580 EEPOET OF THE INLAND WATERWAYS COMMISSION
suppose it necessary to pass a mountain eight hundred feet high; then four inclined
planes, each of two hundred feet rise, would gain the summit, and four would descend
on the other side. Total, eight inclined planes, and eight steam engines. Each steam
engine, of twelve horses power, would cost about §10,000, in all $80,000; each would
would burn twelve bushels of coals in twelve hom's, or ninety-six bushels for the
eight engines, for one day's work.
The coals, in such situations, may be estimated at twelve cents a bushel, or $11. 52
At each engine and inclined plane, there must be five men; total, forty men, at
one dollar each 40. 00
Total 51. 52
For this sum they could pass five hundred tons in one day, over the eight
inclined planes, which, for each ton, is only 10 cents.
Suppose the mountain to be twenty miles wide, boating for each ton would
cost 20
' Total 30 cents.
A ton for passing over the moimtain, which will be, more or less, according to cir-
cumstances. These calculations being only intended to remove any doubts which
may arise on the practicability of passing our mountains.
Having thus, in some degree, considered the advantages which canals will produce
in point of wealth to individuals, and the nation, I will now consider their importance
to the Union, and their political consequences.
First. Their effect on raising the value of the public lands, and thereby augmenting
the revenue.
In all cases where canals shall pass through the lands of the United States, and open
a cheap communication to a good market, such lands will rise in value for twenty miles
on each side of the canal. The farmer who will reside twenty miles from the canal,
can, in one day, carry a load of produce to its borders; and were the lands six hundred
miles from one of our seaport towns, his barrel of flour, in weight two hundred pounds,
could be carried that distance for sixty cents, the price which is now paid to carry a
barrel fifty miles on the Lancaster turnpike. Consequently, as relates to cheapness
of carriage, and easy access to market, the new lands which lie six hundred miles from
the seaports, would be of equal value with lands of equal fertility, which are fifty miles
from the seaports. But, not to insist on their being of so great a value until popula-
tion is as great, it is evident that they must rise in value in a three or fourfold degree;
every lineal mile of canal would accommodate twenty-five thousand six hundred acres;
the lands sold by the United States in 1806, averaged about two dollars an acre; and
certainly every acre accommodated with a canal, would produce six dollars; thus,
only twentj^ miles of canal, each year, running through national lands, would raise
the value of five himdred and twelve thousand acres at least four dollars an acre, giving
two million and forty-three dollars to the Treasury, a sum sufficient to make one
hundred and thirty-six miles of canal. Had an individual such a property, and funds
to cortstruct canals to its centre, he certainly would do it for his own interest. The
nation has the property, and the nation possesses ample funds for such undertakings.
Second. On their effect in cementing the Union, and extending the principles of
confederated republican Government, numerous have been the speculations on the
duration of our Union, and intrigues have been practised to sever the Western from
the Eastern States. The opinion endeavored to be inculcated was, that the inhabit-
ants behind the mountains were cut off from the market of the Atlantic States; that,
r consequently, they had a separate interest, and should use their- resources to open a
communication to a market of their o^vn; that, remote from the seat of Government,
they could not enjoy their portion of advantages arising from the Union, and that,
sooner or later, they must separate and govern for themselves.
Others, by drawing their examples from European Governments, and the mon-
archies which have grown out of the feudal habits of nations of warriors, whose minds
were bent to the absolute power of the few, and the servile obedience of the many,
have conceived these States of too gi-eat an extent to continue united under a repub-
lican form of Government, and that the time is not distant when they will divide into
little kingdoms, retrogading from common sense to ignorance, adopting all the follies
and barbarities which are every day practised in the kingdoms and petty states of
Europe. But those who have reasoned in this way have not reflected, that men are
the creatures of habit, and that their habits as well as their interests may be so com-
bined, as to make it impossible to separate them without falling back into a state of
barbarism. Although in ancient times some specks of civilization have been effaced,
THE GALLATIN REPORT 581
by hoards of uncultivated men, yet, it is remarkable that since the invention of print-
ing, and general diffusion of knowledge, no nation has retrogaded in science or
improvements; nor is it reasonable to suppose that the Americans, who have as much
if not more information in general than any other people, will ever abandon an advan-
tage which they have once gained. England, which at one time, was seven petty
kingdoms, has, by habit, long been united into one. Scotland, by succession, became
united to England, and is now bound to her by habit, by turnpike roads, canals, and
reciprocal interests. In like manner all the counties of England, or departments of
France, are bound to each other; and when the United States shall be bound together
by canals, by cheap and easy access to market in all directions, by a sense of mutual
interests ai'ising from mutual intercourse and mingled commerce, it will be no more
possible to split them into independent and separate Governments, each lining its
frontiers with fortifications and troops, to shackle their own exports and imports to
and from the neighboring States, than it is now possible for the Government of Eng-
land to divide and form again into seven kingdoms.
