___




THE
NE W WEST.
ITS OUTLETS TO THE OCEAN.
MEMORIAL
OF THE
KANSAS CITY BOARD OF TRADE,


SUBMITTED TO THE
Transportation Committee of the Senate of the United States,
During its Sitting at St. Louis.
THE RESOURCES, AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS, COMMERCE
AND TRANSPORTATION NEEDS OF WESTERN
MISSOURI, IOWA, KANSAS, NEBRASKA AND COLORADO.
----. ___0 __*_ *.- --
KANSAS CITY:
JOURNAL OF COMMERCE BOOK AND JOB PRINTING HOUSE.
1873.












THE NEW WEST.
ITS RESOURCES, AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS,.COMMERCE AND TRANSPORTATION NEEDS.
BOARD OF TRADE ROOMS,
KANSAS CITY, Oct. 25, 1873.
To Hon. WILLIAM     VINDOM, and Members of the Committee
of the Senate of the United States:
GENTLEMEN: The Board of Trade of Kansas City desire
to represent to your committee the needs of the country
comprehended by its commerce in marketing the products of
its soil and receiving the merchandise consumed by it in
exchange.
The country in question is new to the commerce of the
Union-its importance dating from the close of the late
civil war-its population in that time having increased at a
moderate estimate one million in number.
It embraces Western Missouri, Western Iowa, Nebraska,
Kansas, Colorado, the Indian Territory, Northwestern Texas
and New Mexico-covering twelve degrees of latitude, sixteen
degrees of longitude, and comprises an area of more than
600,000 square miles.
This vast district of country has but one navigable riverthe Missouri-and its lines of commerce are thus exclusively
by railway, except the limited margin on either side of that
river.
The system of railway construction for this interior regionthe geographical centre of the United States and of the continent-is, so far as the great trunk lines are involved, very far
advanced, and are concentrated at the mouth of the Kansas
river, the nearest and most available point for all the country
to the navigable waters of the Missouri river-as you will see
by the map.
The agricultural portion of this part of the Union embraces
the portions of Missouri and Iowa referred to, the States of
Nebraska and Kansas, and the Indian Territory, and is of a
more uniform character in quality and production than any
equal area on the globe. The soil is of exceptional fertility,
and the official report by the census of 1870 shows it to





2


embrace the largest and most productive corn and winter
wheat area in the world.
It also embraces the only natural pastoral region in North
America, where, from time beyond the knowledge of this
continent, have been subsisted the countless herds of aboriginal
cattle, exceeding in number the domestic herds of the globe.
These are now being supplanted by the cattle of civilization.
The present season has brought together for market, at the
several points in Kansas, on the feeding grounds of the Kansas
City stock market, over $7,000,000 worth of grass-fed cattle
alone.
In addition to this, a careful computation from the crop statistics of the census of 1870 shows that for the year ending June of
that year there was produced in this region 26,452,116 bushels
of wheat; 631,353 bushels of rye; 89,236,854 bushels of corn;
24,367,214 bushels of oats; 1,429,946 bushels of barley; 1,856,138 tons of hay; 6,235,366 pounds of tobacco.
In live stock it produced: Of hogs, 2,596,185; cattle, other
than exclusively grass-fed, 533,833; of grass-fed, 2,061,343,
exclusive of the Indian Territory where there are large herds
but from which there are no returns; of mules, 116,585; of
sheep, 2,233,326; of horses, 835,833.
The value in soil products of the amount produced by these
figures, at the current market rates paid at Kansas City this
season, would amount to $85,22ý,837. And the live stock, at
a low average per head, are in value $26,557,630.
Or, in the aggregate, this portion of the Union produced in
1870, from its soil alone, a wealth of more than one hundred
and twenty-eight millions of dollars.
A country thus productive, and which has become so practically within seven years, and which has seen its three most
productive years since the census figures were obtained, is, we
most respectfully submit, entitled to be heard on a question so
vital as that for which your committee was raised to inquire
into and report upon-transportation.
And we approach this part of our subject with the statementthat, as compared with other portions of the Union affected
by both the foreign and domestic market, it is practically cut
off from both, and in times of abundant crops its products do
not admit of shipment with profit to the producer-only when
prices are high, induced by failure of crops east of the Mississippi or in Europe, or both, can its grain be profitably transported to the Atlantic seaboard by present facilities.
From Kansas City, the converging point of the principal
great trunk lines, to New York is by rail fourteen hundred
miles, being nearer to that city than from any point on the
Missouri river above the mouth of the Kansas, and for this
reason taken as the standard of computation.
Taking the rate of transportation by rail, as we find it in the
documents printed by Congress, to be 12- mills per ton per
mile, we find that the cost of a bushel of wheat of 60 pounds,





