lO 
 
 <M Oi O CO f-t »0 
 
 i-H or- 
 
 0-* 
 
 or- 
 
 (N CO 
 
 C^ ^T* CO CO i.*^ — I 
 
 ;C)(N t^ CO CO t^ 
 
 ■ r- o 0(^ 
 
 
 -3 CO "^ O 
 
 O OO 
 
 C^ OJ 05 «0 
 
 — o o>oc o 
 r- -^ cc "^ ^ 
 
 O 030 
 
 UO ^H CO 
 
 O O-l^ 
 
 ■1 coc>> 
 
 Or-l(M SO COO 
 
 CO CO "» 
 
 r-l ^ Oi 
 
 (M 05C 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I^O • 
 
 
 
 
 .-1 B 
 
 
 
 
 r- 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^UOCO 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 .-(^^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 " 
 
 
 *o r- CO 
 
 CB -HCO 
 
 O— I •* CO o» 
 0000 lO ^^ o 
 
 •a 3 
 c o 
 caj 
 
 Jgs 
 
 
 KOSQ 
 
 
 •O C3^ 3 
 w 0; 03 »-. 
 
 2 2 " ' 
 
 
 5 1^ 
 
 C w 
 
 C9 <fl 
 
 :o :0 
 
 TTtfjO ci 
 
 3 M> 
 
 •s; b-r Oil-; 
 
 a.2 0) S^ 
 
 a- ^ ,■?, C- (-* — ^ 
 ' — <U 0) ^ - 
 
 CS« O 
 
 ™ ir, o -- "3 5) :-< 
 <* .— a> a» «< ■— ***
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 63 
 
 N t»5 jj 00 r~ M m 1/5 1- 
 
 •^ n ■■£ "i oQc^ d> >ra 
 
 40 — « t- 00 
 
 N CSi 
 
 r^a>h--o 
 
 00 "T 1^ 05 IM IM 
 lO lO O lO W5 
 
 CO •« 00 
 
 '^COOCCOOCOOOU^'H 
 OCMiC-^CO-^COOOOi 
 CCC^W — O— ■^00 
 
 CC CJ « C5 ■* « 00 — ' 00 
 
 '3 « 
 
 r, .— ^ -5 
 C~'^ CO 
 
 e c- c >- 
 
 <^ c ^ ^ ^ 
 S a) a* £ w • 
 
 <^ ^t~ " . 
 
 •O c3 — -3 — 
 tc~3 -3 ti ;/,- 
 
 3 5 
 O O 
 
 ^ a 
 
 " o . 
 o.b M 
 
 .b OS — 
 «^ 3 
 
 ■ J. <u^ 
 
 ! 1) ^ w 
 
 ^ a- a; 
 
 ~ Si M. 
 
 ■ > C3 C3 

 
 64 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 It is difficult to summarize statistically the present traffic condi- 
 tion of the Mississippi River system. The reports of the corps of 
 United States Engineers cover specific sections of the river, and are 
 pui)lished as made, with no attempt to unif}'^ them and eliminate 
 duplications. The Census Report on Transportation b^" Water in 
 1906 excluded all logs and lumber in rafts, and confined its statistics 
 to the traffic transported by some form of vessel. Inasmuch as 
 rafting has always been one of the chief sources of reliance for interior 
 river commerce, this leaves the total figures incomplete at a vital 
 point. The total receipts and shipments on the entire system for 
 vessels of over 5 tons, including harbor traffic and car ferries, amounted 
 in 1906 to 31,626,981 net tons. To this should ])e added, according 
 to the report of Bureau of Corporations, at least 6,000,000 tons of 
 logs and rafts. Of the total freight movement, exclusive of iiarbor 
 traffic and car ferries, amounting to 19,531,093 tons, more than 56 
 per cent was coal, and 20 per cent stone and sand. This was an 
 increase in coal traffic since 1889 of 29.4 per cent, and in stone and 
 sand of 1,147 per cent. Lumber and logs in rafts not being included, 
 it is impossible to determine exactly their movement during these 
 fifteen years, but the decline has probably been fully 25 per cent. 
 The movement of grain, cotton, and iron ore has fallen to insignifi- 
 cant amounts. 
 
