The State itself built part of the older roads, soon selling them to private corporations. The United States and the State have made liberal grants of land to encourage the construction of lines in the northern counties, thus making it possible to build them in advance of settlement and business, and to make them lead in, and not wait for, the development of the country. The amount of the grants of land made by congress to Michigan in aid of railroads is nearly 5,000,000 acres, and over 3,000,000 acres have been earned by the construction of such roads. At one time also considerable aid was given to railroad enterprises by municipalities, but this policy was decided by the courts to be without constitutional warrant. These causes, added to the remarkable agricultural and industrial growth of Michigan, have given to its settled counties railway facilities fully equal to those of older States, and have made well equipped lines of road penetrate the northern forests, placing the pioneers of the new counties on an equality in this respect with their southern brothers.

The State has also made large grants of land for the construction of wagon roads in its northern portions. Some of these appropriations have not yielded adequate returns, but fortunately this is not true of many of them. The State wagon roads which have been honestly constructed under this policy, open up to travel many districts not reached by railroads, and thus materially promote their settlement.

THE STATE AND THE RAILROADS.

The State does not assume to control the business of the railroads, but does enforce upon them the observance of certain regulations which it regards as essential to the public safety. A Commissioner of Railroads appointed by the Governor acts as the agent in this respect between these corporations and the people, and to him the railroad companies are required to periodically make detailed reports of their operations and condition. The last published report of this officer showed that the cost of the railroads of Michigan up to 1881 had been $195,594,000; their present cost (March, 1882) is in excess of $210,000,000. The other leading statistics of the railroads of Michigan at the close of 1880 were given in that report as follows: Total capital stock, $160,500,000; funded and floating debt, $150,000,000; earnings in 1880, $56,650,000; operating expenses in 1880, $32,268,000; number of bridges, 1,714 with an aggregate length of nearly 38 miles; fencing, 5,000 miles representing a cost of $1,385,000; locomotives, 1,513; cars, 43,013; miles run by trains in the year, 33,915,213; passengers carried, 13,507,200; tons of freight carried, 55,122,240.

WATERWAYS TO THE SEABOARD.

The interior river system of Michigan contains only a small amount of navigable water. Lake vessels can ascend the Saginaw for a score of miles, and the tortuous channel of Portage river in the upper peninsula has been so deepened and straitened that the largest class of steamers can enter Portage lake. The Grand, the Kalamazoo, the St. Joseph, the Clinton and a few others will float vessels of light draft for short distances, but now possess only a very limited usefulness for transportation purposes. On the other hand the rivers which form part of the eastern boundary of Michigan— the St. Mary's, the St. Clair, and the Detroit-are in fact straits connecting great seas, and far superior in commercial importance to the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. During each season they bear upon their surface thousands of vessels with cargoes valued at many millions.

Michigan has no interior canals in its lower peninsula. In Macomb county there is a short work of this kind, which is now used only for its water power, and is all

that represents a project of the early days of the State for connecting the Clinton and the Kalamazoo rivers and thus uniting the waters of Lakes Michigan and St. Clair. The upper peninsula has an important ship canal connecting the upper extremity of Portage lake with the western shore of Keweenaw point; it was built, with the aid of a government grant of lands, by a private corporation which still owns and controls it, collecting tolls at a low rate for its use. By its use vessels avoid a detour of 120 miles around the peninsula which it, with Portage lake and river, completely divides. Two first-class ship canals, situated on waters which form part of the State's boundary line, facilitate the navigation of the great lakes. They are located at the head of the St. Mary's river in the upper peninsula, and at the mouth of the St. Clair river in Lake St. Clair. Both are the property of the general government, and their use is not subject to tolls or charges of any kind.

THE NAVIGATION OF THE GREAT LAKES.

These improvements have, for the purposes of commerce, brought to a common level the waters of Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, and Erie. Vessels of a capacity of over 2,000 tons and drawing sixteen feet of water can now sail from Duluth or Chicago direct to Buffalo or the entrance of the Welland canal at Port Colborne. The most serious obstacle in their path is a ledge of limestone crossing the Detroit river near its mouth and locally known as "the Limekilns," which is troublesome to heavily laden vessels in certain conditions of the wind; the United States is now at work deepening the channel at this point so that boats drawing even eighteen feet of water may have a safe passage. The coast line of Michigan is entirely upon these great lakes, and all of its ports possess the commercial advantages attendant upon such a situation. Detroit, which has in its superb river a harbor of practically unlimited capacity, is especially fortunate in this respect. Michigan is divided into four customs districts with headquarters at Detroit, Port Huron, Grand Haven, and Marquette. Deputy collectors are appointed for every point possessing reasonable shipping facilities along the shores, such points thus becoming practically ports of entry and clearance. The government of the United States has also expended several millions of dollars for the improvement of the harbors of both peninsulas, and still annually makes liberal appropriations for this purpose.

