UC-NRLF 
 
 SB 5 blE 
 
A\m OPERATION 
 
 of 
 
 WATER AND RAIL TERMINAL FACILITIES 
 
 PRODUCE THE GREATEST DISPATCH 
 
 AND ECONOMY 
 
 By ROBERT BRIDGES, 
 President Seattle Port Commission. 
 
 Prepared for the 
 
 SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION LEAGUE 
 OF WASHINGTON MUNICIPALITIES 
 
 NORTH YAKIMA, OCTOBER 6-7-8, 1915 
 
 Seattle: 
 The H. C. Pigott Printing Concern. 
 
. 
 
 * ' 
 
 
PUBLIC OWNERSHIP AND OPERATION OF WATER AND 
 RAIL TERMINAL FACILITIES PRODUCE THE GREAT- 
 EST DISPATCH AND ECONOMY. 
 
 By ROBERT BRIDGES, President Seattle Port Commission. 
 
 Waterfront a Priceless Possession. 
 
 The waterfront of a great seaport is a priceless possession in the 
 hands of those who control it. Such possession enables its proprietors to 
 levy tribute upon every pound and item of outgoing and incoming 
 commerce moving to and from every corner of the world. Hence, the 
 aggressive and over insistent effort on the part of transportation com- 
 panies and other profit-seeking corporations and interests to secure con- 
 trol of this valuable property. The history of all American ports 
 save San Francisco and New Orleans has been in this regard practically 
 the same. Private corporations, and particularly transportation corpora- 
 tions, have acquired practically all the available commercial waterfront 
 of America. The railroad is the great agent of modern development. A 
 waterfront is merely a more or less ornamental property unless it is 
 connected with the inland territory by the steel highway. In the early 
 stages of a port's development the paramount consideration is to induce 
 railroads to locate their termini at such port. It is therefore, obvious 
 that the railroad company proposing to so locate would be in a position 
 to dictate the terms upon which it would enter, and it is also a foregone 
 conclusion that these terms would inevitably include the surrender of a 
 generous slice of the waterfront to the exclusive ownership and control 
 of such railroad. These original grants were not immediately injurious. 
 On the contrary, the entrance of the railroad was a condition precedent 
 to business development. But our transportation corporations are not 
 timid in their demands) nor is their hunger for privileges easily appeased. 
 No great length of time was required, therefore, for the powerful railroad 
 systems or combinations of individual companies to acquire control of all 
 the available waterfront of all the important seaports, with the exceptions 
 noted. Then the yoke which they had placed upon their necks began to 
 gall the donors of these privileges. The railroad systems or combinations 
 having a strangle hold upon the very arteries of commerce could suck 
 the life blood of local industry, and having a monopoly of the port 
 facilities could effectually bar out competing lines, or else admit the late 
 coming railroads upon such terms as would nullify 
 
 Injurious Results of Private Ownership. 
 
 A port, therefore, whose waterfront is preempted by private railroad 
 terminals is necessarily restricted to the service of the railroads owning 
 the same. All other railroads in the future, no matter how anxious they 
 
 44365 
 
ERMINALS 
 
 may be to enter such port and no matter how advantageous the entrance 
 of such railroads might be to the community, are denied the necessary 
 facilities. Furthermore, such port under such conditions is destined 
 inevitably to become a mere convenience to such franchise owners, to be 
 used by them as a trans-shipping point merely, without regard to the 
 interests of the donors of the franchises, but with regard only to the profit 
 of the corporations owning the same. This is the condition which is 
 pressing with more or less severity upon all the port cities from Boston 
 to Seattle with the exceptions noted and the problem of how these 
 bonds may be broken has become the vital subject of consideration and 
 effort on the part of all the cities affected. And in this connection it 
 should be a source of pride to the people of San Francisco and New 
 Orleans that these are being pointed out and designated as an illustration 
 of how the problem may be and has been solved, and their policy and 
 methods in this regard are being investigated and studied by such great 
 and prosperous municipalities as New York, Boston, Baltimore, Detroit, 
 Seattle, and other cities. 
 
 Essential Benefits of Public Administration. 
 
 I have said that the waterfront of a great seaport is a priceless posses- 
 sion in the hands of its proprietor's. There are two distinct kinds of owner- 
 ship and utilization to which this possession is subject. The port facilities 
 may be owned and operated by private corporations as heretofore detailed; 
 or the ownership and operation of the same may rest in the hands of the 
 municipality or the people. If private interests are the proprietors, then 
 such facilities are exceedingly valuable assets for the production of reve- 
 nues and the generation of power for such private interests. If these 
 facilities are owned by the people and operated in their behalf, then the 
 resultant benefits flow toward the municipality as a whole and toward 
 the individual citizens who constitute the same. 
 
