CHEAP TlUiWOßTATIOiA. Kidlroad Facilities, Lake and Canal Connections nitli Eastern Markets. - AVliat slionld be done to provide Cheaper Transportation.—Ne¬ cessity for the iinprovement of the Alississippi Kiver. THE CHEAPEST MODE OF TE ANSIT THAT WILL EVEE BE OPEN TO THE NORTHWEST. Kc'poit Ol t'aptaiii Bitssell Blakeley, Cliairnian of tlie Cooisiiilteu Oil Jinproveiiienis, to tlie St. Paul Cliaiaibcr of Coniincrc-e, presented to''tlie Chamber and adopted Oecember •ibtli, IStS. Hou. H. M. Kice. President of St. Paul Cham- ber ot Commerce ; ïlie Iraproveuiput Committee of this Cluiraber have thought the question of cheap transportation demanded the especial attention ot this body, and ' beg leave to present ihe following for their consideration : i The whole subject would require a large book for its full elucidation, but- we hope to present the beads of the question in a short and specific man¬ ner, without an attempt to discuss the matter in all its bearings. We will call your attention to the present condition of our railroad facil ■ ities, our lake and canal connection with the eastern markets, and finally take a cursory view of the transporta- | tiou as it at present exists by way of | the iSIississippi river, and will en- i deavor to show what we regard as a paramount and inevitable necessity for their improvement. .Kailroad experts tell us that a rail- j road cannot profitably carry freight j at a ]es.s rate than one and a half ! cents per ton that the roads per mile, and : that have the i greatest amount of business should i not carry freight for less. This price ; is especially applicable to such arti- : des as grain and the kind of freights handled in the Valley of the Missis¬ sippi. At this rate, a ton of wheat could be carried from St. Paul to 1 2iew York, 1,401) miles, for S'21.00 per ton. The present price for carrying wheat to New York is 59 cents per bushel and 33^ bushels makes a ton, and the present fate per ton is $19.66. If railroad experts are right the price cannot be reduced by that kind of conveyance; hence it becomes aneces- sity to look for a cheaper mode for reaching the tide-water market. The lowest price by rail from St. Paul to New York, in the months ot August and September, 1872, was 43^ cents per bushel, and this was during the very dull season and in competi¬ tion with the lakes and canals. The other mode of reaching New York is by way of the lakes, New York canals, and the Hudson river. The average price of freight by the lakes, canal and river from Chicago to New York for 16 years, ending 1872, has been a fraction over 23 cents per bushel, and for 1872 alone 25 cents The produce of the Northwestern States is a prime necessity to all civil¬ ized nations of the earth, and the 2 price is almost always governed b3' the supply and demand; and in order for us to realiza the most for our in-o- duce it is required that we shall by all means in our power reduce the expense in getting to those markets where it is in demand. The summer rate from tit. Paul to Duluth, Milwaukee and Chicago, for seven months, is Hi cents per bushel, which added to water rates to Jiew York makes 40 cents per bushel; but this is not all, it takes at least twenty days to make the transit which neces- sardy involves the interest upon the value of the property en route tor that time. The time from Chicago to Buf¬ falo is, by propeller, about four days,, where it has to be unloaded into an elevator and loaded in a canal boat and hauled by three mulis and a small boy at the rate of a mile and a half per hour three hundred and sixty miles to Albany, and .owed by a tow- boat about three miles an hour to New York, beside the elevator and warehouse charges. Ml'. President, this is certainly in¬ tolerable, this produce should be carried for at least one half its present freight and charges and in one half the time. Do you realize that the eight istat.-s of Ohio, Indiana, IllinoÍ3,Missouri,Iowa, Minnesota, Wisco'^sin and Michigan, produce nine-tenths of all the Eastern freights by these canals. In order that you may form some opinion w'hat the aggregate of that tonnage is, I will give the figures: Total tonn.ige of New York canals for 22 years, end¬ ing in 1872, is 110,802,444 tons. The foreign tonnage of New York city for the same time was only 53,- 313,353 tons; and all the tonnage that entered the ports of the United States from foreign ports for the same time, was 164,372,871 tons. This almost seems incredible. No wonder the city and State of New York are immense¬ ly wealthy. Only think of the amount of money paid for canal boats, and for filting,lurnishingandsupplying them, and the population engaged in this commerce, the commissions on sales, insurance, warehousing, &c. We venture to say that not less than two hundred thousand persons are engaged in connection with this commerce. Since the Erie Canal was opened, in 1823, to 1872, inclusive, the State of New York has received for to Is on her canal S120,033,659.ÜB. We have an undoubted authority for saying that if the account against the Erie Canal should be made up, showing the first cost, the enlargements and repairs, with the interest for the money ad¬ ded, she would still have a credit over and above that entire sum of over S60,0Ü0,000. The New York Constitution for 1846 provided that §550,009 a year be taken from the canal revenues to support the State government and for the pay¬ ment of the general funded State debt." It is the hope of your committee that New England aud the West will realize that their citizens have not only paid the New York State debt and the expenses of their State gov¬ ernment, but their commer ;e furnish¬ es, necessarily, employment to many thousand men, mules, and small boys. How long is this to last'? The iieo- ple of New England, the Lakes and the Valley of the Mississippi should respectfully ask Congress to provide the right of vay around the Eahs of Niagara, and from Oswego to the Hudson river, and proceed lo build at once such a canal for shipping as Che world has never seen, and when this is done, you will send the