THE CANALS BEYOND LAKE ERIE.

On reaching the foot of Lake Erie western produce shipped by water can reach the seaboard by one of two canal systems: 1. It can undergo re-shipment at Buffalo, and pass through the 350 miles of the Erie canal to the Hudson and New York in boats not drawing over seven feet of water, paying tolls to the State of New York and charges for handling at Buffalo; 2. It can pass through the 27 miles of the Welland canal, cross Lake Ontario, and reach tidewater on the St. Lawrence via the forty miles of the Lachine, Beauharnois, Cornwall, and Williamsburg canals, which flank the St. Lawrence rapids. These Canadian canals will now pass vessels drawing nine feet of water, and the Dominion government is vigorously at work enlarging the capacity of this entire system. The Lachine will at this time admit vessels drawing twelve feet of water, and a similar enlargement of the Cornwall is well advanced. The improvement, now nearly completed, of the Welland canal has been of the most thorough and important character. By costly excavating, its upper level has been brought down to the level of Lake Erie, and it thus has an inexhaustible feeder for its entire length in that vast reservoir, and is no longer dependent upon small inland streams for the supply of water for its highest stretches. For twelve miles a new canal has been built, containing twenty-four locks of massive masonry and provided with numerous reserve basins which practically form a second and larger canal for a

This

space of several miles. The cost of these improvements to the Canadian government has not been less than $20,000,000, and the result is the deepening of the Welland to twelve feet in the locks for part of its length and to fourteen feet for part. great work will not be fully completed until a new aqueduct is finished at Welland, and the enlarged canal has not yet been thrown open to the public.

PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS AND THEIR EFFECT.

Even with the present capacity of the St. Lawrence canals shipments of breadstuffs from the upper lakes to British ports have been made repeatedly and successfully, and it is the belief of many shippers that the establishment of a regular direct trade between the great lakes and Europe will become feasible when the projected enlargement of the entire system shall have been carried out, so that vessels drawing twelve feet of water can reach the lower St Lawrence. Meanwhile the Welland enlargement, even in its incomplete stages, has led to the agitation of schemes for the deepening and widening of the Erie canal, and has stimulated a competition between the Canadian and New York systems which has led to great reductions in tolls; for instance, the Erie tolls, which were six cents on a bushel of wheat before 1870, now amount to only one cent per bushel. That the discussion of these projects will be followed by practical results in the form of more capacious and cheaper means of transportation beyond Lake Erie is inevitable, and every step in that direction will help Michigan commerce and bring the producers of this State nearer to eastern and foreign consumers of their surplus crops. Even under the present conditions, when the largest classes of lake vessels cannot pass the barrier of Niagara Falls, the waterways of the great lakes and of the eastern canals are of inestimable value to the farmers of Michigan and of the whole northwest in furnishing them with a transportation that is cheap in itself and is also of vast additional importance as a check upon railroad freight tariffs. Given improved conditions in the form of an enlarged Erie or of a Canadian canal system that will pass vessels of twelve feet draft to the Atlantic, and the advantage of Michigan in natural location will make itself still more signally manifest.

PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF THE TRANSPORTATION QUESTION. Reserving the peculiar features of the commerce of the upper peninsula for special consideration under another head, the practical aspects of the transportation question with reference to the State at large may be summed up as follows. The great advantages possessed by the people of Michigan in the variety and the cheapness of the means of transportation between their farms, manufactories, and mines, and the great body of consumers outside the State, are these:

1.

Almost the entire State has short rail communication with the lake ports, and thus can secure water transportation at cheap rates to the west, the east, and especially to the seaboard, for its grain, lumber, metals, salt, fruit, and other products.

2. It is traversed by railroads intimately connected with all of the great east and west trunk lines, and the lowest rail rates to the west, the east, the southeast and the Atlantic coast can thus be obtained at all times by its shippers.

3. Its railroad lines are interwoven with each other to an unusual degree, and every important junction or point of contact enjoys the advantage of competition, and gets the benefit of low through rates. For some years the average charge for carrying freight of all the roads doing business in Michigan has been so low as to make them vigorous competitors during the season of navigation with the lake lines. The table on a preceding page shows that this rate was in 1880 less than one cent per ton per mile.

4. The points in Michigan at which rival railroads come in contact are so numerous, and their lines cross each other so frequently, that no combinations of the great trunk companies, and no pooling of interests on their part, can prevent local competition from making itself felt. The experience of the past fully sustains this statement, and the shipping points of Michigan have not been without the benefits of competition, even at times when the railroads were in theory acting in entire harmony.