 From what has been said before, it is obvious that the fundamental 
 benefit of public ownership, control and operation of port facilities 
 is that thereby the port is kept open that is, no special interest or 
 combination of interests is permitted to monopolize for selfish profit 
 the tollgate that opens out upon the limitless commerce of the seas, on 
 the one hand, and upon the great highways of inland trade on the other. 
 The secondary or sequent benefits that follow this fundamental fact are 
 that all transportation agencies, not only in present but in prospective 
 operation, are invited to conduct their business through such open port 
 upon the basis of equal facilities, minimum charges and equitable terms; 
 that such invitation and treatment will not only increase the volume of 
 traffic through such ports, but will place such transportation agencies in 
 the relation of active competition with each other. This real compe- 
 titive relatioiT^wTll in turn reduce the transportation rates and will in 
 consequence not only increase the desirability of such port as transship- 
 ping point, from the shipper's point of view, but will render it, to the 
 extent of its advantage in ttite regard the most favorable location for 
 originating traffic for both the export and inland trade and thus develop 
 local industries and advance individual and municipal prosperity. 
 
ROBERT BRIDGES 3 
 
 It is a fact that trade follows the line of least resistance, or in other 
 words, will gravitate towards that environment which is most favorable 
 to expeditious and inexpensive movement. I have heretofore pointed 
 out that an open port, or a port at which there is active competition 
 between transportation companies, is a consideration of primary impor- 
 tance in this regard, and I have shown how private ownership of terminal 
 facilities will close the port and strangle competition, and how public, 
 or neutral, ownership will produce the directly contrary result. But 
 there are other considerations than transportation rates and competition 
 in the development of a transshipping point as well as a port market. 
 Assembling cargoes for shipment, warehousing the same when necessary, 
 docking the ships, transferring goods from railroad to railroad, from 
 railroads to ships, from ships to railroads and from industry or factory 
 to trunk lines and wharves, are all units of movement which entail 
 expense. The more efficiently and economically these units are co-ordi- 
 nated the less will be the charges and the more satisfactory the service 
 per unit or per combination of units. It should, therefore, be the aim 
 of those interested in the development of the port to address themselves 
 earnestly to these considrations. 
 
 Principle of Public Ownership Paramount. 
 
 I have specified some of the items of development and some of the 
 details of the result of public ownership, control and .operation of the 
 docks, switching facilities and the proposed warehouse system such 
 as prevail in the ports of New Orleans and San Francisco, not so much 
 for the purpose of benefits that flow from the public administration 
 of these facilities, as to emphasize the importance of the principle involved. 
 
 New Orleans and San Francisco possess their waterfront. 
 
 By unusual good fortune this possession has not been alienated, but 
 is held by the people to whom it of right belongs and for whose benefit 
 it should of right be administered; and through the farsighted and 
 patriotic vision of some of their citizens in the years gone by, this policy 
 of administration has been reduced to a concrete and effective system. 
 In point of fundamental preparation for the great era of trade expansion 
 which is sure to come within the next few_years, New Orleans and San 
 Francisco are distinctly ahead of all their rivals. This advantage lies 
 not so much in the extent of the facilities for commerce and trade actually 
 in complete operation, as in the fact that their system is based upon a 
 principle which renders it susceptible to unlimited automatic extension 
 and improvement, whereas the other ports have by private grants throt- 
 tled development on comprehensive lines and constructive -growth within 
 the limits set by the will or interest of those who hold control. 
 
 Thus those cities which are not so fortunate as New Orleans and 
 San Francisco in this respect have a double task to perform. First, they 
 must dislodge these private grantees either by purchase involving the 
 expenditure of enormous sums of money, or by some other means; and 
 then they must undertake the actual work of reconstruction and develop- 
 
4 PUBLIC TERMINALS 
 
 ment f whereas,, all that New Orleans and San Francisco have to do is to 
 build upon the broad, deep, lasting and unimpeachably correct founda- 
 tions already laid. The day is passing and indeed has already passed 
 when the great prolific privileges which minister to the needs and make 
 for the prosperity of all the people can be summarily grabbed by the 
 private few and monopolized by these for their own private profit and for 
 the oppression of the rightful but unwatchful owners thereof. The 
 waterfront facilities of a port constitute such a prolific privilege. 
 
 If the franchise to control and operate these facilities is held by 
 private interests, then the great potential rights of the people are coined 
 into dollars which fall into the pockets of such private interests; but if 
 these essential public utilities are held by the people and operated for the 
 general advancement of trade and the general good of all the owners 
 thereof, then the entire community reaps the resultant benefits, and the 
 governmental function is, in such administration, properly discharged. 
 
 Rail and Water Terminal Locations Are Essentially Different From all 
 the Other Classes of Lands. 
 
 This has been recognized since the beginning of organized government. 
 The Federal Government has control over the disposition and sale of 
 lands up to and including the line of ordinary high tide. It holds in 
 trust all of the tidelands, beds of the ocean, and the beds of the navigable 
 lakes and rivers intact for the future States when admitted into the Union. 
 These become the property of the states through their sovereignty upon 
 admission and are a continuing trust reposed in them for the uses of the 
 people of said state as aids to commerce, navigation, and fisheries. As 
 distinguished from all other classes of land no grant or parchment 
 passes between the Federal Government and the States and there are no 
 lines run for the purpose of computing areas beyond the line of ordinary 
 kigh water. All of the lands known as tidelands where the tide ebbs and 
 x 1Wows out to the line of navigability is recognized as the essential terminal 
 location connecting the great highways of land and of water and making 
 possible public ingress and egress from and to the high seas. Such location 
 is necessarily a single unit and if monopolized by private concerns to the 
 exclusion of the public generally acts as a blockade against the develop- 
 ment of such location. Not so with other classes of property, if in a city 
 one street is insufficient to meet the requirements of transportation and 
 it is held under a franchise by some private corporation a remedy may 
 be applied by opening up and developing additional streets to meet the 
 requirements in maintaining the avenues of trade open. No complete 
 monopoly could exist on the thoroughfares of a city or on the avenues 
 leading to and from the city because of the numerous opportunities to 
 develop in different directions except in cities where trunk lines have 
 been monopolized through the granting of franchises. This is not so in 
 regard to the location on the tidelands where rail and water meets^the 
 same being a single strip or connecting link between land and the 
 high seas. It is easy to be monopolized by private ownership and to be held 
 out of use to the detriment of the development of commerce, navigation, 
 