 A- characteristic feature of river transportation, which has been 
 growing steadily more pronounced since 1865, is the predominance 
 of the unrigged craft over the packet steamboat. In 1906, out of a 
 total of 9,622 vessels on the river system, 8,187, or 85 percent, were 
 unrigged, and of the steam vessels only 390 were employed for the 
 carrying of freight and passengers in regular river service. The 
 remainder were tugs and towing vessels, ferryboats and yachts. 
 By these unrigged craft most of the traffic was transportetl, the largest 
 part of tlie commerce being in Ohio River coal. Out of a total of 
 19,531,093 tons carried, 13,980,368 tons, or 71 per cent, were trans- 
 ported on the Ohio in barges and flats. Aside from bulk traffic in 
 barges, flats, and rafts, the business on tlie i-iver is almost wholly 
 local and for short distances. 
 
 This decline has been tlie subject of much comment, particularly 
 by those who have observed the extended use to which waterways 
 have been put in many of the European countries. Yet the causes 
 are not far to seek. It slioidd be remarked, however, that they are 
 so interwoven one with the other that it will be somewhat difficult 
 to discuss them separately witliout apparent exaggeration of the 
 importance of the particular cause as it is consideied. 
 
 The first cause which suggests itself is that of the influence of com- 
 petitive agencies, Ix'giuuing with the eastward movement by lake 
 and canal early in the thirties, and followed by the rail movement in 
 the next two decades. This latter agency was undoubtedly more 
 edicicnl fiom the very beginning, })ecause of its greater power to 
 a(lai)t itself to varied Iraflic re(|uiivments. It is llexible in matters 
 of s|)eed, extensibility, terminal adaptability, and the like, and it is, 
 moi>'over, much more rcliahle. (\)ns(H|uent !y, it (\w\y away at once
 
 TEAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 65 
 
 all |)assenger tiavcl, ('.\cej)t excursion husincss and lociil <»r Unvx 
 tiaflic, and all mail, oxpiess, and I'ast-lVoitjht hiisiness, uliioli deprived 
 the steanihoats of their most lueiative sources of euinings, l)eing 
 greatly aided in this endeavor hv the interruption to water trans- 
 |)ortation during the war. But not only was the railway naturally 
 more eflicientj but it grew more eflicient, relatively, as the years went 
 on, for the steamboat l)usiness stood still ordeclineil nffer isfio, cxcei)t 
 in its handling of a few products by barge. 
 
 Whether it is true («• not, as frecjuently charged, that rail\\a\s have 
 secured control of steamboat lines, have purposely kept them inefli- 
 cient, and hav(> operated them to keep eJiicient sei'vice off the rivers, 
 it is undoubtedly true that they have, as earlier noted, reduced rates 
 at water competitive points and recouped themselves elsewhere. In 
 this practice, supporteil as they are by judicial decree, they have a 
 monopolized advantage fi'oni w liicli competing steamboat lines are 
 excluded. 
 
 The ({uestion whether the livers any longer exert an inlluence u|)on 
 rail rates has been fre(juently dehated. emj)hatic assertions by the 
 railways that such influence is still ))otent IxMng met by e(jually 
 em])hatic statements that the river in its present condition is power- 
 less to afi'ect the rail late. In th(> j)r(>liniinary leport of the Inland 
 Waterways Commission are included elal)orate com[)aiisons of rail 
 and water rates to various j^oints for different classes and kinds of 
 commodities. It would api)ear from a careful study of the tables 
 healing upon the Mississijipi Kiver situation that the waterway, 
 inedicient as it is, exerts an influence to-day upon the rail rat(» varying 
 in degiee according to ciicumstances. This is made clear by a com- 
 })aris()n of rates charged by railways paralleling the Mississippi north 
 of St. Louis, where water traflic still i)ievails, with rates chai'ged for 
 similar distances by railways ])aralleling the Missouri, which is no 
 longer a commercial factor. Kates on this stretch of the Missi.ssippi 
 are lower for the same commodity and distance. Yet when the cost 
 of marine insurance is added to the river rate, and also the drayage 
 charges which so frequently accompany the consignment and receipt 
 of river ti'aflic, it is a question whether I'ailways could not. if they saw 
 lit, absorb most of the water Irallic. provided their e(|uipinent was 
 adecpiate. 
 
 The table given l)elo\\ includes typical rates drawn from an exhibit 
 presented in a recent special i-e|)ort of a board of United States 
 engineers. It .shows in parallel columns the rail and water rates on 
 sections of the lower Mississippi. It will be oh.served that in some 
 cases the rail rates are lower than the water rates, in some cases 
 maleriallv higher, and in some cases the rates are identical. Not- 
 withstanding these variations, however, most of the traffic .seeks the 
 lailwav. One further fact should b(> noted. The distance Ix'tween 
 terminal points is in every case materially shorter by rail. This is an 
 advantage which the I'ailway almost inv!iri;il>ly eiijoxv. 
 
