This PDF is a selection from an out-of-print volume from the National
Bureau of Economic Research
Volume Title: The Transportation Industries, 1889-1946: A Study of
Output, Employment, and Productivity
Volume Author/Editor: Harold Barger
Volume Publisher: NBER
Volume ISBN: 0-87014-050-7
Volume URL: http://www.nber.org/books/barg51-1
Publication Date: 1951
Chapter Title: Waterways
Chapter Author: Harold Barger
Chapter URL: http://www.nber.org/chapters/c3193
Chapter pages in book: (p. 127 - 152)
Among the transportation agencies considered in this book, water-
ways are by far the oldest. In colonial times water surely played a
far larger role than land transportation. Early accounts indicate
that this was true both for passengers and for freight. Trade and
travel between the colonies was almost exclusively by sea. The
westward movement took advantage of lakes and rivers, soon
supplemented by canals. As the nineteenth century advanced and
the railroad came, the relative importance of waterways in the
total transportation picture must have declined steadily. At what
date this decline ceased it is impossible to say. All we know
definitely is that between 1889 and 1939 waterway traffic grew
at about the same rate as the traffic of all agencies combined. Its
relative position in the total transportation picture scarcely
changed in fifty years.1 Yet the composition of total waterway
traffic changed markedly.
WATERWAYS IN 1939
Waterways (including ferries) had but half as many passengers
as steam railroads, and. less than one-fifth as much passenger
revenue. A comparison based on freight traffic is somewhat more
favorable to, water transportation. Indeed the 410 billion ton-
miles reported by 'us for waterway freight traffic in 1939 was
substantially larger than the 335 billion furnished by steam rail-
roads. However, wateiways earned less than one-quarter ithe
gross revenues collected by steam railroads (Chapter 1 above).
'However, if 'total transportation' is broadened to include private automobile
travel, and traffic in trucks operated by owners of the freight carried, then we
have, to modify this statement. In that case, the share (of waterways in the
total) declined, between 1889 and 1939. (Freight. carried in ships operated
by owners of the freight is included in all our measures of waterway traffic, and
cannot be segregated; private automobile and. private freight traffic is not
included in our measures of highway transportation.): For further discussion
see Chapter 2 above.
WATERWAYS: PASSENGER AND FREIGHT TRAFFIC, 1939'
Short tons, statute miles
PASSENGER TRAFFIC FREIGHT TRAFFIC
Revenue Revenue Total
Revenue passen- Passen- Revenue Revenue per Transpor-
passen- get- Average get freight ton- Average Freight ton- talion
gersb miles0 journey0 revenue4 shipped mile? haul6 revenues mile Revenue
(mu.) (bit.) (miles) ($ mu.) (miL s.t.) (biL) (miles) ($ mu.) (cents) ($ mit.) %
Coastwise 17.7 n.a. n.a. 4.7 141 174 1,230 225 0.13 230 29
Intercoastal 0.Q09 0.050 5,900 1.6 8.37 51.9 6,200 82 0.157 84 11
GreatLakes(domesticonly) 5 n.a. 9.6 113 69.0 609 74 0.107 84 11
15 n.a. 8.5 329 19.9 61
Inland 12.7 5 1 82 0.4 90 11
Nonconiiguous 0.131 0.218 1,660 10 6.13 15.7 2,560 80 0.5 90 11
International,American-flag 0.384 0.927 2,410 41.8 23.0 79,5 3,460 167 0.200 209 26
Ferries 223. n.a. n.a. 7 .... .... .... .... 7 1
TOTAL 259 n.a. n.a. 83 622 410 660 710 0.17 793 100
International,foreign-flag .745 2.314 3,110 93.9 80.7 360 4,460. 575 0.160 ....
n.a.: not available
The various waterways are defined in note c to Table 3 above; see ous and international, U. S. Maritime Commission Report 2610.
also text of this chapter. 'For intercoastal, noncontiguous, and American-flag international,
Regular and excursion passengers were 19.0 mu, for Atlantic, see Appendix Table H-2 and notes to that table. Intercoastal pas-
Gulf, and Pacific coasts and 5.41 mu, for Great Lakes (U. S. Army, senger-miles were extrapolated by means of passenger revenue (see
Chief of Engineers, Annual Report. 1940, Part 2, p. 30). According note b above). Estimate for Great Lakes and inland waterways is
to correspondence with the War Department these figures include by the ICC (see 55th Annual Report, p. 9). For foreign-flag inter-
'all passengers embarking and disembarking at United States ports national, the same sources and methods were used as for American-
and those traveling on the waterways'. To obtain totals for coastwise flag.
and Great Lakes (domestic), we therefore deducted foreign and "Data for coastwise, Great Lakes, and inland traffic based on un-
noncontiguous arrivals and departures (all flags) numbering 1.3 published estimates by the National Income Division, U. S. Bureau
mu, and 0.06 mu, respectively (U. S. Maritime Commission Report of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. For intercoastal, see note b
2610, 'Water-Borne Foreign and Noncontiguous Commerce and above. American-flag and foreign-flag ,international, unpublished
Passenger Traffic', for 1939). The extent to which the resulting estimates by the Office of Business Economics, as above. Figure for
totals include both arrivals and departures (i.e., double counting of noncontiguous assumes same revenue per passenger-mile as Ameri-
passengers) in domestic traffic is not clear. Intercoastal passengers can-flag international. Ferries, Survey of Current Business, July
were extrapolated from the 1937 figure (22 thousand: see U. S. 1947, National Income Supplement, Table 30.