ROBERT BRIDGES 
 
 and fisheries. If the private owners be merely speculators and gamblers 
 in futures, or if they be quasi-public corporations such as railway com- 
 panies, they mayx if they desire monopolize a terminal location to the 
 exclusion of any and all other railroad or shipping concerns that do not 
 conform to their requirements. 
 
 Franchises and Discriminations. 
 
 Added to this power in the hands of a railway concern is 
 the indiscriminate granting of franchises on the avenues paralleling 
 or adjacent to the harbor shipping facilities. This control breeds 
 favoritism especially on behalf of the. larger shipping concerns 
 by means of greater dispatch for their business, absorption of rail switch- 
 ing, wharfage and other forms of waterfront charges. On the other hand, 
 where the business of the concern is not of such quantity as the official 
 of the railroad may dictate, then their business is hampered by delays, 
 duplication of switching charges, and their markets thus practically 
 limited to the line of railroad in control of the monopoly of the situation 
 at their location. As fast as one set of abuses made possible by such 
 monopoly is exposed and corrected a new set of abuses are put into 
 application. For instance: Rebating to large concerns was openly and 
 notoriously conducted by railway companies. Now, thanks to education 
 of the American public on that point, a more subtle method is employed 
 and one that will be harder to fathom than the old method of openly 
 rebating. Large shipping concerns may with-hold payment on freight, 
 alleging goods damaged in transit, losses sustained by delays in deliv- 
 eries, all of which may be referred to the claim department of said 
 railroads and there remain for such period of time as the auditing de- 
 partment of the railroads and the concern interested may have oppor- 
 tunity to determine what percentage of the freight due as tied up in 
 such claims, may be overlooked. In this manner a balance is arrived 
 at and adjusted satisfactorily to the railroadandsiipping concern 
 whose business is of such magnitude as 
 
 this method of manipulation. Another merhod is the application of 
 obscure foot-note rulesu in published tariffs to give advantages to big 
 business in rates or classification, while little business is charged accord- 
 ing to the schedule in bold type. Another method that carriers openly 
 practice, is to absorb charges from competitive points while all charges 
 are made against shippers from non-competitive points. An enlightened 
 American sentiment is justly rebelling against all these devious ways 
 of craft and graft and favoritism, much of which outcrops in the system 
 of private terminals. 
 
 In the field of production of grain, fruit, and other products the 
 individual producer if he decides to ship independently of any brokerage 
 or other concern must pay all of the charges as set forth by the railroad 
 tariff sheets and await the pleasure of the railroad company in receiving 
 cars for the shipment of his product, while the brokers or warehousemen 
 who accumulate large tonnage from numerous producers are favored by 
 receiving prompt dispatch in the receipt of cars for such shipments, and 
 
6 PUBLIC TERMINALS 
 
 the benefits of whatever absorption practiced may be in vogue by the 
 railroads at the time. Numerous instances have been reported where 
 railroads have failed to furnish cars to individual shippers, such dila- 
 tory tactics and delays are incident to private understandings between 
 the big brokers and warehousemen and the public carrier. 
 
 The individual shippers then naturally become disappointed and dis- 
 couraged at being thus compelled to accept the prices offered to them 
 by brokers for their product in order to save themselves against serious 
 loss. Similar delays in the spotting of cars from the individual 
 producer is practiced at the waterfront terminals, while dispatch in 
 the switching of shipments is obtained by warehousemen and brokers. 
 
 Of course ^f deliveries of goods may be had promptly when a buyer 
 purchases from commission brokers that inures largely to the brokers' 
 benefit. Thus the producer as an occasional shipper is not only disap- 
 pointed himself, but finds that the parties to whom the product was con- 
 signed A^,. is seriously disappointed in the delays incident to receiving 
 the goods under the practices mentioned. The system of public ware- 
 houses and particularly a disinterested publicly owned and administered 
 belt line railroad at seaport closes the gate to much discrimination of 
 this kind. 
 
 Warehousing and Distribution. 
 
 As a result of the losses sustained by manipulations, producers are 
 studying the problem of transportation and marketing of their product 
 in all of its phases to a greater extent today than ever before in the 
 history of this country. They are also studying and putting into practice 
 to a considerable extent the question of the proper warehousing of their 
 product so as to extend the season of shipment from the field of produc- 
 tion to the great centers and markets of consumption. This is the natural 
 and logical remedy for the evils that have beset the producers. 
 