 19SM 0!) 5
 
 66 
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 Freight rates per ton by rail and water, December. 1908." 
 
 
 Mileage ' Sand and Manufao- i Grains and , cnnnr^ 
 distance. gravel. ^ tured iron. seeds. «-^oiiou. 
 
 SsTs' I- ore. 
 
 points. 
 
 Water. 
 Rail. 
 
 Water. 
 Rail. 
 
 
 '5 
 
 Water. 
 Rail. 
 Water. 
 Rail. 
 
 03 
 
 $3. 40 
 2.00 
 2. .50 
 
 2.00 
 2.00 
 2.00 
 
 Rail. 
 Water. 
 
 '3 
 
 From St. Louis 
 to- 
 st. Paul 
 
 729 
 182 
 420 
 
 366 
 284 
 132 
 
 576 
 150 
 
 $2. 00 '$i. 70 
 
 $2.80 
 2.00 
 
 $4.20 
 2. 10 
 
 $2.80 $3.00 i$8.00 $5.20 
 3.00 |. 
 
 $3.20 $2.00 
 
 2.72 
 
 6.00 
 
 2.00 
 
 2.00 
 
 1.50 
 
 $3.00 
 1 68 
 
 Memphis 
 
 From New Or- 
 leans to— 
 Vicksburg. . . 
 
 Natchez 
 
 Baton Rouge 
 
 311 
 
 227 
 214 
 89 
 
 2.50 
 "."36' 
 
 1.60 
 
 1.60 
 1.60 
 1.40 
 
 .3.00 
 
 2.60 
 
 2.40 
 2.40 
 2.40 
 
 5. 00 2. 40 1 3. 60 2. 20 
 
 2.40 2.40 I 4.00 
 
 2. 40 1 2. 40 4. 00 
 
 2.00 1.60 3.00 ! 3.00 
 
 1 1 
 
 3.00 
 
 3.40 
 3.40 
 1.40 
 
 a H. Doc. 50, 61st Cong., 1st sess. 
 
 The lack of development of river equipment, alie.idy referred to, 
 has been based in larp:e ]"art upon legitimate groimds — an unwilling- 
 ness to invest capital in an industry so highly speculative. The 
 risks are not alone those of railway origin, but they arise in part from 
 the natural difhculties of navigation. Obstructions due to snags 
 and bars on all the rivers except the Missouri have to a considerable 
 extent been removed, although they are constantly liable to reappear. 
 The barrier at the mouth of the ^Mississippi, which until 1878 gave the 
 railways a decided advantage, is now gone. But there still remain 
 many obstacles. Ice stops navigation for many months of each year 
 in the upper river. The swiftness of the current demands a costly 
 adjustment of business methods to meet the requirements of upstream 
 traffic — a difficulty absent in the Lakes. The shifting and irregular 
 current and the uncertainty of the water supply menace navigation. 
 To such an extent is this true on the upper Mississippi that the one 
 line now operating between St. Louis and St. Paul declines to make 
 season contracts, and accepts shipments for single trips only. Then 
 there are the variations in dc])th of water, most strikingly shown on 
 the u])}5er Ohio with the January and February floods, when the 
 river sometimes rises at Cincinnati to 70 feet above low^-w^ater mark. 
 This variation in water depth is not alone dangerous to navigation, 
 but it prevents the application of capital to the greatest economic 
 advantage. On the Lakes, with an assured depth of water, the largest 
 vessels can be em])loved and loaded to their ca]iacity. It is not ])rofit- 
 able to build vessels on the rivers which can run only in the best stages, 
 and whicii mii.st lie idle during the rest of the year. But light-draft 
 vessels are not economical in good stages of water. Moreover, these 
 sharj) and sudden variations in the stage of water have made fixed 
 wharves im|)ossible and have compelled the use of the less enici(Mit 
 flcjating dock. In low stages the cost of loading and unloading is 
 .sensibly increased in many ])laces by reason of the stee]i and high 
 river banks. 
 
 liut navigation is hindered not alone by variations in stage of water 
 due U) floods and droughts, but also by tlie normal dill'eience in (iej)tii 
 of the did'erent sections of the livei- system, 'i'lie lack of development 
 in the past of any through trafiic from the upper Mississipj)i to New 
 Oi'leans, and the jxMsistence ol' the costly i)ractice of transfer at St.
 