produce of the West upon the 1,500 ton propellers of her own people, commanded and worked by her own men, to the mar¬ kets of New York, New England and the world. Yes, even tlie 6,500,000 head of cattle, hogs and sheep which we annually send to the Eastern cities, would ride comforcably upon tbe decks of onr magnificent steamers to their destination. The Eastern and Western tonnage by the Baltimore & Ohio, Philadehfiiia & Erie, Pennsylvania Central, Erie Railway, Ogdensburgh, Cape Vincent rncl Montreal by lake and canal. Grand Trunk, Erie, Oswego, and Champlain Canals for the year 1872, aud tlie New York Central in 1870 was nearly 32,000,000 tons. Who shall dare to compute what it shall he ill the year 1.900, whea the valleys of the Mississippi and the lakes contain at least 60 of the 100 millions of the population of this nation Having partially, as we chink, indicated wiiat improvei>T>nC<5 siirvniri be made to pro¬ vide t le cheatiest transporiation from St. Paul to the east, vre turn with pleasure and pride to contemplate the beniflcent works of the Almighty as displ lyed in the valley of our ovn magnificent riyer. The valley of the Mississippi and the lakes west of the AUegUany range contains about 1,350,000 square miles or about one-half of the superflcial surface of tlie United States, whicii is drained by about 17,000 miles of navi¬ gable waters during tte spring season, but are nearly useless for that purpose during tlie balance of tlie year. The States of Ohio, Micliigan, Illinois, In¬ diana, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, or what are called the jSTorthwesteni S;at(-s. in 1870 contain¬ ed 12,477,301: of the population of the nation, say oae-tliird, and produced 020,000,000 bushels of grain. Tliis exceeded the estimate of the statieian of the Agricultural Depart¬ ment by 150.000,000 bushels. His esti¬ mate of the grain that will be grown in this valley in 1,900 is over 3,000,000,000 buslseis, and if the pop¬ ulation keeps pace with this increase, there shon'd be within these 8tates. at that time, over 40,000,000 people. How are this iiost and their immense produce to be disposed of? Oertaiulr not by tlie present means of trans¬ portation—tliey are totally inade¬ quate. The Mississipni river must be made equal to this uuparalleled de¬ mand. iNo canal that ever was or probably ever will be, made, can float such a commerce as will arise in this garden s^iot of tiie world when that day arrives. Mr. President, we have not the time or you the patience to listen to a complete statement of what we could say on ihis momentous subject. We will only say what we believe Minne¬ sota can do, by the aid of the general government, to make our river equal to ail that we or our children shall require of her. In the summer of 1869, Mr. Frank Cook, civil engineer, under the direc¬ tion of Brevit Major General G. K. Warren, visited the head \v ters of tlie ^Mississippi river, and made a par¬ tial survey of the lak^s, rivers, &c., with a view of making reservoirs in which sliould be stored up the surplus waters of the rainy season for usediu'- iiig the low water fall navigation. Tills report is printed on pages 285 to 289 in the second volume of the re¬ port of the Si cretary of War, made to the third session of the Forty-first Coagress, in 1870—71. General Warren, in f jrwarding this re])ort to General A. A. Humphreys, Engineer in cliief, at Washington, used the following language: "As the examination for this ob'ect was substantially of the same kind as those authorized t.-i be made by me, 1 gave Mr. Cook such limited assist¬ ance as was in my power, and the re¬ sult is the report which it is tlie ohiect of tills communication to forward to yon. "Imperfect as this information fur¬ nished by Mr. . Cook's examination nece.ssaril.y is, in regard to rc-servoirs, :(t- tlie sources of the Mississiiipi, it is the most deflnrce and valuable that has been obtained. As far as it goes it is practical and to the pniut. "I do not tliink it wortli wliile here Í to notice some of tlie e.xtravagantaiid ■ impossible propo.sitioiis that have : been sugge.sted on the subject of reser¬ voirs, but the interest which this question has excited generaliv, audits practical importance has called them t'ortli, and will justify a more extend¬ ed and tborougli examination and sur vey than we liave yetlieen able to make. "Mr. Cook's report treat,s first of the size of tlif'se natural reservoirs and the extent to wliich their available capacity may be augmented. "AtPokegama, Pineriver. and Mille Lacs the aggregate co.st of these works to utilize tliese bodies of water was §114,009, and the aggregate capacity of the reservoirs when they were com¬ pleted, as estimated by Mr. Cook, was 54,006,872,830 cubic feet." Gen. IV.aren further says: "Ac¬ cording to our ineasnremenis of tlie Mississippi in 1867, the volume of di.s- charge at St. Paul on a 2 feet naviga¬ ble stage is 6,500 cubic feet tier second; at 3 feet navigable stage, 8,100 cubic feet per second; at 4 feet navigable stage, is 10,500 cubic feet per second; at- 5 feet navigable stage, is 14,000 cubic feet per second." "It would supply at St. Paul a dif¬ ference between à 2 feet and 3 feet navigable stage for 390 days; a differ- eime between a 2 and 4 feet navigable stage 1.56 days, and the difference be¬ tween 2 and 5 feet navigable stage for 83 days. It would do as much above the Falls of St. Anthony. "The longest period of low water at St. Paul was in 1864, when it w^as for 150 days below the 3 feet stage, and part of the time below two feet. "It is believed that these reservoirs would have maintained the river at a 4 foot navigable stage even during this long pei iod. Thus it will be per¬ ceived that if these reservoirs can be created and controlled, a 4 foot navi¬ gable stage would be secured thriugh- out the mo.st unfavorable seasons." ■4 From the known eminent scientific ability of Gen. Warren in his proles- sion. "as well as his great caution in the expression of professional o;'iii- ioiis, !Uid from our own knowledge <1 the Mississippi, we feel that wit