Maritime Commission Report 157, 'Water.Borne Passenger Traffic',
for 1937) using passenger revenue (U. S. Board of Investigation 'See Appendix Table H-i and notes to that table. Figures for
and Research, Comparison of Rail, Motor and Water Carrier Costs, foreign-flag were obtained in the same way as figures for American-
79th Cong. 1st Sess. Senate Document 84, p. 209). Source for inland flag international.
waterways and ferries was U. S. Army as above, and for noncontigu- 'See discussion in text; also Table 31.
130 CHAPTER 7
The seven kinds of waterway for which traffic and gross
revenues can be estimated for 1939 are shàwn in Table 30. Only
about one-tenth of all waterway revenues, according to our esti-
mates, was contributed by passengers. Ferries, which carried four-
fifths of all waterway passengers, furnished but one percent of
gross revenues. The two largest divisions, in revenue terms, are
coastwise and American-flag international shipping. The latter
contributed roughly half waterway passenger revenues, but the
former owes its importance almost entirely to freight traffic. The
remaining divisions — Great Lajes, inland, intercoastal, and
noncontiguous — are also freight rather than passenger carriers.
The seven divisions vary greatly in other respects also, average
haul of freight, for instance, running all the way from 61 miles
for inland waterways to over 6,000 miles for intercoastal traffic.
The average for all waterways — 660 miles — was almost twice
the average haul for all railroad freight (Table 4 above).
Average revenue per ton-mile (.17 cents) for all waterway
freight in 1939 was about one-sixth of the corresponding figure
for steam railroads, and one twenty-fourth the figure for intercity
trucking (Table 4). To be sure, as noted in Chapter 2, transpor-
tation by water is slower, as well as ordinarily more circuitous,
than by land; there are longer handling delays and perhaps in
some cases more risk of loss or damage. Yet a part of the differ-
ential must be attributed to the longer average haul; for equiva-
lent distances the disparity would doubtless be smaller.
The remainder of this section describes how, we estimated reve-
nue per ton-mile in 1939, and explains some of the rather startling
differences between the quotients obtained for different waterways.
Coastwise Traffic.2 More than half our coastwisc freight consists
The U. S. Maritime Commission defines coastwise trade "as trade along the
Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts, as well as trade between the continental
United States ports and the noncontiguous American territories of Hawaii,
Alaska and Puerto Rico" ('Economic Survey of Coastwise and Intercoastal
Shipping,' U. S. Maritime Commission, 1939, p. 2). We exclude the traffic with
noncontiguous territories from our definition of coastwise trade so. as to permit
comparisons with other domestic freight transport agencies. Following the
Commission, we reserve the term 'intercoastal trade' to refer to traffic, moving
between the east and west coasts by way of the Panama Canal. Traffic moving
between the Gulf and Atlantic coasts we include in 'coastwise' trade. The
COMPOSITION OF COASTWISE PREIGHT TRMFIC, 1939a
abort tons, statute miles
Revenue per Freight
Shipments Ton-miles Ton-mile Revenue
(mu, tons) (bil.) (cents) ($ mu.)
Petroleum and petroleum products 105 146 0.08 117
Dry cargo 37 28 0.38 108
Common carrier 13 10 0.66 69
Contract and private 23 18 0.22 39
TOTAL 141 174 0.13 225
Tonnage shipped by coastal regions (U. S. Army, Chief of Engineers, Annual
Report, Part 2) for 1939 was distributed between petroleum products and dry
cargo, and the latter classified by type of carrier on the basis of the U. S.
Maritime Commission's 'Economic Survey of Coastwise and Intercoastal Ship-
ping' for 1937. Shipments by coastal regions, U. S. totals for which appear
in the first column, were multiplied by average hauls for each region derived
from Appendix Table H-3 to yield the ton-mile estimates in the second column.
Derivation of the third column is described in the text and the fourth column
of petroleum shipments moving by tanker from the Gulf to Atlantic
ports or along the Pacific coast. This accounts for very low
average revenue per ton-mile. Oil tankers are chiefly operated by
the marine departments or transportation subsidiaries of large
oil refining companies.3 There is no common carrier tanker trans-
port, but the tiansportation service of private oil carriers may be
valued at the published rates for chartered tankers acting as con-
tract carriers. These 'going charter rates' in 1939 averaged about
0.08 cents per ton-mile for crude and refined oil shipped from
Gulf to North Atlantic ports not east of New York.4
statistics collected by the Army Engineers are also more comprehensive; they
follow the legislative definition of coastwise trade, and include what we have
called 'intercoastal' and 'noncontiguous' traffic: where necessary we adjusted
such data to our definitions.
The U. S. Maritime Commission found 'that 15 major oil companies own 84
percent of all oil tankers in operation (TNEC, Hearings, Part 14-A, p. 7730).
''Oil Price Handbook, 1939' (National Petroleum News), pp. 19 1-2. The rates
here are given in terms of dollars per barrel, and were divided by 1,900 miles
(taken as the average haul) and multiplied by suitable weight conversion
factors to yield ton-mile rates. Tanker rates fluctuate rather widely and in
1939 were somewhat below the level in other years.
132 CHAPTER 7
Among dry-cargo carriers in the coastwise trade we must
distinguish between: (1) common carrier, steamship lines oper-
ating over more or less regular routes in the. transportation, at
scheduled rates, of package and merchandise freight;• and (2)
private and so-called tramp orcontract carriers. Ton-mile revenues
for the former can be approximated from ICC figures ('Statistics
of Carriers by Water', annual). Few of the latter report to the
ICC; they are engaged in the transport of bulk commodities in
cargo lots at rates far below those of common carriers. We have
somewhat arbitrarily assumed ton-mile revenues for contract at
one-third of corresponding revenues for common carriers.5 The
composition of coastwise freight traffic may be roughly estimated
as in Table 31.