 TRAFFIC HISTOKV OF MISSISSIl'IM UIVKK SYSTEM. H7 
 
 Louis, have hccn duo to t his (lillcrcncc iu dci'lli ol" the lower .'iikI iipjx'c 
 river, and to the conseciuent diU'ereiue in draft of vessel ('ni;>loyed. 
 It was to meet this dilliculty that the harL'e system was introduced, 
 whose units, similar to railway cars, eould he dioiJped oi" attached at 
 will, and handled on did'erent stretches of liver without the necessity 
 of transfer of load. 
 
 Althou<;h it must he admitted that from a mivijration standj)oint 
 the condition of the Mississij)|)i is much sujx'iior to what it was in 
 the days of its commercial j)rosperity, vet nnich icmains to i)c done 
 and much which is once done has to l)e frequently rej)eated. The 
 destruction of hanks due to shiftin<; channels, an<l the fact that the 
 Missouri uses the lower Mississii)i>i as a dum])in<^ *i;roun<l, make 
 continuous dredffing lu^cessarv, and any iessenin*^ of vi<);ilance in 
 this direction tlirouo;h failure of conjiressional appropriations is 
 promptly punished bv a seiious impairment of the m>vit;ability 
 of the stream. Yet liowever serious navi^ition diflicidties may 
 appear to us, they can not, except to a small deo;iee, explain the 
 decline of liver comnuM-c<\ For in spite of all obstructions, we possess 
 fi'ee waterwavs which are in many respects snperioi- to those of 
 Europe; yet we have but a fraction of their tonnajje. A dead low- 
 water channel of 4V feet pi'cvails throughout the year from St. Paul 
 to the mouth of the Missouri. Four feel draft prevails on the Mis- 
 souri at low water as far as Kansas City. From St. Louis to Cairo 
 there are only a few days in the year when a boat drawino; 8 feet can 
 not operate freely. Below Cairo for S40 miles theie is a 9-foot 
 depth during low water, and for the last 270 miles boats of 25 to 30 
 feet draft can oj)erate. On the Ohio from Cairo to Pitt.sburg, there 
 is a 9-foot de]>th during nnvlium stages of water, which is being 
 improved to a 9-foot depth at low water. In comjiaiison with these 
 figures it should be noted that much of the canal and uj)rivei- boat 
 traffic of Europe is performed on 1 meter (3.28 feet) draft; most of it 
 is done on 2 meters (6.56 feet) draft and 10 feet draft is exceptional." 
 Hence it is lack of uniformity in ililferent sections of the river, and 
 a resulting inability to use equij)ment to the best advantage, rather 
 than the shallowness of the streams which must be accounted the 
 important navigation o})sta(de. 
 
 In the third ])lace, whether, as a result of the two causes just men- 
 tioned, railway competition and navigation obstacles, or whether, 
 because of a lack of initiative on the part of river interests after the 
 war, the steamboat business has been wholly lacking in the admin- 
 istrative organization necessary to cope with so superbly organized an 
 industry as the railway. Capital has kept out of it. The river steam- 
 boat, except that it has changed from a passenger to a freight carrier, 
 is the same craft as always. As late as 1906, out of a total of 1,435 
 steam vessels on the Mississi])i)i Kiver system, 1,358, or 95 per cent, 
 were of wood. The old inellicient "roustabout" labor is still em- 
 ployed, and no attempt whatever has been made to introduce mechan- 
 ical appliances for loading and unloading. There are very few 
 satisfactory wharves and docks, jnany of the landings being juade (m 
 the river bank, and the goods dumped on shore without cover. As 
 the rivers are at the lowest levels, goods must be hauled u])hill to 
 reach a place of sale. Good natural landings are few, and artificial 
 
 "H. Doc. 50, p. :i29. »51st <'(>nir.. 1st sess.
 
 68 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 ones are too expensive to l)e within the reach of small communities. 
 Thus the terminal expenses as compared Avith the more flexible rail- 
 way are veiy heavy. 
 
 Adequate terminal facilities are in very few instances owned or 
 controlled by water lines. 
 
 St. Louis, Mo., has little wharfage, either public or private, except the graded 
 river bank; East St. Louis has almost no public landings and few pri\'ate ones; Cairo 
 111., has several piers and slips and some few floating boat landings and warehouses, 
 but all under private monopoly. Memphis and Mcksburg have limited public land- 
 ings, con.-isting merely of graded banks and occasional floating warehouses. The 
 other cities are less well pro\"ided. Such transfer facilities as exist at the Lake Supe- 
 rior and Lake Erie grain, ore, and coal harbors are unknown on the Mississippi. The 
 injury to freights and cost of transfer by reason of necessary rehandling at the water's 
 edge, and subsequent cartage up the bank and across the city to the consignee, are 
 usually sufficient to outbalance a decided higher freight rate by rail." 
 