 The retention of the ownership of tidelands by the State, as in Cali- 
 fornia and Louisiana, makes the development of rail and water terminal 
 locations possible to the highest degree. It enables those in charge to 
 lay out and properly construct on modern lines utilities that are necessary 
 for the dispatch and economy in the handling of vast tonnage from rail 
 to water and water to rail. It thus enables the segregation of shipments 
 into natural component parts. Through shipments of bulk commodities 
 carried in over-sea ships of large capacity require units of construction 
 specially adapted to their needs-"THH?jk. includigPfiJ large berthing space, 
 transit sheds of sufficient capacity to enable the ships to work continu- 
 ously from their numerous hatches and in addition to the transit sheds 
 extensive fireproof warehouses to retain products and preserve them from 
 the elements in sufficinto.quantities to constitute cargoes of immense 
 tonnage. In addition?^ hcrFilftV heavy trans-shipment business requires 
 extensive areasyad jacent 7 tp such wharves and transit sheds for the proper 
 tracks to .fllloTrihrfiioo^ from said transit 
 
 sheds and warehouses. Also cold storage facilities are needed to meet 
 the requirements of our ever increasing production and conservation 
 
ROBERT BRIDGES 7 
 
 of perishable commodities. Then as a specialized structure, grain eleva- 
 tors are absolutely essential for the storing, cleaning, receiving and 
 discharging of grain with the utmost dispatch and economy in the handling 
 of this most important product which is peculiarly essential to the life 
 of the nations. Special mechanical devices suited to handling with dis- 
 patch all specialized products is the aim and tendency of modern ports. 
 Such appliances as are used in modern ports today under public ownership 
 and operation are so productive in dispatch and economy as to incite 
 favorable comment from all students and investigators of these new 
 means of handling commodities. The modern grain elevator is typical 
 of the advancement made in this direction. 
 
 Lumber. 
 
 Lumber, which is one of the principal articles of export of the four 
 northwestern states and the largest in point of tonnage, requires more 
 extensive areas of space at the docks than any other class of commodities 
 shipped from this territory. While a lumber dock may be constructed 
 in such a manner as to also be capable of handling general commodities, 
 it requires a special consideration in the layout and method of construc- 
 tion. It calls for large areas for the storing and handling from rail to 
 ship with ample shipside tracks and crossovers. It should be especially 
 equipped with fire apparatus for the protection of this commodity and in 
 addition thereto locomotive cranes, gantry cranes, extensive depressed 
 tracks with proper crossovers in order to facilitate with dispatch the 
 handling of trains loaded with lumber from interior mills. In addition 
 there should be extensive covered space for plaried^/and sized lumber of 
 various dimensions to meet the requirements of trade. Shear-leg derricks 
 are another essential feature at large overseas docks, with capacity 
 according to the requirements of commercial shipping, capable of handling 
 locomotives, heavy machinery, etc., at least up to one hundred tons. 
 Dock property fully equipped for this class of trade requires numerous 
 features that are not essentially necessary at docks especially constructed 
 for other lines of trade. For example: at a rapid transit dock there should 
 be equipment of commodious comfortable waiting rooms, ticket offices, 
 and separate compartments for the safe keeping of small express packages 
 enroute, with passenger gangways necessary for large numbers of pas- 
 sengers to move rapidly to and from dock to ship or ship to dock. Such 
 equipment would of course be entirely out of place, as a necessary func- 
 tion of a lumber dock or an oversea shipping terminal situation. Spe- 
 cial equipment, highly desirable at terminals to promote the general 
 welfare, will only be provided by private ownership when immediate 
 visible profit is seen. Public terminal ownership considers the need of 
 the community rather than Eastern stockholders or hidebound notions of 
 Wall Street voting boards. 
 
 Private Owners Driven, Not Leading. 
 
 One of the faults of private ownership of the terminal location is 
 non-improvement or inadequate improvement of the waterfront. For 
 
PUBLIC TERMINALS 
 
 instance in Seattle extensive areas are held unimproved by owners of 
 the tidelands who posses/ no capabilities financially or otherwise to 
 improve the property, nor any desire so to do. They simply hold it as 
 speculators on futures tmd gamblers upon the commercial needs and 
 development of thecommunity. Then we have the private docks whose 
 extent and capacityTlimited to the needs of the private concern, in their 
 own field of exploitation. Again we have the railroad-owned locations 
 improved only to such an extent as will meet the requirements of the 
 business originating on their line of haul and mostly occupied by lessees 
 operating in some special line of business. The major portion of the 
 holdings of the railroad concerns are unoccupied /with no improvements 
 of any kind in aid of commerce and navigation. Furthermore no adequate 
 provision is privately made for the tramp or irregular steamer to dis- 
 charge or receive freight at our terminal locations,when it is well known 
 that the tramp makes the ocean freight ratej^As pointed out by James 
 J. Hill, who is certainly an authority upon me subject of transportation 
 and transportation rates, "No regular line of steamers determines or 
 fixes the rates for water carriers. The tramp or occasional steamer de- 
 termines the rate and the established lines are required to conform to 
 the rates so determined." He further said at a conference held with 
 the Port Commission of the Port of Seattle at their office that "Com- 
 merce was conducted on such a close margin that it was necessary to 
 sharpen one's pencil very fine and to figure very closely, even to a fraction 
 of a cent per ton in obtaining business today," and that business was 
 routed to or from a given place on very close margins. He repeatedly 
 warned the Commission in determining the cost relative to these matters, 
 to be sure and keep their pencils sharp and to figure in fractions if 
 Seattle was to secure and maintain its supremacy as a port. 
 