3


from Kansas City to New York, would be 52~ cents-or 871
cents per 100 pounds for all products.
This we may assume to be the rate by all rail, and for our
corn and pork, which come into market after the close of navigation, rail transportation is our only dependence. As to corn,
it is quoted the day on which this is written in New York at
58- to 60 cents per bushel-leaving to the farmer, the shipper
and for all expenses getting it in the car at Kansas City, a
margin of six to eight cents. Is it strange that it is burned
for fuel to save the destruction of timber? and cheaper than
coal at cost of mining and delivery?
It is unnecessary to lengthen the argument by parallel illustrations as to other products, as this one affecting our great
staple is sufficient-everything being governed by it.
NATURAL OUTLETS.
But these disabilities can be remedied. They are artificial,
and result from causes which are susceptible of remedy-and
which have been in great part removed by private and corporate enterprise.
And we are before your committee to-day because it is proposed to devise a general system of relief for the whole country,
by opening up cheaper channels of transportation by the common fund of the nation. And because what is needed in this
respect by us can only be done under national authority.
There are two outlets for the products we have referred to:
One by way of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.
One by the harbor at Galveston, Texas.
BY GALVESTON HIARBOR.
We shall consider them in the reverse order in which they
are mentioned.
From Kansas City to Galveston it is now 800 miles as the
railroads are constructed, but which can be reduced within
700 miles-or just half the distance to New York. It is as to
cost of transportation, as if Kansas City was removed East to
Columbus, Ohio. The question as it addresses itself to us is:
"Why should Kansas City, and the country surrounding it,
with its one hundred millions of annual production be compelled to seek the market through Columbus, Ohio, any more
than that Columbus should be compelled to seek her market
by way of Kansas City?"
If the port of Galveston was made accessible for ocean
going vessels, the wheat and corn of the Missouri Valley could
seek the ocean at 261 cents per bushel, and pay the same rate
it does to-day to New York at 52- cents-adding a quarter of
a dollar to the price of the 115,000,000 of bushels of these crops,
produced in 1870-or more than $28,000,000 to the farmers of
this New West every year.
Then the country embraced in this central portion of the
pration would be, as -o foreign markets, as favorably situated





4


as the States of Indiana and Ohio, and our rich lands increased
in corresponding value.
And why the national treasury should not improve this
harbor equally with those of the lakes and Atlantic seaboard
is, we submit, not a question for discussion. Its need is all
that requires to be established. And this we feel our illustration and the facts recited most conclusively establishes.
BY THE MISSISSIPPI.
The other outlet for the Upper Missouri to the markets of
the world is by the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.
There are two questions to be considered in connection with
this route.
The navigation of the Missouri river by barges, its seasons
of low water and ice-and the low water and ice of the Mississippi river above the mouth of the Ohio:
And a connection by railway with the Mississippi at a point
below ice, and at permanently deep water.
The cost of shipping grain, per bushel, from St. Louis to
New Orleans may be fixed by present facilities, at a high stage
of water, at eight to ten cents. It may be brought to a lower
minimum, but we prefer to be within actual figures, as demonstrated in practical transportation.
At present, as the channel is in the Missouri, it would
require lighter tonnage in vessels, and thus the cost be somewhat enhanced over the same distances in the Mississippi.
We depend entirely upon conjecture when we put the cost
from Kansas City to St. Louis, by barges, at about the same
figures-or in all about 16 to 20 cents per bushel from Kansas
City to New Orleans.
This would be a saving to ocean ports, over the present rates
to New York, of 32- cents for all grain for European demand,
and of 22~ cents to New York itself, counting ten cents from
New Orleans to New York.
We know, it is claimed, and we believe within the limits of
practical demonstration, that these figures can be materially
reduced, but we prefer to take what has been done, as it is
ample to command consideration-leaving to the future and
mutual enterprise to reduce the cost by both routes. The
point we desire to enforce being the relative cost between the
two-both being susceptible of farther cheapening.
The Missouri river has not been tested by being navigated
by grain barges in tow of steamers, as has the Mississippi
between St. Louis and New Orleans. It is believed by practical men that it can be so used successfully, and we have so
considered it in estimating the cost of transportation. But
frankness requires us to say that it has yet to be demonstrated.
But conceding that it is so, it is insufficient as an outlet for
the products of the vast area of country dependent upon it.
And for these reasons:
From August until the close of November is the low water