 In many cases all satisfactory terminal property has been acquired 
 by the railways. For example, portions of the river front at Pitts- 
 burg, Xew Orleans, St. Louis, and Vicksburg are owned by railwa}'^ 
 corporations. The primary jjurpose of the railways is not to check 
 the development of water transportation, but to secure desirable 
 land for switch tracks and yards, yet its effect upon the development 
 of steamboat traffic is disastrous. 
 
 Furthermore, nearly half of the steam vessels operated on the Mi.s- 
 sissippi, representing, however, onh' about one-c(iuirter of the ton- 
 nage, are owned by individuals, and are run independently with very 
 little thought of securing united action toward better organization 
 of river traffic. This makes it impossible for ship])ers to arrange for 
 through handling of goods. Repeated rehandlings by irresnon.sible 
 steand)oat caj)tains cause (himage to the goods, and make location 
 of resj)onsibihty for the damage (lifficult and the .settlement slow and 
 costly. Practically the only traffic which is well organized is that of 
 coal on the Ohio, and this is largely under the control of a single 
 corporation. Of the total tonnage in 1906 of unrigged vessels, 96.6 
 per cent was owned by corporations. 
 
 Finally there was and still is a funtlamental cause of decline of river 
 commerce to be found in the relation of trafiic movement to traffic 
 agencies. So long as wheat and corn were produced near the water- 
 ways and could l)e (lis])osed of at markets located on the rivers, 
 traffic by river continued ; but so soon as either of these coiulitions was 
 no longer present, the railway began to take the business. If grain 
 was sliipped from a river port and recjuired transfer to rail for delivery 
 at a pi'imary market, like Chicago, the expense of transfer ami the 
 lack of all facilities for satisfactory handling turned the traffic at its 
 source to the railways. When gi-ain began to be produced away from 
 the waterways, it had to be loaded at first into railway cars, and once 
 in the cars it remained theie until it icached its market. The move- 
 ment of the wheat area northwestward to a region west of Lake 
 Supei'ioi- and the advance of the corn aica westward eidianced this 
 tencK'ncy, and the railways encouraged it l)()th by the provision of 
 suitahic facilities for storage and handling and by the adjustment of 
 their rates. Tlie effect upon the Mi.ssissippi liiver is strikmgly shown 
 by the fact that although in the fifties there were many towns with 
 prospects of raj)id and successful development, yet at the census of 
 
 " If. Doc. 50, (ilst Com,'., 1st sess.
 
 TRAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM. 69 
 
 1900 there was not a river town from St. Paul to St. Louis wath 40,000 
 people and only three, Quincy, Davenport, and Duhutpie, with over 
 25,000 inhabitants. The same principle niaj' be illustrated in other 
 
 garts of the system. For example, Madison and Xew Albany, Ind., 
 oth declined in population between 1890 anrl 1900, and neither of 
 them had 25,000 people in the latter year, whereas Indianapolis, pre- 
 eminently a railway center, which in 1840 had less po])ulation tlian 
 either of the towais mentioned and in 1850 almost exactly the same 
 number, had in 1900 a population of 109, 000. 
 
 So far as export business by way of Xew Orleans is concerned, the 
 long roundabout journey, combined witb hick of satisfjictory steam- 
 ship facilities at Xew Orleans, has had its influence in turnin*!: traffic 
 eastward by rail. 
 
 The kind of business which has most satisfactorily developed on 
 the Mi.ssissii)pi Kiver system has been that trans])orted in the form 
 of rafts, the lumber Inisiness, and that handled by baro:es, of which 
 coal is the best examj)le. The former flourisiied on the upi)er Mis- 
 sissippi, and is still ])r()sperous on the lower Mississip])i and the 
 Ohio and tributaries, because, as already indicated, it can l)e slipped 
 mto the water and carried to its market with little exi)enditure of 
 labor an<l with no necessit}" of transfer. So soon as the forests were 
 cut ofl' on tiie banks of upper Mississi])j)i tributaries, rafting be^jan to 
 decline, and a ra])idly increasing proportion of lumber and log outjiut 
 was carried by rail. 
 