5. Michigan is several hundred miles nearer the seaboard than either Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, or Dakota, and practically than Wisconsin, the other grainproducing States and territories of the northwest which also have cheap lands for sale in large quantities. The selling prices of all surplus crops in this region are determined by the prevailing rates in the Atlantic cities, which in turn are controlled by the condition of the European markets. Wheat of the same quality will sell in New York for the same price, whether raised in Michigan or farther west, but it can be carried to New York from Michigan at a cheaper rate than from any point beyond the lakes; therefore, the farmer in this State can get for his crop a price as much higher than that which his western competitor can command as the rates of freight are in his favor. This is one of the important causes producing the results exhibited in the comparative tables on pages 34 and 35. As a matter of fact it has during the last few years cost the farmers of the northwest from seven to seventeen cents more per bushel to market their exported wheat than it has those of Michigan, and this difference the producers of this State have realized in the shape of better prices. What is true of wheat, the most valuable staple of this region, is also true of the other surplus products which seek an eastern, southeastern, or foreign market.

6. From nearly all the principal cities of Michigan shipments can be made on the most advantageous terms to the eastern consumers or to Atlantic ports. Many interior towns now compete with Detroit in this respect, and the tendency of railroad management is toward the multiplication of these smaller points of direct through shipment. Such a system helps the producer, who gets in an increased price the benefit of the saving effected by thus avoiding high local freight charges, the expenses of reshipment, and the commissions of middle-men at one point.

7. During the season of 1881 wheat was shipped from Detroit to New York, by Jake and canal, at a cost of but six cents per bushel, excluding insurance. Within the last few years the highest rate known between these points has been about nineteen cents per bushel; a fair average between these two extremes on the entire amount of wheat shipped in all seasons during several years would be from ten to twelve cents per bushel. These low rates enure to the benefit of the farmers of Michigan, who have always obtained fair prices for their crops. They have never found it necessary to imitate the example of the less fortunate settlers on some of the prairies of the far west, who have found it more profitable to use their grain for fuel than to pay the charges for transporting it to a market.

DISTANCES AND PASSENGER FARES.

The rates charged for the transportation of passengers by railroads, boats, and stages change with the varying conditions of competition. The accuracy of any table of fares is only certain at the date of its compilation, and it is not possible to give in advance the actual prices at which tickets may be bought in any season or year. Still, as there is no very wide variation for any long period in the general rates of travel, such a table possesses some permanent value, and its figures will not be likely to differ much at any time from current prices of tickets. The tables which follow

were prepared in March, 1882; at that time the great railroad lines were acting in harmony, and there was no "cutting of rates" between competing points. The passenger tariffs were thus at their highest figures, and any subsequent change during 1882 will naturally be in the direction of a decline and not of an increase. Therefore, it is not probable that it will cost more this year to reach any point in Michigan than the sum named in these tables.

Distributing Points.-Immigrants coming to Michigan from the ocean ports, the Eastern States, or Canada will naturally reach Detroit or Port Huron. The rates of fare between those cities and the six principal Atlantic ports are as follows: Table of Fares Between Six Ocean Ports and Detroit and Port Huron.

* 2 days' limit. † 4 days' limit. $3 days' limit. ** 5 days' limit.

The railroad center which emigrants to Michigan from the southeast and south would most naturally reach is Fort Wayne, Ind.

Those coming from the southwest or west will commonly pass through or by Chicago on their way to this State.

Grand Rapids, the adjoining cities of East Saginaw and Saginaw, and Mackinac City at the northern point of the lower peninsula, are important centers in interior Michigan of railroad lines leading into the newer parts of the State.

The table gives the distances and fares from all these points to distributing centers in the northern counties with which they have convenient and direct communication. It will be found that the points of destination selected suggest the most accessible routes to all the newer portions of the State.

Distances. The distances in the table are not direct but by the lines of travel indicated; those by water are close estimates, not actual measurements.

Classes of Tickets. There are three classes of railroad tickets: 1. First-class, of which there are two kinds, namely, unlimited and limited. An unlimited ticket is good until used, and is sold at a higher rate than a limited ticket which must be used within a few days from the date of its purchase. 2. Second-class, which are cheaper, but entitle the buyer to ride in second-class cars on regular trains. 3. Emigrant (sold only to those who come from Europe), which are cheaper still and whose holders are usually carried in trains specially reserved for immigrants. All emigrant and second-class tickets are limited; the exceptions to this rule are too rare to make them important. All cars are warmed in winter, provided with water, and otherwise made comfortable for travelers. Children under five years of age are carried free, and children between five and twelve years at half-fare. One hundred and fifty pounds of baggage can be carried free on each full first and second class ticket; for baggage in excess of that amount a small charge is made.

The railroads of Michigan, as a rule, sell only first-class tickets, but they carry at reduced rates second-class and emigrant passengers coming to them over other lines.