But it is necessary to bind the States together by the people's interest, one of which
is to enable every man to sell the produce of his labor at the best market, and purchase
at the cheapest. This accords with the idea of Hume, "that the government of a
wise people would be little more than a system of civil police; for the best interests
of man is industry, and a free exchange of the produce of his labor for the things which
he may require."
On this humane principle, what stronger bonds of union can be invented, than those
which enable each individual to transport the produce of his industry twelve hundred
miles for sixty cents the hundred weight? Here, then, is a certain method of securing
the Union of the States, and of rendering it as lasting as the continent we inhabit.
It is now eleven years that I have had this plan in contemplation for the good of our
country. At the conclusion of my work on small canals, there is a letter to Thomas
Mifflin, then Governor of the State of Pennsylvania, on a system of canals for America.
In it I contemplated the time when "canals should pass through every vale, wind
around each hill, and bind the whole country together in the bonds of social inter-
course;" and I am happy to find that, through the good management of a wise admin-
istration, a period has arrived when an overflowing treasury exhibits abundant
resources, and points the mind to works of such immense importance. Hoping speed-
ily to see them become favorite objects with the whole American people,
I have the honor to be your most obedient servant,
RoBT. Fulton.
To Albert Gallatin, Esq., Secretary of the Treasury.
18. REPORT OF WINDOM SELECT COlVmiTTEE
{Note. — This was the report of a Select Committee on Transporta-
tion Routes to the Seaboard authorized by resolution of the United
States Senate, adopted December 16, 1872. <^
As originally provided for, this Committee was composed of seven
members of the Senate, as follows: William Windom, of Minnesota,
chairman; John Sherman, of Ohio; Roscoe Conkling, of New York;
Adelbert. Ames, of Mississippi; John F. Lewis, of Virginia; Eugene
Casserly, of Cahfornia; and Thomas M. Norwood, of Georgia.^
At the special session of the Senate held after March 4, 1873, on
March 26, 1873, a resolution was adopted providing for two addi-
tional members of the Committee, and the president pro tempore
appointed John H. Mitchell, of Oregon, and Henr}^ G. Davis, of West
Virginia. <^
After this enlargement the personnel of the Committee underwent
further changes, and on February 24, 1874, was composed of the
following members: William Windom, of Minnesota; John Sherman,
of Ohio; Roscoe Conkling, of New York; J. Rodman West, of Loui-
siana; Simon B. Conover, of Florida; John H. Mitchell, of Oregon;
Thomas M. Norwood, of Georgia; Henry G. Davis, of West Virginia;
John W. Johnston, of Virginia.'*
On March 26, 1873, the Senate adopted a resolution authorizing
this Committee to sit at such places as they might designate during
the recess and to investigate and report upon the subject of trans-
portation between the inferior and the seaboard; at the same time
it authorized the Committee to employ a clerk and stenographer
and to send for persons and papers. The resolution further provided
that the actual and necessary expenses attending such investigation
should be paid out of the contingent fund of the Senate upon vouchers
approved hj the chairman of the. Committee.
The Committee visited various portions of the country and collected
a mass of useful information relating to rail and water transportation
in the United States.