Intercoastal Traffic. All types of carriers (common, contract, and
private) participate in intercoastal traffic, but in recent years com-
mon carriers have dominated the trade, and their rates have been
reported regularly to the Maritime Commission.6
Great Lakes. Freight ton-miles between Great Lakes ports in 1939
were fewer than in the coastwise trade but many more than on
rivers and canals. Revenue per ton-mile is estimated at little more
than one-tenth of a cent.7 Just as coastwise trade is dominated by
petroleum, so traffic on the Great Lakes consists largely of other
bulk commodities — wheat, iron ore and coal. A fairly long haul,
combined with mechanized loading and unloading equipment,
make their transportation very, economical.
Inland Waterways. Revenues for river and canal traffic are
estimated at 0.4 cents per ton-mile. This relatively high rate may
See, for instance, Federal Coordinator of Transportation, Freight Traffic
Report (1935), Vol. III, p. 152.
See 'Economic Survey of Coastwise and Intercoastal Shipping.' In 1937 of
7 million short tons carried by all intercoastal vessels of 1,000 gross tons and
over, common carriers accounted for nearly 6 million.
The figure (.107 cents) relates to traffic passing through St. Mary's Falls
Canal (Sault Ste. Marie), is due to U. S. Army Engineers, and will be found
in the Statistical Abstract of the United States. The Canadian Bureau of Sta-
tistics in its Report on the Grain Trade of Canada (annual) gives a somewhat
higher figure (.15 cents) for grain only shipped from Fort William — Port
Arthur to Buffalo in Canadian as well as United States bottoms.
be explained in part by the shortness of the average haul. Missis-
sippi traffic, which makes up the larger part of total river and
canal traffic, is fairly well represented by that of the Federal Barge
Lines, operated by the Inland Waterways Corporation, whose
revenue receipts fluctuated between 3 and 4 mills, per ton-mile
in the late. 1930's.8
The extent to which the rates charged by operators, especially
on inland waterways, really measure the resources engaged has
long been a source of controversy. Most investment in river and
harbor improvements, which constitutes a significant portion of
total waterway investment, has been financed by public agencies;
and it. has frequently been charged that unit cost figures of
waterway operators do not adequately reflect the capital charges
borne by government. Proponents of an expanded water-
way system, on the other hand, have claimed that waterway
operators are sometimes saddled with "the cost of obsolete and
superseded navigation works no longer used or useful" and with
"the cost of uncompleted structures which cannot yet have aided
present navigation."9 In any case, the difficulty of distributing the
cost of joint facilities between irrigation, flood control, power and
navigation is obvious. This whole area of controversy was investi-
gated by the Board of Investigation and Research appointed under
the Transportation Act of 1940 with interesting but largely incon-
clusive results. For our present purpose the issues in question are
secondary for, as elsewhere in this, volume, we regard the charges
actually paid (whether or not appropriate in a wider sense) as
U. S. Army, Chief of Engineers, Annual Report, 1939,'Part 2, p. 1447. Since
such traffic is of a considerably longer haul than other river and canal traffic,
we may have understated- revenues for rivers and cánâls. On the other hand
the Federal Barge Lines figure has indeed been characterized recently as a
'liberal' estimate merely for the line-haul cost of river transport (see Harold
Kelso, 'Waterways Versus Railways,' American Economic Review, Sept. 1941,
pp. 540-1). Yet in a study of: contract' carrier rates on the Mississippi system
for eight basic commodities, the average unit revenue. figure for all hauls was
found to be 0.3 cents per ton-mile (Transportation and National Policy, Na-
tional Planning Board, 1942; p.437'). Presumably the rates to'
imputed to private carriers, transporting especially "coal, iron and steel, along
sections of the Mississippi River system, would be even lower., In the absence
of more precise' data we have used' the figure of 0.4 cents per ton-mile.'
Transportation and National Policy, p. '
134 CHAPTER 7
furnishing a suitable system .of weights in combining our. output
Noncontiguous Traffic. The chief noncontiguous territories are
of course Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska. Trade between the
'United States and all such territories accounted for somewhat
fewer ton-miles than did inland waterways in 1939 (Table 30).
As data on revenues from this traffic appear to be completely
lacking, we have used the same ton-mile rates, for dry cargo and
tankers respectively, as in the coastwise trade.
WATER-BORNE FREIGHT. TRAFFIC BETWEEN THE UNITED
STATES AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES, BY FLAG OF VESSEL,
1929, 1939, and 1946k
Short tons, statute miles
American-flag Foreign-flag Total Ratio: American-flag
. (billion ton-miles) %
1929 170 • 338 508 33
1939 80 , 360 440 18
1946 352 186 538 65
Based upon receipts and shipments at United States ports (1929 and 1939,
Maritime Commission; 1946, Bureau of the Census) and average hauls esti-
mated by us; see Appendix H. Data for 1929 do not include Great Lakes traffic.
International Traffic. In 1939 ton-miles in American-flag
vessels engaged in foreign trade exceeded traffic on the Great
Lakes,' but amounted to only about half the ton-mileage trans-
ported in the coastwise trade (Table 30). American- and foreign-
flag carriers are of course in direct competition, and, as may be
seen from Table 32, the recent' history of American carriers has
been chequered. The wartime expansion of the American' mer-
chant marine is measured by the fact that less than one-fifth of
the ton-miles between the United States and foreign countries were
carried in American-flag, vessels in 1939., but two-thirds were so
carried in 1946. Revenues have been estimated by the Maritime
For a justification of this general procedure, 'see Appendix A.