 When the direct question was asked of Mr. Hill by the Commission if 
 he. speaking for his company>had any objection to publicly owned and 
 operated docks in the City of Seattle his answer was, "Why, no, if the 
 dock we are now operating at Smith's Cove would be of any benefit to 
 you I would gladly consider the proposition of turning it over to the 
 Commission/ if it would be a factor in encouraging public ownership 
 and operation of your shipping facilities at the Port of Seattle." But 
 he reminded the Commission that in order to be successful you must 
 have locations suited to the needs of oversea shipping, lumber shipping, 
 general cargoes and rapid transit. Then questions were asked of Mr. 
 Hill to elicit his views on Harbor Island, the artificial island to the 
 south end of Elliott Bay, as a location. His answer was that twenty- 
 five years from now will be sufficient time to consider such a location, at 
 which time if this port is successful to the degree it deserves to be, it may 
 be necessary to enlarge your units so as to embrace and include therein 
 the location of Harbor Island. 
 
 Yet the advocates of private waterfront control in Seattle proposed 
 the expenditure of $5,000,000 of public funds on that desert island! 
 And, if you please, would have accomplished it and peddled watered 
 stock in the scheme throughout this country, but for the fact that the 
 Port Commission opposed it. 
 
ROBERT BRIDGES 
 
 Public Ownership Illustrated at New Orleans. 
 
 At the Fourth Annual Convention of the American Association of 
 Port Authorities at Los Angeles, California, Sept. 13, 14, 15, 1915, John 
 Miegs, Director of Wharves, Docks and Ferries, of Philadelphia, aniifr 
 as follows: 
 
 "Probably the most admirable layout among American ports of a 
 belt-line railroad serving a waterfront is that at New Orleans. The 
 River frontage of the city is located on a long, symmetrical, unbroken 
 crescent curve, along which the wharves are constructed in front of the 
 levee which protects the low area of the city near the river from inunda- 
 tion by its floods. These wharves are of the quay type, as distinguished 
 from the projecting-pier system in general use in other American ports, 
 the outer or water edge of them being parallel with the levee. The sheds 
 upon them are provided with spur tracks and sidings from the belt-line 
 railroad, which extends parallel to the sheds on the landward side of 
 them for the entire length of the improved waterfront of nearly five miles. 
 
 "The port organization at New Orleans is in some respects ideal, the 
 entire waterfront being not only under the control, but in the actual 
 ownership, of the State of Louisiana, acting through the Board of Com- 
 missioners of the Port, an appointed State body with very large powers. 
 The belt-line railroad is municipally owned and operated, handling cars 
 directly, with its own locomotives, to and from the wharves, from or to 
 the railroads, an arrangement giving excellent results as far as the expe- 
 dition of movement of cars and the general satisfaction of shippers is 
 concerned. The practical operation of the port is believed to be eco- 
 nomical and efficient in most particulars, as in fact it should be, under 
 such exceptionally favorable conditions as are here existent. 
 
 * * * 
 
 "Compared with the administrative situation in which are most other 
 American ports, with the local authorities in extremely limited control, 
 the New Orleans system is efficiency itself." 
 
 Public Belt Railroad Service. 
 
 The Public Belt Railroad in operation in the City of New Orleans 
 produces a condition in connection with their public wharves, sheds, 
 and warehouses in course of construction, that is simply ideal, and is 
 well stated in the language of George H. Davis, Civil Engineer, who in 
 a reply to inquiries made by the officials at the Mississippi River Terminal 
 Conference of Governors and Delegates furnished the following informa- 
 tion in relation to the public belt railroad in the City of New Orleans: 
 
 "The Public Belt Railroad consists of about fifty miles of track, 
 including the two main lines along the commercial front and a number 
 of wharf tracks, switch tracks, industrial tracks and public tracks. The 
 system extends along the river front from the upper to the lower limits 
 of the city in the rear of all public wharves and serves them exclusively. 
 Eventually the Belt Railroad will encircle the city. The interchange 
 between the Belt Railroad and the other railroads entering the city is 
 done by means of interchange tracks located at advantageous points in 
 the city. Extensions of Belt trackage are constantly being made both 
 in lines and terminal yards. The Belt Railroad handled for the year 
 ending December, 1913, in excess of 170,000 loaded and empty cars. 
 The revenue from operation of the Belt Railroad has exceeded expenses 
 
10 PUBLIC TERMINALS 
 
 of operation, maintenance and depreciation of locomotives (the Com- 
 mission owns no other rolling stock), and the surplus has been expended 
 in extensions and betterments of the property. Formerly, the switching 
 of cars was very unsatisfactory in that the shipper was subject to consid- 
 erable delays and in addition charges were excessive. For instance, if a 
 car reached the city on a railroad entering the upper limits of the city 
 and had to be transferred to a railroad in the lower limits of the city, 
 the charge for switching would be from $13.00 to $15.00 and a delay of 
 several days would occur in delivering the car. This service is now 
 performed by the Public Belt Railroad at the flat rate of $2.00 per 
 car, which covers the movement of the loaded car and the return move- 
 ment of the empty car, and vice-versa. Previously every pound of 
 freight was hauled by drays and floats, while now the incoming freight 
 to any industry along the line to the Public Belt Railroad is switched 
 to such industries for $2.00 per car, and all outgoing cars from such 
 industries are delivered to their proper destinations. It is the plan 
 of the Public Belt Railroad Commission to extend in the near future the 
 system to reach the outlying section of the city to stimulate the con- 
 struction of factories; located as they will be on the line of the Belt 
 Railroad they will have direct connection with every avenue of trans- 
 portation within port limits." 
 