season, when the chantel contains but from three and a half
to five feet of water.
From the last week in November to the middle of March,
navigation is suspended by ice. True, in some seasons the
interruption from this cause is more brief, but there is no
safety within that period, and even by steamboats, is seldom
attempted, until the freezing season has entirely passed. And
above the mouth of the Kansas river, the obstructions from ice
is often some weeks later.
Thus the season of good navigation in the Missouri may be
included from April to August-at its best after the annual
rise in June.
Our corn crop is never ready for shipment until after ice
has closed the river, and our pork crop, made from it, necessarily so, as well as most of the beef-although a portion of
this can go forward before ice is formed. The wheat, in part,
may go before the close of navigation, but so far as the Missouri
can be availed of, most of our products must lie in store until
the opening of navigation in the spring.
The same obstacles await us between St. Louis and Cairoboth from low water in the autumn months and ice and low
water during those of the winter.
The general result arrived at by these facts and figures is,
that this central area of the country has a common interest with
the whole Mississippi Valley in the removal of obstructions to
navigation in the channels of that river and its tributaries,
and the removal of the barrier at its mouth, as the cheapest
and most available outlet to the markets of the world.
But confined as we are to the one river, the main dependence for gathering the crops and concentrating the products
of the agricultural lands for transport is, and for all time must
be, upon the railway. And for fully one half the year we must
use the railroad to reach the Mississippi. And to fully utilize
that river it must be reached by rail below the mouth of the
Ohio, where an open channel and deep water can be found
throughout the year.
THE MISSISSIPPI AT MEMPHIS.
Private enterprise has already fixed upon the point for this
connection at Memphis, and the work of constructing a railroad from Kansas City to that city begun-the first hundred
miles being well advanced and work going forward at this
time. The importance of this connection, and the aid of your
committee and through you of Congress, will be seen from the
considerations we present.
From the mouth of the Kansas river to St. Louis by the
Missouri is 400 miles.
From St. Louis to Memphis 450 miles.
From Memphis to New Orleans 750 miles-or 1,600 miles in
all-from Kansas City to New Orleans.
In the season when the Missouri is closed it is by rail to
St. Louis 283 miles; and from St. Louis to Memphis 319 miles--





6


602 miles by rail from the mouth of the Kansas to Memphiswhere the permanently open river and deep water is reached.
By air line from Kansas City to Mempms it is 365 miles, and
can be traversed by rail within 390 miles-in round numbers
400 miles.
The Upper Missouri Valley can thus reach the Mississippi
river below ice and at permanently deep water by 200 miles less
rail transportation than as now employed by way of St. Louis.
By employing 107 miles longer rail transit than at present,
450 miles of river are saved, as against the route by St. Louis;
and by employing 212 less miles of railway, the same point is
reached by all rail, as now. And in both cases the only
obstacles now existing are completely and entirely overcome.
This obtained, and uniform freights throughout the year are
secured, or, if there is any difference, the winter freights will
be lower than the summer, from the fact, that the boats that
are driven from the upper rivers by ice will seek the Lower
Mississippi for winter employment, making tonnage more
abundant than in the summer.
Then with the obstructions at the mouth of the Mississipi
removed, or avoided, ocean steamers could land at Memphis
just as freely as at New Oeleans, and grain be loaded direct
from the elevators and shipped to either New York, Philadelphia, Boston, or to Europe. And the flour made from our
winter wheat, equal to any in the Union, be shipped by the
shortest route to the West India and South American markets.
It would practically place our grain port within four hundred miles of the mouth of the Kansas and give us both for
export and import the lowest rates, and uniform at all seasons.
Taking the same rates of charges on freight by river and
rail, as we have used above, we could by this proposed route
place grain in Memphis at 15 cents, in New Orleans at 20 cents,
New York at 30 cents, and Liverpool at 35 cents per bushelor even by rehandling at New Orleans in addition to Memphis,
it would only make the cost of our grain at New York and
Liverpool 35 and 40 respectively-or a saving over present
rates to Europe of 36- cents for every bushel of the grain of
Western Iowa, Western Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska.
At this writing grain from St. Louis to Memphis costs 22~
cents per 100 lbs., or about 14 cents per bushel. To New
Orleans by barge 30 cents per 100 lbs., or 18 cents per bushel.
By barge from Kansas City at corresponding rates to those
now paid, grain at Memphis would cost 20 to 22 cents, and at
New Orleans 24 to 26 cents per bushel.
But wii h railroad to Memphis to-day, we could save 5 to 7
cents at the rates now charged on the Mississippi river. And
this saving would hold good pro rata on any reduction which
improved facilities in transportation might give in the future.
It is thus demonstrated, not by presumptive figures and
contingencies in the future, but upon actual prices, as paid today, that with railway connection between the Missouri river
and the Mississippi-at the mouth of the Kansas and at Mem




