Page:The Canal System of England.djvu/73

 In water transport the question of cost, as in railway transport, is affected by many elements, such as the size of the canal and of the vessels employed, the number of locks with their mechanical appliances, the rate of speed, the system of traction, and other obvious factors previously mentioned. But if the cost depends upon these items, the freightage charged also depends in its turn upon the cost, and this subject of cost and freightage we now propose to consider.

In the annals of transportation there is no more interesting chapter than that which deals with the contest that has been waged for about fifty years between the railways and the waterways for the grain traffic between Chicago and New York.

The following extract on the subject is from an address by Mr. E. R. Johnson, Instructor in Political and Social Science, Haverford College, U.S.A.

"The cheapest freight rates by rail to be found in the world are those for grain between Chicago and New New York. York. And why? Because the cheapest inland water transportation rates in the world are between the same points. The following table showing the wheat rates per bushel from Chicago to New York for the years 1868, 1870, 1880, and 1891 by water, by water and rail combined, and by rail, indicates very plainly how Freight Rates have fallen, and how this movement has been led by the waterways."