 Great Public Port of Montreal. 
 
 At the Fourth Annual Convention of the American Association of 
 Port Authorities held at Los Angeles, 1915, it was stated that the Harbor 
 Limits of Montreal comprise sixteen miles of water frontage on each 
 shore of the River St. Lawrence, every foot of which is owned by the public 
 and is administered by a Harbor Commission, appointed by the Governor- 
 in-Council of the Dominion of Canada. 
 
 "Montreal is the converging point of the three Canadian Transcon- 
 tinental Railway Systems, which connect with the Harbor Terminal 
 Railroad, forty miles in length, owned and operated by the Harbor Com- 
 mission and affording access to the harbor and to every railroad upon 
 equal terms. Every shed and berth in the harbor, as well as every in- 
 dustry adjacent thereto, is served by this railway. This Terminal Rail- 
 road handled in 1907, in which year it was established, 70,000 cars, and 
 in 1914, 114,449 cars, an increase of over sixty per cent." 
 
 Montreal's switching rate is $2.50 per car which includes the return 
 of the empties. 
 
 New Orleans Outgrows Private Waterfront Control. 
 
 Judge L. D. Moore, City Attorney, furnished the following informa- 
 tion to the City Plan Commission of St. Louis regarding New Orleans 
 terminals: 
 
 " 'Formerly the wharves and docks of New Orleans were operated under 
 lease by private individuals and corporations. The results of this system 
 of administration were insufficient and expensive facilities, the deteriora- 
 tion and decay both in the condition of the property and in the shipping 
 business served thereby. Some seventeen years ago our people, realiz- 
 ing the serious consequences of this unsound policy of administration, 
 and, forseeing the vast advantage to be derived from the operation of 
 an essentially common property for an essential public good, took over the 
 old wharves and landings, and after overcoming many difficulties, inaug- 
 urated, about thirteen years ago, the system of public administration of 
 
ROBERT BRIDGES 11 
 
 which system our present splendid equipment, capable of caring for the 
 second largest export and import business in the United States, is the 
 fruition. In the place of a limited area of primitive wooden wharves, 
 open and wholly unprotected from the elements, we nave now some 
 five miles of commodious docks of the most substantial construction and 
 protected, for the greater part, by steel sheds of the best approved fabri- 
 cation and design; and instead of excessive charges for meager and 
 inadequate service, there is now levied not one cent against the freight 
 handled over these commodious wharves, and only a minimum charge 
 assessed against the ships^which occupy the same. 
 
 ' 'Under the former re^imeThe important detail of terminal switch- 
 ing was operated by the several private railroad lines which had secured 
 track privileges on the river front. The several railroads operating on 
 their own particular switch track units were not interested in freight 
 originating on or destined to any other line than their own, and each 
 of said railroads levied its separate switching charge on all carf of 
 other lines switched upon its tracks. The results of such conditions were 
 inevitably that excessive burdens, both in the matter of delay and cost, 
 were put upon the movement of the general frieght traffic of the port, 
 and shippers were in consequence to a great extent forced into the wholly 
 uneconomic alternative of draying. Some fifteen years ago the people 
 of New Orleans began a campaign which had for its object the operation 
 of a terminal switching system by the municipality. About six years 
 ago this movement acquired concrete reality by the inauguration of such 
 a system by the city to be administered through the instrumentality of a 
 board called the Public Belt Railroad Commission of the City of New 
 Orleans. In place of an unsatisfactory, unorganized and discriminatory 
 switching service the business of the port now enjoys the use of a com- 
 prehensive public utility operated in direct connection with all avenues 
 of transportation and administered, not in the interest of any particular 
 transportation line or lines, but in the interest of business facility and 
 for the common commercial good; and instead of excessive and often 
 prohibitive charges for bad service, the public administration system 
 provides expeditious movement and good service at a cost abnormally low. 
 
 State-rOwned Wharves and Docks. 
 
 " 'The wharves and docks of the Port of New Orleans as well as the 
 river banks and the adjacent land called the 'Bature,' which is dedicated 
 to public use, are under the administrative jurisdiction of an agent of 
 the State of Louisiana, known as the Board of Commissioners of the 
 Port of New Orleans.' ' 
 
 1 'The jurisdiction of this board covers both sides of the river and 
 embraces forty-one miles of waterfront available for utilization as the 
 needs of shipping may require. Only a small fraction of the frontage is 
 subject to private privilege, and even this privilege is not held in fee, but, 
 by the terms of the grant, may at the will of the grantor be reclaimed 
 upon the basis of proper compensation for improvements constructed. 
 At the present time the public dock system comprises five miles of com- 
 modious wharves, with a floor area of 2,558,906 square feet, of which 
 wharves upward of 91 per cent are constructed of creosoted material. 
 Upwards of three and one-half miles of the wharves are covered by 
 complete steel sheds. The wharves are served by nearly three miles of 
 paved vehicle roadways and approaches. The members of the Board 
 serve without financial compensation. No charge whatever is made for 
 the use of these facilities against the shipments passing through. The 
 toll in this respect is assessed against the ships for dockage, and is 
 extremely reasonable. 
 