Commission; they work out at 0.200 cents per ton-mile for
American-flag 0.160 cents for foreign-flag
TIRE GROWTH OF W4TERWAY TRAFFIC
Between 1889 and 1939 combine4 passenger and freight trafflc
grew six-fold (Table 5 and Chart 2 above). Passenger-miles mul-
tiplied two-and-a-half times, freight ton-miles sevenfold (Tables
7 and 8 above, and Chart 20). These ratios compare with a
twofold growth in railroad passenger and a fivefold growth in
railroad freight traffic. As in the case of railroads, growth was
concentrated in the period before 1920. Ocean waterway, like
railroad, passenger-miles showed a. declining trend between 1920
In Table 33 and Chart 21 the waterway freight traffic index
is decomposed into its six constituents. Of course percentagewise
intercoastal and noncontiguous traffic grew fastest. For in 1889
there was no Panama Canal; trade with Alaska was small and
unimportant, and Hawaii and Puerto Rico were not yet under
the American flag. Leaving these two minor — though fast-
growing — components on one side, we see that the rapid rise
in total waterway freight traffic is due primarily to the growth
of the coastwise trade, which rose more than tenfold. This growth
reflects especially the movement of petroleum by tanker from
Gulf to Atlantic ports, and to a lesser extent from the southern tO
the northern Pacific Coast. The iron ore movement resulting from
the opening of the Mesabi Range in 1893 caused the' Great Lakes
component to rise rapidly during the first three decades of our
period, but further growth between 1920 and 1940 was slight.
Over the entire five decades 1889-1939 ton-miles on the Great
Lakes grew at about the same rate as all waterway freight traffic
— roughly sixfold. The remaining components — Inland and
American-flag international traffic — each grew about fourfold,
I have to thank the Maritime Commission for an unpublished tabulation.
Total revenues were estimated by applying average freight rates on principal
trade routes to American and foreign cargo carryings. The Commission's
figures were divided.by our own ton-mile estimates.
Waterway passenger-miles cover only intercoastal, noncontiguous and Amer-
ican-flag international traffic, and are not available for years since 1940.
136 CHAPTER 7
but their movement during the half. century was quite dissimilar.
Inland traffic was at about the same level in .1920 as in 1889, and
then shot up partly, as with the coastwise trade, because of oil
shipments. International traffic, on the other hand, grew tenfold
between 1889 and the early 1920's and thereafter declined steadily
until our participation in World War II: in 1946 it was four
times the 1939 level.
The uncharacteristic behavior of our international traffic has
already received comment in Chapter 2 (see especially Table 10).
As indicated, waterway freight traffic grew sevenfold between 1889
and 1939; but if international traffic is excluded the growth is
nearly ninefold. On the other hand internatinal traffic in Ameri-
can vessels jumped sharply as a consequence of World War II;
between 1889 and 1946, therefore, waterway freight ton-miles
grew more than twelvefold if international traffic is included, but
only ninefold if it is excluded.
The remainder of this section contains some notes on the com-
position of each major kind of waterway freight traffic. The
following section will offer measures of productivity change for
waterway traffic as a whole.
Coastwise and Intercoastal Freight Traffic. To a striking degree the
expansion .of the coastwise trade in recent decades reflects the
movement of petroleum in tankers: in 1939 such traffic accounted
for more than four-fifths of all coastwise ton-miles. Movement is
principally from West Gulf'3 to Middle Atlantic ports. In addition
to petroleum, West Gulf shipments include sulfur, copper, asphalt,
flour, cotton, soda and chemicals.
In point of shipments the next most important coastal region
is the Middle Atlantic: from here there is much relatively short
haul coal traffic from Hampton Roads to northern ports, especially
New England. Products of oil refineries in the Middle Atlantic
region also move up and down the coast.
Other shipments were of phosphate and paper products from
In Maritime Commission statistics the West Gulf region extends from New
Orleans west; East Gulf ports include Mobile and ports east thereof. The
South Atlantic region extends to the North Carolina-Virginia line, and the
Middle Atlantic region thence to the New York-Connecticut line.
PASSENGER, FREIGHT, AND COMBINED TRAFFIC
r r r —
Source: Tables 5,7, and 8 Polio icale
WATERWAYS: INDEXES OF TRAFFIC, 1889 AND
1929 : 100
PASSENGER-MILES FREIGHT TON-MILES Waterways,
inter- Passenger &
national, Great national, Freight
inter- Noncon- American- Coast- Inter- Lakes Noncon- American- Traffic
coastal tiguous flag wise coastal (domestic) Inland tiguous flag Cornbinedb
1889 28 14.6 2.6 16.5 53 11 14.6
1920 104 36.8 29.4 82.7 58 93 165 104
1921 139 31.6 40.0 39.6 54 97 107 79
1922 97 45.7 68.4 64.6 52 91 118 89
1923 60.9 118.0 91.2 71 85 103 94
1924 108 65.1 95.2 68.4 80 90 108 93
1925 80 85.8 81.5 86.4 97.2 102 8 91
1926 78 87.7 95.6 93.5 110.2 105 104 97
1927 90 96.3 98.7 85.2 103.5 104 104.0 99
1928 84.4 74.9 100.5 97.0 88.9 86.8 106.4 109.4 97.2 95.9
1929 100.0 1.00.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
1930 92.4 72.8 92.8 96.3 85.7 77.8 104.9 104.2 86.9 89.4
1931 80.9 59.0 80.3 97.3 69.0 48.9 106.6 100.0 65.6 73.9
1932 74.0 44.4 70.9 90.6. 54.3 22.8 91.3 97.8 50.4 60.4
1933 89.6 43.5 68.7 109.2 72.2 45.7 118.2 97.4 51.0 69.1
1934 108.7 57.0 71.8 110.3 80.5 47.8 108.8 104.8 57.0 73.6
1935 . 119.1 69.6 79.0 76.7
116.2 68.1 55.0 154.8 111.9 56.5
1936 96.9 74.3 98.6 143.3 63.4 79.6 177.7 121.2 55.5 85.0
1937 98.4 79.2 102.7 169.3 65.0 96.7 195.0 135.5 65.1 97.0
1938 .... 82.1 73.5 159.5 55.2 47.6 205 117.4 48.6 79.1
1939 .... 87.3 74.8 172.4 70.5 77.7 230 128.4 45.9 87.3
1940 .... 95.4 65.1 181.0 63.4 98.7 259 143.9 68.2 100.9
1941 .... .... .... .... .... 117.3 310
1942 .... .... .... .... ..: 126.6 305
1943 .... .... ...- .... .... 166.9 304
1944 •. ••.• .... .... .... 119.0 362
1945 .... .... .... .... .... 115.0 343
1946 120.5 98.1 323 212 203 171.9
The waterways to which the columns refer are defined in note C adjusted by changes in the ratio of American-flag to all entrances
to Table S above; see also text of this chapter. Figures are based on and clearances (Statistical Abstract of the United States).