 The Ohio River coal traffic illustrates j)ecidiarly well the kind and 
 method of business to which the river system is at j^resent a(la|)ted. 
 In this industry, to be sure, are some of the advantages whicli are 
 lacking in any other, namely, administrative* organization, mechan- 
 ical loading aj)))liances, and the highest development of barg(» traffic. 
 But in atldition to all this, coal can be loaded direct from the mines 
 into the barges and can then be transported without any rehandling 
 to its destination, which is the river steamboat, the ocean-going 
 steamship, the sugar plantation on the bay, or the railway coal yard 
 on the river bank. In (Hher words, the Mississij)pi can at present 
 handle traffic successfidly which begins and ends within its banks, 
 but ti-aflic lequiring transfer to the railway at any point on its course 
 Avill have a tendency to resort to the railway for tlie entire distance. 
 AVhether this situation is due to a control of teruiinal and transfer 
 facilities by the railways and a refusal to ])ro rate with the waterway, 
 whether it is due to lack of initiative on the ])art of river interests in 
 developing transfer facilities, or whether it is due to the greater 
 cheapness of an all-rail haul, the fact remains that carriage involving 
 transfer no longer makes use of the Mi.ssissij)pi River system. 
 
 A recent si)ecial report of a board of I'liited States engineers" calls 
 attention, in explaining the insignificant commerce of the lower 
 Mississipj)i, to the fact that the i)opulation in sections bordering the 
 river is as low as 86 to 24 per square mile, including cities, and that 
 in a total length of about 1.265 miles there are only seven towns or 
 cities of over 10,000 population and only 23 of over 5,000 population. 
 In rei)ly to this and in answer to the statements which picture the 
 declining condition of river commerce the advocates of water- 
 ways insist that if they were given an improved channel commen- 
 
 "H. Doc. No. 50, 61st Cong., l3t sess.
 
 70 TKAFFIC HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI BIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 surate with the needs of business, traffic would come and the thinly 
 settled sections along the rivers would be built u]). They also con- 
 tend that even if commerce were not developed by the waterway 
 the existence of a waterway ready for use would so affect railway 
 rates as amply to justify the expenditure for construction. This last 
 contention ma}' be dismissed with a few words. No expenditure by 
 the National Government would be justified for the construction or 
 improvement of a useless or idle waterway unless the saving could 
 be clearly demonstrated in advance. Such a demonstration would, 
 in the nature of things, be (juite impossible, for it is evident that the 
 comparative attractiveness of rail and water routes is not a simple 
 question of comparative rates. A variety of factors which can be 
 summed up in the word "serviceability" actually determine the 
 method of shipment, and such factors can not be ])redetermined. If 
 the pur})ose is to reduce railway rates, there are more direct and less 
 costl}' methods of accomplishing this result. 
 
 The influence of a waterway in developing traffic is somewhat 
 problematical, and no final answer can be given to the claims of 
 those who insist that trade will follow the lock and the dam. Al- 
 though there are real obstacles at present to successful navigation, 
 as already noted, nevertheless it is difficult to understand why the 
 commercial interests, if they are so eager foi' a waterway, have not 
 made better use of existing facilities. The inference is a natural 
 one that the trouble lies elsewhere than in the condition of water 
 navigation. 
 
 But it must be admitted that there is some basis for the conten- 
 tion that good traffic facilities develop traffic. The truth of this has 
 been often demonstrated by the railways. The waterway advocates 
 haA'e reason to count upon a repetition at least in part of railway 
 experience, but hardly to the extent claimed by some of the ex- 
 tremists among the supporters of the policy. They have, however, 
 the right to a reasonable assurance that such improvement work as is 
 now being carried on and such plans as have been undertaken for 
 further betterment shall be continuous, in order that such invest- 
 ments as they may make in floating equipment shall not be lost by 
 an abandonment of improvement work. 
 
 To four general influences, then, may be assigned the decline in 
 Mississi})pi River commerce: First, C()mj)etition of rail and lake; 
 second, natural obstructions to navigation: third, lack of adminis- 
 trative organization of the water trans|)ortation business; and 
 fourth, certain fundamental principles of ti'aHic movement which 
 unchM- existing conditions work to the disadvantage of water carriage. 
 
 o
 
 T 
 
 --< •HiuudiiUiliiiJliiiiil.. I 1 1 I I

 
 '.v;. ' -"V- r 
 
 ;*^- > 
 
 ,>^ ■■••'■ 
 
 3 1158 00681 9220 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 
 AA 001 107 Ri3 
 
 3^Ti.T '^^^mK^
 
 ^Pm