 " 'Serving the public wharves and a large number of private indus- 
 trial enterprises, as well as connecting with all railroad lines entering 
 
12 PUBLIC TERMINALS 
 
 the port, the Public Belt Railroad furnishes an unique and striking ex- 
 ample of the successful application of the governmental function to the 
 satisfaction of urgent general business needs. This railroad is a switch- 
 ing utility owned exclusively by the City of New Orleans and operated 
 by the municipality through a civic board known as the Public Belt Rail- 
 road Commission, under express constitutional inhibition that the admin- 
 istration thereof must always be separate and distinct from that of any 
 railroad entering the City of New Orleans. As presently developed the 
 Public Belt Railroad has approximately fifty miles of tracks, including 
 main lines and service adjuncts. Ultimately the Belt will encircle the 
 city. At present the operations of the utility are confined to the water-- 
 front and contiguous territory, but the projection of the lines to the 
 rear of the city intersecting and tapping sparsely peopled localities par- 
 ticularly eligible for factory sites and industrial enterprises, is not only 
 imminent, but one important branch of such extension is now actually 
 completed. The Belt Railroad has interchange connections with all trunk 
 lines entering the city and can readily establish such connections with all 
 lines that may hereafter enter. It exclusively serves the public wharves, 
 thus placing all railroads and shippers upon the basis of common, non- 
 discriminating access to the shipping front. This access is available 
 not only to the rail lines presently operating at the port, but to all pros- 
 pective lines, which are by these facilities invited to use the port, and are 
 thereby relieved of the burdensome and often-times prohibitive neces- 
 sity of gaining such access under terms imposed by roads already estab- 
 lished. A similar service is offered to ocean carriers, with the result 
 that the smallest craft, as well as the greatest line of steamers, is placed 
 in direct connection with all railroad lines of its own selection. The 
 same comprehensive opportunity is supplied to all industrial establish- 
 ments located on the Belt System, by connecting the same with every 
 avenue of transportation, rail and water, present and prospective, thus 
 placing all such enterprises in the best possible position not only in the 
 item of cost, convenience and expedition, but also in respect to the com- 
 petitive activities of the said transportation agencies. 
 
 " 'The business of the Public Belt Railroad has shown a steady and 
 rapid growth from year to year both in respect to the volume handled 
 and the returns therefrom, thus demonstrating not only the feasibility 
 of a publicly owned and operated switching railroad, but also the vital 
 advantage thereof to both the commercial and industrial divisions of 
 trade and to the community at large.' ' 
 
 Xeed of Public Warehousing Demonstrated. 
 
 " 'The success of these essays in governmental control and admin- 
 istration of port facilities have encouraged the authorities to take steps 
 toward a material amplification of the present system. The people of 
 the State have by amendment to the Constitution given to the Board of 
 Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans the authority to construct 
 and operate a system of warehouses in conjunction with the existing 
 facilities. This adjunction will make the public port terminal plant 
 fundamentally complete. The warehousing plans are comprehensive, and 
 will not only add to the capacity and efficiency of the dock system by 
 relieving the latter of the possibilities of congestion caused by the accu- 
 mulation of freight awaiting shipment and distribution, but should mater- 
 ially increase the business handled through the port providing adequate 
 and inexpensive facilities for assembling and distributing cargoes and 
 consignments. 
 
 " 'The powers of the Port Commission to develop terminal facilities 
 by the construction and operation of warehouses, structures and appliances 
 are limited only by the need thereof. All powers requisite to the efficiency 
 of this port as a depot, storage, and trans-shipping point for local and 
 
ROBERT BRIDGES 13 
 
 foreign consignments, are lodged with that governmental agency. It is 
 given the right to expropriate, and in some instances to appropriate, 
 property when necessary. It is authorized to issue mortgage^ 'and boh4s 
 against the real estate and buildings erected thereon^ payable out of 1 the 
 net earnings after payment of oprating expenses. It is empowered to fix 
 charges for the storage of all goV)ds and merchandise; and it may issue 
 negotiable receipts for property and merchandise in its possession.' " 
 
 Testimony of U. S. Commissioner of Corporations. 
 
 The Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on Transportation 
 by Water in the United States, Part III, says: 
 
 "Two ports only, New Orleans and San Francisco, are noteworthy for 
 their high degree of public ownership, control, efficiency, and equipment. 
 At New Orleans the active water front is admirably equipped and con- 
 trolled by a state board; most of the wharves and sheds are open for 
 general traffic, and a municipal board operates ten miles of belt-line 
 railway giving co-ordination between the waterway, local industries, and 
 trunk-line railroads. At San Francisco there is an excellent system of 
 wharves under state control, kept open for general traffic. The water 
 terminal situation in these two cities is by far the best in the country." 
 
 The situation has been greatly developed, extended and improved 
 since this report was issued in 1910. 
 