data in Appendix H, except as follows. Passenger-miles for years
before 1928 were extrapolated on basis of arrivals plus departures Components weighted by average revenue. 1946 linked to 1940
at United States ports in vessels of all flags (August Maifry, 'Over- on basis of freight traffic only. This index is the same as that shown
seas Travel and Travel Expenditures', U. S. Bureau of Foreign and on a 1939 base in Table 5. Indexes for total passenger and freight
Domestic Commerce, Economic Series 4, 1939, Tables 3, 4, and 5) traffic respectively are given in Tables 7 and 9.
140 CHAPTER 7
the East Gulf region; of citrus fruit, forest products and naval
stores from South Atlantic ports. Shipments from New England,
of pristine shipping fame, now yield less than 1 percent of all
ton-miles in the coastwise trade.
On the Pacific Coast petroleum is again the leading commodity
moved, although northern ports ship appreciable amounts of
lumber, paper products, flour and grain. San Francicso distributes
some manufactured products by coastal waterway.
In the intercoastal trade in 1939 east-bound shipments included
lumber, paper stock and manufactures from the Pacific North-
west; and petroleum products and canned fruits from California.
Minor commodities were wheat flour, and wheat (from the Pacific
Northwest), vegetables, fruits,, canned fish and sugar. Of the
west-bound traffic iron and steel products (mainly from the Mid-
dle Atlantic region) made up the greatest part. Other west-bound
products were pigments, chemicals and manufactures, vegetables
and products, refined petroleum and paper stock and manu-
Freight Traffic on the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes constitute
one of the world's outstanding natural waterways, having a com-
bined length of over 1,000 miles and a water surface area more
than twice the size of the state of Pennsylvania. They are bordered
by areas extremely rich in natural and industrial resources. Ice
formation in the winter generally limits the navigation season to
8 or 9 months of the year. Although commonly classified as an
inland waterway, transportation facilities and equipment on the
Great Lakes are somewhat akin to those of ocean transport. How-
ever, the extremely heavy bulk freight traffic that moves through
the Lakes during the limited season has given rise to a highly
specialized type of bulk freighter that makes up the greater part
of the present day Great Lakes fleet. These vessels are built with
power plant and crew quarters at the stern and bow, all the inter-
mediate space being unobstructed cargo hold, with no division
into bulkheads or compartments. Many freighters are equipped
with self-unloading devices, but the docks of the larger Lake
ports have extensive specialized equipment for loading and unload-
ing bulk freight, especially grain and iron ore.'4
U. S. Army, Corps of Engineers, Transportation on the Gr eat Lakes, 1937.
WATERWAY FREIGHT TRAFFIC
0) 0) 0) :0)
Source: Apcoudii N Ratte seel.
142 CHAPTER 7
In 1939, 124 million tons of freight moved between United
States ports on the Great Lakes for a total of 69 billion ton-miles,
placing the Great Lakes system after the railroads and coastal
shipping. This total includes, besides port-to-port traffic, other
domestic traffic, such as internal movements on the canals and
waterways entering the Great Lakes; and local receipts of sand,
gravel and marine products. That most Lake traffic is made up of
bulk commodities may be seen from the 1939 shipment figures:
iron ore (45 million short tons), soft and hard coal (40 million
short tons), grain (11 million short tons) and stone (12 million
short tons) 15
The average haul of lakewise traffic declined from 740 miles
in 1920 to 570 miles in 1940. The decline may be attributed in
part to the reduced share of relatively long haul iron ore traffic,
and the increased relative importance of such short haul freight
commodities as limestone. The average haul of Lake shipments
also exhibits a marked cyclical movement, because of the extreme
cyclical sensitivity of the long haul iron ore shipments which make
up the bulk of total Lake traffic.
In the movement of iron ore from the mines to the Upper
Lake docks, most of which are owned and operated by the rail
carriers, much specialized equipment is employed, including
bottom-dump hopper cars designed to discharge specified grades
of ore into designated ore pockets at the ore docks. The ore is
loaded by force of gravity from the docks, large concrete and
steel structures perhaps 2,000 feet long, into the holds of the bulk
freighters below. Shipments from the Upper Lake ports (mainly
Duluth and Superior) begin in early spring and continue to late
fall, when ice impedes navigation. By the close of the season the
receiving docks (mainly at Lake Erie ports, although some ore
goes to the Gary-Chicago area) have accumulated reserves which
are drawn upon throughout the remaining winter months.