The report of the Select Committee on Transportation Routes to
the Seaboard was submitted to the Senate April 24, 1874, and was
on the same day ordered to be printed.^ The results of its investi-
gations are published in two volumes containing more than 1,400
pages, including an appendix of 232 pages, in which appears a report
by Henry G. Davis, as a committee of one, in regard to the James
River and Kanawha Canal. Minority reports were made by Roscoe
« Rep-rt of Select Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard, Senate
Reports, 1st sess., 4:M Cong., Vols. I and II, 1873-74, 254 pp. and Appendix, 990 pp.
6 Congressional Directory, 42d Cong., 3d sess., 1875, p. 60.
c Congressional Record, Vol. I, spec, sess., 43d Cong., 1873, p. 205.
d Congressional Directory, 43d Cong., 1st sess., p. 74.
^Congressional Record, 43d Cong., 1st sess., April 24, 1874, pp. 3334 et seq.
582
«Trw>T?.T OTT WINDOM SELECT COMMITTEE
583
MAP SHOWlNe
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS
RECOMWeNDED BY
lOMMITTEE on Tf?Ari5PORTATI0ri
(WINDOM committee)
1572.
S.REP. 307, 43 I
^mended ix/ ^^C committt*
\j^i reported upon t>
of internal K^provements recommended bij the
•js indicated on thh mop connects bifthe ch^olteif
lods of transportation each i>tate wiih tveru other
â– )f the ffochu Mountains, and ^hen complctea evert^
Union ence'pt one will hove a connection Ay water
•ansporf' iviih tht markets of the. whole world "
S. Doc.J^5 60 I
S. Doe. 325 60 I
REPORT OF WINDOM SELECT COMMITTEE 583
Conkling for himself, and by the following members of the Committee :
T. M. Norwood, H. G. Davis, and John W. Johnston. Both Mr.
Conkling and the tliree members named appear to have concurred
in the main in the report of the Windom Committee, but did not
agree with the report as to certain matters of law which are indicated
in the "Summary of Conclusions and Recommendations" above their
names. It would appear that Messrs. Sherman, Conover, West, and
Mitchell concurred with the chairman ; and their names are bracketed
in, conformably with those of the minority signers.
The Committee made various recommendations regarding the con-
trol of railways and the improvement of natural and construction of
artificial waterways. Among the remedies for evils in the then exist-
ing systems of transportation the committee included a considera-
tion of the improvement and construction of water routes between
the interior and the seaboard.
The conclusions and recommendations only are reprinted. They
appear in Volume I of the report, pages 240 to 254. — II. K. S.]
SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS,
The following general summary of the conclusions and recom-
mendations of the Committee are respectfully submitted :
Firstly. One of the most important problems demanding solution
at the hands of the American statesman, is by what means shall
cheap and ample facilities be provided for the interchange of com-
modities between the different sections of our widely extended
country.
Secondly. In the selection of means for the accomplishment of
this object, Congress may, in its discretion and under its responsibility
to the people, prescribe the rules and regulations by which the instru-
ments, vehicles, and agencies employed in transporting persons or
commodities from one State into or through another shall be governed,
whether such transportation be by land or by water.
Thirdhj. The power "to regulate commerce" includes the power
to aid arid facilitate it by the employment of such means as may be
appropriate and plainly adaptecl to that end; ami hence Congress
may, in its discretion improve, or create, channels of commerce on
land, or by water.
Fourthly. A remedy for some of the defects and abuses which pre-
vail under existing systems of transportation, may be provided by
direct congressional regulation, but for reasons, stated at length in
this report, it is seriously doubted if facilities, sufficiently cheap and
ample to meet the just and reasonable requirements of commerce,
can ever be obtained by this method.