7


phis-the surplus of our annual product of 146,000,000 bushels
of grain can find its cheapest and most available outlet to
market.
There is another element in this proposed route to which
we have not alluded-that of time.
The Missouri river, down stream, is not safe for navigation
by night, and has never been used by steamers descending the
river-the practice always, and made imperative by the rules
of the underwriters, being to land and remain at moorings
during the darkness. It would require from three to four
days for a fleet of barges from Kansas City to reach St. Louis,
and longer in proportion to distance from all points above;
while changing cargo at St Louis and thence to Memphis,
would require eight to ten days' time for our grain to reach
that point.
Cars could be loaded at any point on the railroads of the
Upper Missouri, or from the elevators at Kansas City and
unloaded into vessels or elevators at Memphis in from 36 to 40
hours, thus adding largely to the profit of shipment-saving a
week in time and the high rates of insurance above the mouth
of the Ohio and in the Missouri river.
There is but one more proposition in this connectien to discuss, and that is the point on the Missouri river at which the
railroad connecting with the Mississippi should commence.
We have assumed it to be at the mouth of the Kansas riverand for the reasons:
That is the nearest and most available point for the country
in question to reach navigation, as an examination of the map
demonstrates:
It has been so recognized by becoming the converging point
for the great trunk lines of railway already built and in operation-being to-day the commercial centre of all the country
embraced in this memorial:
The Missouri river, below the Kansas, is open for navigation
later in the autumn and earlier in the spring, making a month's
difference in navigation in some seasons, over points above,
and having a larger volume of water, is safer for river craft
and heavier tonnage than above the mouth of the Kansas:
And it is the nearest point at which the Missouri river can
be reached for all the country west and north-the distance
being increased from either above or below, as the map will
demonstrate:
And because the construction of this important work has
already been commenced, and over one million of dollars
expended upon it.
We have thus briefly laid before you the leading facts in
regard to the important portion of the common territory of
the Union, with which we are bound up in common interests
and in common destiny.
We have shown that it produces nearly one hundred and
fifty millions of bushels of grain annually.
We have demonstrated that as a meat and wool producing





8


region it surpasses any other portions of the United Statesand that as yet it is in the infancy of its development in this
respect.
We have not adverted to its wealth in iron, coal and leadfor the disabilities under which its agriculture labors are
immediate and pressing-but in all these mineral resources it
is equal to any portion of the Union.
We have shown that by distance and other obstacles it is
practically cut off from the markets of our own nation and
the world.
We have shown how by two natural and near outlets it can
be placed, as to markets, on a footing with the most favored
interior districts of the Union.
And we claim that if so favored, and its products allowed to
reach a market, that the effect will be not only beneficial to its
own people, but will open up to the industrial masses of other
portions an abundant and cheap supply of all the staple elements
of food, both now and in increasing volume for all time to come.
The relief then asked by this portion of the people of the
United States may be briefly stated:
1. The improvement of the harbor at Galveston, so as to
allow of ocean going vessels to land at the wharves of that city.
2. The removal or avoidance of the obstruction at the mouths
of the Mississippi.
3. To aid in securing a connection with permanent deep
water and permanent freedom from ice with the Mississippi,
as indicated, by railway from the mouth of the Kansas river
to Memphis.
The two first come under the general power of Congress,
touching river and harbor improvement.
As to the latter, we can see no difference between connecting commercial points by rail and by canal. And we are
thoroughly convinced that in all the projects submitted to you
for the better accommodation of the different portions of the
Union, there has been no one proposed conferring so large
benefit upon such important interests and so large an area of
country, that can be afforded at so small a cost to the National
Treasury as this.
Were it within the scope of this memorial, or within the purposes for which your committee has been raised, we could demonstrate that what we ask, to thus connect us with the Mississippi,
can be fully accomplished, and that speedily, without the expenditure of a dollar in money by the General Government.
And upon a favorable consideration of the matters herein
presented, and its recognition by your committee as deserving
the attention and consideration of Congress, the method by
which it can be thus accomplished will be laid before that
body through your committee.
R. T. VAN HORN,
W. H. POWELL,
On behalf of the Board of Trade.