 In addition to the dispatch and economy produced to shippers at 
 New Orleans and San Francisco another important feature is added under 
 public ownership and operation of the rail and water terminal facilities^ 
 the fair and impartial treatment accorded to all concerns. One of the 
 standing rules at New Orleans is to the effect that favoritism in service 
 means instant dismissal to any employee who is found guilty of granting 
 favoritism to any concern big or little. This rule has never been known 
 to be violated. 
 
 Economy through public ownership and operation is had, first, in 
 the prompt service rendered the patrons of the docks and belt line facili- 
 ties. Second, in opening up all d^the avenues both rail and water to 'Hiir 
 l r tM manufacturers and shippers in a port publicly owned and 
 
 operated. Third, in the enlarged facilities and co-ordinated units possible 
 only under public ownership and operation. 
 
 Private ownership of terminal locations constitutes a monopoly, and 
 is far reaching in its effect both national and inter-national upon the 
 commerce and well-being of the people generally. It would be just as 
 consistent for the State to place the water of Puget Sound in private 
 possession as to dispose of the terminal locations on Puget Sound to 
 v private persons and corporations. It would be just as logical for private 
 concerns to own the streets and thoroughfares leading to.. anddii?~city, 
 
 located at a water and rail terminal i it TTTOJ_ tn sell the terjH&nal loca- 
 tion to private concerns. 
 
 In order to fully comprehend the extent of the monopoly of a rail 
 and water terminal situation permit me to quote from Frederick C. Howe, 
 United States Immigration Commissioner, for the Port of New York: 
 
14 PUBLIC TERMINALS 
 
 The Bagdad Railway: 
 
 "The Bagdad Railroad more than any one single incident," Howe 
 declared, "was the cause of Europe's present war. 
 
 "The Bagdad Railway was the most collossal attempt at financial 
 exploitation and expansion ever entered into by any country. It was the 
 most splendid of all dreams of the German financier and imperialist com- 
 bined. 
 
 "The dream now apparently ended by this war was a great rail- 
 road system from Constantinople to the Persian Gulf across Asia Minor 
 a*nd Syria and Persia. Or, rather, as the German mind saw it, it was a 
 railroad from Hamburg through Austria and Turkey and the Euphrates 
 Valley and on to India and Australia. Such a railroad would be a wedge 
 to .split the British Empire asunder. It would place Germany nearer to 
 the Suez Canal than England would be. It would put Egypt and India 
 at Germany's mercy. It would separate Russia from her control of the 
 Balkan State. France would be cut off from Russia. It was a dream of 
 empire like that of Rome; a dream like that of Alexander and Napoleon. 
 
 The Vast Dream: 
 
 "In 1888 and 1898 the Kaiser visited Turkey with dramatic display. 
 The result was the granting of the Bagdad Railway concessions to capi- 
 talists identified with the Deutsche Bank. They included a tract of land 
 twelve and one-half miles wide on both sides of the railroad for 1,500 
 miles and the building of quays at the Persian Gulf. The region has 
 valuable coal and oil ^fields; it can produce more wheat than Russia. The 
 German merchant could send merchandise to the Orient quicker and 
 cheaper than the British, and spiked helmets could be dumped into 
 England's possessions as well. 
 
 "England, however, saw the plan. One day a gunboat sailed at 
 Koweit, the terminal harbor on the Persian Gulf, and presently appeared 
 a treaty made with the Shiek of Koweit, by which the Shiek disavowed 
 his Turkish allegiance and accepted British 'protection' for the harbor 
 and adjacent territory. Then the British foreign office informed Germany 
 that the road either could not be extended, or else that half the control 
 must be British. 
 
 The dream ended. 
 
 "As a piece of diplomacy, the occupation of Koweit was a stroke of 
 genius. As one of the provoking causes of the present European war it 
 was a costly move. Since then we have the spectacle of a German popu- 
 lace carefully educated by its press to hate the English. Germany can- 
 not forget the ruin of its dreams of empire through the Bagdad Railway." 
 
 An Old Alliance. 
 
 Greater economy will result from a continuation of public owner- 
 ship when the profits to private monopoly fcf*no longer forthcoming. Then 
 the alliance between politics and business the same old alliance that 
 has corrupted our legislatures and cities will no longer have any sub- 
 stance to exist upon. Several important forces are making their influences 
 felt against such private monopoly. Our educational institutions are 
 teaching political economy in a much broader sense now than heretofore, 
 equipping the young people to study further the vital questions that stir 
 
ROBERT BRIDGES 
 
 15 
 
 men into action in daily life. The so-called "conservative" who would 
 deny young citizens in our State University the, right to discuss questions 
 
 calmly in the classroom that move men J 1 1 iiffinTTll mi I II I iTTl i 
 
 the upstairs hall or in the logging camp,'isbftth a coward and a foe to 
 democracy and progress. The fundamental principles of government are 
 understood to a greater extent throughout the world owing to the learn- 
 ing, mental application, sharpened intelligence, and developed logic of 
 the American people. They are not afraid to apply their mental equip- 
 ment to an open and free discussion of any and all questions that Affect 
 their welfare as a people. And as a result of study and discussion, often 
 mislekd, often suppressed, they are learning that any public utility 
 in itself constitutes a monopoly should be owned and operated by the 
 public in the interest of all the people. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY