SUCCESSFUL RIVALS OF MISSISSIPPI CARGO BOATS.
(1) Illinois Central Freight Train; 43 cars; 2,100 tons.
(2) " " Banana Express, New Orleans to Chicago; 34 cars; 433 tons of bananas.
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The final outcome of all these conditions is indicated by some remarks made by Mr Stuyvesant Fish, President of the Illinois Central Railroad Company (the chief railway competitors of the Mississippi steamboats), in the address he delivered as President of the Seventh Session of the International Railway Congress at Washington, in May 1905:—
"It is within my knowledge that twenty years ago there were annually carried by steamboats from Memphis to New Orleans over 100,000 bales of cotton, and that in almost every year since the railroads between Memphis and New Orleans passed under one management, not a single bale has been carried down the Mississippi River from Memphis by boat, and in no one year have 500 bales been thus carried; the reason being that, including the charges for marine and fire insurance, the rates by water are higher than by rail."