Fifthly. Wliatever may be the limit of the power of Congress over
interstate commerce, it is believed that the attempt to regulate the
business of transportation by general congressional enactments estab-
lishing rates and fares on 1,300 railways, aggregating nearly one-half
the railway mileage of the world, and embracing an almost infinite
variety of' circumstances and conditions, requires more definite and
detailed information than is now in the possession of Congress or of
your Committee. Believing that any ill-advised measures, in this
direction, would tend to postpone indefinitely the attainment of the
desired object — clieap transportation — the Committee deem it expe-
dient to confine their recommendations, in this regard, to such
584 EEPORT OF THE INLAND WATERWAYS COMMISSION
measures only as may be enacted with entire safety, reserving other
matters of legislation for further inquiry and consideration. They
therefore recommend for present action the following:
1. That all railway companies, freight-lines, and other persons,
or organizations of common carriers, engaged in transporting pas-
sengers or freights from one State into or through another, be required,
under proper penalties, to make publication at every point of shipment
from one State to another, of their rates and fares, embracing all the
particulars regarding distance, classifications, rates, special tariffs,
drawbacks, &c., and that they be prohibited from increasing such
rates above the limit named in the publication, without reasonable
notice to the public, to be prescribed by law.
2. That combinations and consolidations with parallel or com-
peting lines are evils of such magnitude as to demand prompt and
vigorous measures for their prevention.
3. That all railway companies, freight-lines, and other organiza-
tions of common carriers, employed in transporting grain from one
State into or through another, should .be required, under proper
regulations and penalties to be provided by law, to receipt for quan-
tity and to deliver the same at its destination.
4. That all railway companies and freight organizations, receiving
freights in one State to be delivered in another, and whose lines touch
at any river or lake port, be prohibited from charging more to or
from such port than for any greater distance on the same line."
5. Stock-inflations, generally known as ''stock-waterings," are
wholly indefensible; but the remedy for this evil seems to fall pe-
culiarly within the province of the States who have created the cor-
porations from which such practices proceed. The evil is believed
to be of such magnitude as to require prompt and efficient State
action for its prevention, and to justify any measures that may be
proper and within the range of national authority.
6. It is believed by the committee that great good would result
from the passage of State laws prohibiting officers of railway com-
panies from owning or holding, directly or indirectly, any interest in
any ^^non-co-operative freight-line" or car company, operated upon
the railroad with which they are connected in such official capacity.
7. For the purpose of procuring and laying before Congress and
the country such complete and reliable information concerning the
business of transportation and the wants of commerce, as will enable
Congress to legislate intelligently upon the subject, it is recommended
that a Bureau of Commerce, in one of the Executive De})artments of
the Government, be charged with the duty of collecting and reporting
to Congress information concerning our internal trade and commerce;
and be clothed with authority of law, under regulations to be pre-
scribed by the head of such Department, to require each and every
railway and other transportation company engaged in inter-State
transportation to make a report, under oath of the proper officer of
such company, at least once each year, which report should embrace,
among other facts, the following, namely: 1st. The rates and fares
« This provision, it is believed, will prevent the discriminations now practiced against
such ports, and will enable States which are separated from water-lines by intervening
States to reach such lines at reasonable cost. Congress has no power to regulate com-
merce wholly within a State, and hence States bordering upon such water-lines will
regulate the rates to ports within their own territory.
\
EEPORT OF WINDOM SELECT COMMITTEE 585
charged from all points of shipment on its line in one State to all
points of destination in another State, including classifications and
distances, and all drawbacks, deductions, and discriminations; 2d. A
full and detailed statement of receipts and expenditures, including the
compensation paid to ofTicers, agents, and employes of the company;
3d. The amount of stock and bonds issued, tne price at which they
were sold, and the disposition made of the funds received from such
sale; 4th. The amount and value of commodities transported during
the year, as nearly as the same can be ascertained, togetner with such
other facts as may be required by the head of such Bureau, under the
authority of law.
Sixth. Though the existence of the Federal power to regulate com-
merce to the extent maintained in this report is believed to be essen-
tial to the maintenance of perfect equality among the States as to
commercial rights; to the prevention of unjust and invidious distinc-
tions which local jealousies or interests might be disposed to intro-
duce; to the proper restraints of consolidated corporate power, and
to the correction of many of its existing evils, yet your committee are
unanimously of the opinion that the problem of cheap transportation
is to be solved through competition, as hereinafter stated, rather than
by direct congressional regulation of existing lines.
Seventh. Competition, which is to secure and maintain cheap trans-
portation, must embrace two essential conditions: 1st, it must be
controlled by a power with which combination will be impossible;
2d, it must operate through cheai)er and more ample channels of
commerce than are now provided.
Eighth. Railway competition, wdien regulated by its own laws, will
not effect the object; because it exists onlv to a very limited extent
in certain localities; it is alway unreliable and inefficient; and it
invariably, ends in combination. Hence, additional raihvay-lines,
under the control of private corporations, will afford no substantial
relief, because self-interest will inevitably lead them into combination
with existing lines.
Ninth. The only means of securing and maintaining reliable and
effective competition between railways is through national or State
ownership, or control, of one or more lines, which, being unable to
enter into combinations, will serve as regulators of other lines.
Tenth. One or more double-track freight-railways, honestly and
thoroughly constructed, owned or controlled by the Government, and
operated at a low rate of speed, would doubtless be able to carry at
much less cost than can be done under the present system of operating
fast and slow trains on the same road; and, being incapable of enter-
ing into combinations, would no doubt serve as a veiy valuable regu-
lator of all existing railroads within the range of their influence.
Eleventh. The uniform testimony deduced from practical results in
this country, and throughout the commercial world is, that water-
routes, when properly located, not only afford the cheapest and best-
known means of transport for all heavy, bulky, and cheap commodi-
ties, but that they are also the natural competitors, and most effective
regulators of railway-transportation.
Twelfth. The above facts and conclusions, together wath the re-
markaole physical adaptation of our country for ch^ap and ample
water-communications, point unerringly to the improvement of our
great natural water-ways, and their connection by canals, or by short
31673— S. Doc. 325, 60-1 38
586 KEPORT OF THE INLAND WATERWAYS COMMISSION
freight-railway portages under control of the Government, as the
obvious and certain solution of the problem of cheaf transportation.
Thirteenth. After a most careful consideration of the merits of
various proposed improvements, taking into account the cost, prac-
ticability, and probable advantages of each, the Committee have come
to the unanimous conclusion that the following are the most feasible
and advantageous channels of commerce to be created or improved
by the National Government in case Congress shall act upon this
subject, viz:
1st. The Mississippi River.
2d. A continuous water-line of adequate capacity from the Missis-
sippi River to the city of New York, via the northern lakes.
3d. A route adequate to the wants of commerce, through the cen-
tral tier of States, from the Mississippi River, via the Ohio and
Kanawha Rivers, to a point in West Virginia, and thence by canal
and slack-water, or by a freight-railway, to tide-water, in Virginia.
4th. A route from the Mississippi River, via the Ohio and Tennes-
see Rivers, to a point in Alabama or Tennessee, and thence by canal
and slack-water, or by a- freight-railway, to the ocean.
In the discussion of these four existing and proposed channels of
commerce, we shall, for the sake of brevity, designate them respec-
tively, the "Mississippi route," "Northern route," "Central route,"
and "Southern route."
THE MISSISSIPPI ROUTE.
The improvements necessary on the Mississippi route are: 1. The
opening of the mouth of the river, so as to permit the free passage of
vessels drawing 28 feet — estimated cost, $10,000,000. 2. The con-
struction of reservoirs at the sources of the river — (if upon a careful
survey they shall be deemed practicable) — estimated cost, $114,000.
3. Improvements upon a system to be provided by the War Depart-
ment, at all intermediate points, so as to give from 3 to 5 feet naviga-
tion above the Falls of Saint Anthony; from 4^ to 6 feet from that
point to Saint Louis; and from 8 to 10 feet from Saint Louis to New
Orleans, at the lowest stages of water; estimated cost, $5,000,000.
The total cost of the Mississippi improvements may, we think, be
safely estimated at $16,000,000.
THE NORTHERN ROUTE.
The improvements suggested on this route are:
1st. The Fox and Wisconsin Rivers improvement, by which 5 feet
of navigation will be secured, during the entire season, from the
Mississippi River to Green Bay, thereby affording the shortest and
cheapest connection between the centers of wheat production and
the eastern markets, and a continuous water-channel from all points
on the Mississippi River and its tributaries to the Atlantic Ocean.
Estimated cost, $3,000,000.
2d. The construction of the Hennepin Canal (65 miles long) from