Unloading equipment at the receiving docks has undergone exten-
sive technological improvements since the turn of the century
Data are from the 1940 Annual Report of the Lake Carriers Association
39); they include traffic of Canadian ports, which account for the greater
part of total grain shipments.
and today can handle 5 to 17 tons of ore at one operation, and
can discharge a 10,000-ton vessel in 3 or 4 hours. The ore is
then carried to interior blast furnaces in standard gondola and
hopper cars; the rail hauls are relatively short, ranging below 100
Eastbound bulk shipments of iron ore on the Great Lakes are
conveniently offset by westbound, movements of bituminous coal
from the Appalachian mining districts of West Virginia, Penn-
sylvania, Kentucky and Tennessee. The coal moves to Lake Erie
ports and thence by water to Duluth, Superior, Milwaukee and
Chicago. The Lake coal is stored at Upper Lake ports for winter
distribution to northern Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota; in
the surrounding regions it comes into competition with all-rail
coal from the midwestern coal regions of Illinois, Indiana and
western Kentucky. Total Lake shipments of coal in 1939 had
quadrupled since the beginning of the century.
After iron ore and coal come grain shipments. Like iron ore,
grain moves from west to east. During the navigation season grain
is shipped east principally by water: use of the more expensive
all-rail route is made chiefly while the Lakes are closed to naviga-
tion. For 1939 total grain tonnage originated by rail in the United
States amounted to some 40 million; in the year nearly 6
million tons of grain were transported by all waterway routes, of
which the larger part (131 million bushels or more than 4 million
tons) was shipped by bulk freighter from Duluth, Superior,
Chicago and Milwaukee.17 Buffalo is the chief receiving center
of Lake shipments of grain. While a good deal of wheat is con-
sumed by Buffalo flour mills, most of the grain receipts are trans-
ferred to rail or water carriers for movement to points further
east; some grain is transported by barge over the New York State
Barge Canal and Hudson River. Great Lakes shipments of
Canadian grain have increased rapidly since the beginning of the
present century, but in 1939 grain movements in American-flag
The foregoing description and much of the following discussion closely paral-
lels the material presented in Transportation on the Great Lakes, pp. 257-305.
Since the rail shipments include movement from the interior to lakeside'
these figures overstate the importance of rail transportation.
144 CHAPTER 7
vessels from United States ports were about the same size as they
had been forty years earlier.
Other bulk commodities moving in Great Lakes trade include
lumber,. stone, sand and gravel, and petroleum products. Lime-
stone for the steel industry is handled by specialized loading and
unloading equipment similar to that used for iron ore and coal
traffic;. as with iron ore, shipments tend to fluctuate with activity
in the steel industry. Depletion of timber resources in the Great
Lakes region has reduced lumber traffic; shipments of petroleum
products have on the other hand risen steadily.
Inland Waterways. Unlike other waterways treated here, river
and canal transportation relies heavily on barge, and tugboat.
According to the Census of 1926, for instance, 94 percent of the
gross tonnage of vessels operating upon the Mississippi system and
other inland waterways consisted of unrigged craft, that is, vessels
without sails or mechanical power for independent propulsion.
Extremely short haul in character, river and canal traffic made up
nearly half the total tonnage shipped by water in 1939, but only
5 percent of all waterway ton-miles. About two-thirds of the
traffic (in ton-miles) moves along the Mississippi River and its
tributaries; the remainder consists mostly of relatively small
amounts of traffic moving on numerous other rivers, canals and
On the Mississippi system shipments consist mainly of grain,
coal, stone, sand and gravel, iron and steel, petroleum, and other
bulk commodities. For instance steel mills in the Pittsburgh area
ship iron and steel by water as far south as New Orleans. They
have thus been able cheaply to reach rising markets, especially for
steel pipe in southern and southwestern oil fields. Petroleum prod-
ucts move from the refining area around Baton Rouge northward,
and also to New Orleans for reshipment by sea. The growth of
the oil movement on inland waterways parallels that in the coast-
wise trade discussed above. Oil products have become a large com-
ponent of Ohio river traffic, and in recent years have displaced
grain as the leading commodity moving through the New York
State Barge Canal.'8 Heavy, though short haul, shipments of coal
Federal Coordinator of Transportation, Public Aids to Transportation, Vol.
III, pp. 67,. 113.
on the Monongahela River enjoy the distinction of being loaded
directly from the mine tipple; here is one of the few instances, other
than the movement of lumber and sand and gravel, in which
river transportation need not be 'fed' by other transport agencies.
Southbound grain traffic on the Mississippi revived after World
War I, in part through facilities of the federally operated common
carrier barge service which is said to have diverted to Gulf ports
grain shipments that formerly moved to the Atlantic seaboard by
rail.'9 Bauxite, sugar and cotton are other commodities that move
over the Mississippi system.
Freight traffic on other rivers and canals is mostly of a bulky
• and short-haul character, consisting, especially on the smaller
waterways, mainly of lumber and sand and gravel. Indeed, sand
is often dredged from the very river over which it moves short
distances to its destination. In 1939 rivers of the Atlantic coast
contributed about 10 percent of inland waterway ton-mileage: the
principal routes are the Hudson, Delaware, Potomac and Con-
necticut rivers. About 3 percent moved over Gulf coast rivers
(other than the Mississippi system), especially the Mobile, Warrior
and Black Warrior rivers. Some 6 percent was contributed by
rivers of the Pacific coast, especially the Columbia and Willamette.
The sharp expansion of inland waterway traffic, which dates
only from 1920 (Chart 21), is undoubtedly in part the outcome
of federal policy. The transfer of freight traffic from waterways
to the spreading railroads during the decades following the Civil
War must have had every air of a permanent shift. To be sure,
coal traffic along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers had a short-
lived revival toward 1900, but even this movement was brought
to an end by the opening of the Southern coal fields in Alabama.
Public interest in waterways and their revival — by deliberate
stimulation, if necessary — dates roughly from the decision taken
in Albany in 1903 to enlarge the Erie Canal. Large scale appro-
priations for river and harbor improvements began shortly there-
after.2° The Inland Waterway Commission, appointed by Theo-
dore Roosevelt, predicted in 1912 a future shortage of railroad
facilities. In fact, the federal government took over the operation
'9 Transportation on the Great Lakes, 1937, p. 117.
In 1910-35 total expenditures reached $2.3 billion compared with $0.7
billion prior to 1910. See Federal Coordinator of Transportation, op. cit., p. 12.
146 CHAPTER 7
of barge traffic on the .New York State Barge Canal and the Mis-
sissippi and Warrior rivers during World War I, and to some
extent has been in the business ever since. The Inland Waterways
Corporation, a federal agency, carries an appreciable fraction of
all freight traffic moving over the; Mississippi system.
The Noncontiguous Trade. Nearly the whole of our noncontiguous
trade is with the three territories Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska.
(Although the Philippine Islands were technically a dependent
territory during most of our period, for the sake of comparability
United States-Philippine trade has throughout been included with
international traffic, of which it now forms a part.) Two-thirds of
all noncontiguous ton-miles are carried between the United States
and Hawaii, the most distant territory. Traffic with Puerto Rico
is next largest (one-quarter) and with Alaska third in size (one-
tenth of the total). Traffic with all three territories has grown
slowly but rather steadily. Imports from Hawaii are dominated by
sugar and fruit, especially in cans; from Puerto Rico sugar and
from Alaska canned fish and copper ore are the main imports.
In return are shipped to all three territories a wide range of
International Traffic. As we have seen, the fraction of American
waterborne foreign trade carried in American-flag vessels has
fluctuated widely from one period to another. Although an accur-
ate comparison between American- and foreign-flag traffic cannot
be made until the 1920's, it may be supposed that in the early
days of the Republic at least half the total was carried in American
bottoms. As the nineteenth century advanced, relatively rosier
prospects in other lines of economic endeavor prevented the mer-
chant marine from expanding as rapidly as the rest of the economy
grew, and led to the concentration in the protected coastwise and
intercoastal trades of most of what ocean shipping survived. At
any rate, data on entrances and clearances at American ports by
flag of vessel suggest that one-fifth to one-quarter of the nation's
waterbornc foreign trade was carried in American vessels at the
opening of our period in 1889, and that time the Census
of 1906 was taken the fraction may have fallen to one-eighth.
Shipping subsidies have undoubtedly played a part in the latter
day revival of the American merchant marine. Yet, as may be
seen plainly from Chart 21, the outstanding factor influencing the
volume of freight traffic has been the incidence of two World
Wars. A sheer absence of statistics in World War I and wartime
secretiveness on the part of government in World War II prevent
us from measuring the peaks of wartime traffic movement. But
in outline the picture is clear enough. In the years immediately
following World War I, with relief shipments to Europe running
high and the merchant fleets of many European competitors still
paralyzed, our marine, furnished more than ten times
as many ton-miles between United States ports and foreign
countries than in 1889. During the 1920's one-third of our foreign
trade was carried in American vessels (Table 32). Thereafter
American participation in international freight traffic declined
steadily until the proportion stood at one-sixth in 1939. World
War II boosted the carrying power and performance of the Ameri-
can merchant marine and decimated the merchant fleets of some
of our competitors. As a result American vessels carried two-thirds
of our waterborne foreign trade in 1946.
International passenger traffic tells a rather different story. The
American-flag share of total waterborne passenger-miles between
the United States and foreign countries rose from 20 percent in
1929 to 29 percent in 1939. In the latter year one passenger in
0 . .
three used an Amencan ship; but the average journey was some-
what shorter on American than on foreign vessels (Table 30).
For 1946 no data have been published. As with freight traffic,
foreign-flag revenues per passenger-mile were substantially below
• Though American freighters ply all over the world, roughly
half the traffic is with western hemisphere countries and half with
other parts of the World (Table 34). The distribution in terms
of tons of freight received and shipped through United States
ports differs somewhat from the distribution in terms of ton-miles.
Because of variations in the average length of haul, trade with
Canada via the Great Lakes forms 15 percent of receipts and
148 CHAPTER 7
shipments but only 2 percent of ton-miles. Contrariwise, trade
with Asia accounts for less than 10 percent -of receipts and ship-
ments but more than 20 percent of ton-miles.
WATERWAYS: AMERICAN-FLAG INTERNATIONAL FREIGHT
TRAFFIC, BY CONTINENTAL REGIONS, 1939'
Short tons, statute miles
Traffic plus Average Receipts
between the U. S. Shipments Ton-miles Haul plus
and: (mu, tons) (bil.) (miles) Shipments Ton-miles
Canada, via Great
Lakes 3.4 1.5 420 15.0 1.8
Americas, ocean-borne 12.8 34.0 2,700 55.7 42.8
Europe 4.3 22.0 5,100 18.8 27.6
Africa .6 4.2 7,400 2.5 5.3
Australasia .1 1.3 9,700 .6 1.6
Asia 1.7 16.6 9,600 7.5 20.8
TOTAL 23.0 79.5 3,500 100.0 100.0
'See Appendix Table H-6.
Besides the data these figures are based, the Maritime
Commission prior to World War II issued elaborate tabulations
by commodities. These show — as might be expected — that ship-
ments from United States ports were predominantly manufactured
goods and agricultural raw materials, while receipts included a.
wide range of raw products and (chiefly from Europe) some
manufactures. Although not as important as in the coastwise trade,
the movement of petroleum and petroleum products in tankers
accounted for more than a quarter of all receipts and shipments
in 1939, but for only about one-sixth of total ton-miles.
EMPLOYMENT AND PRODUCTIVITY
A perusal of Appendix Table H-7 and its notes will convince the
reader ihat the employment data for waterways are very rough in
character. Despite numerous census enquiries, the best series we
could construct for years prior to 1929 takes account of vessel
employment only and does not include stevedores or other harbor
employees. Moreover attempts to distribute total employment
among our six different waterways, and ferries, proved unsuc-
ALL, WATERWAYS: OUTPUT, EMPLOYMENT,
AND PRODUCTIVITY, 1889-1946
1929 : 100
No. of' Output per
Output' Workersb Worker
1889 14.6 77 19
1920 104 141 ' 74 '
1926 97 108 90
1927 99 106 93
1928 95.9 106 90
1929 100.0 100 100
1930 89.4 95 94
1931 73.9 86 86
1932 60.4 78 77
1933 69.1 81 85
1934 73.6 87 85
.1935 76.7 89 86
1936 85.0 85 100
1937 97.0 90 108
1938 79.1 80 ' 99
1939 87.3 . 84 104
1940 100.9 85 119
1946C 171.9 120 • ' 143
'See Table 33.
See Appendix Table H.7.
Change in output between 1940 and 1946 is based on freight traffic only. For
this reason the increases in output and productivity in 1946 compared with
1940 and earlier years are probably overstated. If passengertraffic is assumed
to be zero in 1946, the output index becomes 162.2 and output per worker 135.
Therefore it would seem that any overstatement cannot be large.
Employment increased about 80 percent between 1889 and
1920, fell back by the middle 'thirties roughly to the earlier level,
but rose again by about' 40 percent between 1939 and 194621
(Table 35 and Chart 22). These fluctuations were roughly par-
allel with changes in output, and output per. worker rose rather
Peak employment in 1945 was 176 percent of the 1939 level: see Appendix
Table H-7. Unfortunately we do not have complete output data for 1941-45.
150 CHAPTER 7
steadily. In fact the index, which represents combined passenger-
and ton-miles per. worker, grew roughly fourfold between 1889
and 1920, and doubled between 1920 and 1946. Between 1889
and 193922 output per worker increased at an average rate of 2.9
percent per annum — a rate which considerably exceeds the 2.2
percent yearly computed for transportation as a whole (Table 13).
Undoubtedly this result reflects the increasing importance of bulk
cargoes, especially petroleum moved by tanker and iron ore —
that is, a shift in the character of output toward freight that can
be moved in very large masses aiid can be loaded and unloaded
mechanically. However, our employment index prior to 1929 is
based on vessel employment only. Therefore, increased mechani-
zation in loading and unloading is not reflected in our index of
productivity prior to that year. Because of the trend toward mech-
anization of port equipment, and the shift toward bulk cargo —
both tendencies began well before 1929 — our data may even
understate the rise in output per worker in water transportation.
THE AMOUNT OF EQUIPMENT
For waterways as a whole output increased somewhat more
than the gross tonnage of all vessels employed (Table 36). Gross
tonnage per worker, in fact, rose nearly as fast as output per
worker, and such influences as the trend toward bulk carriage of
iron ore and petroleum doubtless are reflected in both quotients.
Output and tonnage of vessels (but not employment) can be
divided between domestic and international traffic. The contrast
is striking. For combined coastwise, intercoastal, Great Lakes, and
inland traffic, output rose far more rapidly than tonnage of
vessels; these figures include iron ore and other bulk traffic .on
the Great Lakes, and the coastwise tanker trade. On the other
hand for noncontiguous and American-flag international traffic,
output rose at about the same rate as, or less rapidly than, vessel
tonnage; no such shift toward bulk shipment is apparent.
Gross tonnage per worker rose more rapidly than gross tonnage
per vessel. We may regard the rise in tonnage per worker as
is chosen for the comparison rather than 1946 because, owing to the
of passenger-traffic data, output and output per worker for the latter
year may be overstated. See note c to Table 34.
OUTPUT, EMPLOYMENT, AND PRODUCTIVITY
Source: Table 35 RoUo scale
152 CHAPTER 7
WATERWAYS: OUTPUT, EMPLOYMENT, AND
GROSS TONNAGE OF VESSELS, 1889-1946'
1889 1920 1929 1939 1946
Coastwise, Intercoastal, Great Lakes, and Inland
Output 100 325 670 816 965
Gross tonnage of vessels employed 100 187 279 331 257
Output ÷ gross tonnage 100 174 240 247 375
Noncontiguous and American-flag international
Output 100 1,028 696 423 1,346
Gross tonnage of vessels employed 100 1,070 744 357 3,204
Output gross tonnage 100 96 94 118 42
Output 100 714 684 598 1,177
Gross tonnage of vessels employed 100 375 379 337 888
Output gross tonnage 100 190 180 177 133
Number of workers 100 183 130 109 156
Gross tonnage per worker 100 205 292 309 569
Output per worker 100 390 526 549 754
'For output and employment, based on Appendix H. For coastwise, Great
Lakes and inland waterways, output is measured in ton-miles; for intercoastal
noncontiguous, and American-flag international, both ton-miles and passen-
ger miles are included; in combining the data, 1939 unit revenues were used
as weights. Gross tonnage figures are from the Statistical Abstract, and mea-
sure the entire cubic capacity of a vessel's hull at the rate of one ton per 100
compounded of growth in the average size of vessels, together with
economies in the labor needed to operate a vessel of given size.
But the size of vessels grew less rapidly in coastwise, intercoastal,
Great Lakes and inland trade than in noncontiguous and inter-
national. It therefore seems likely that, if we had employment
data for the domestic and international segments separately, the
contrast in the behavior of output per worker would be less sharp
than that shown in Table 36 for the output/gross tonnage quotient.
Probably output per worker rose substantially in both divisions
of the industry shown in the table, though somewhat more rapidly
in the first than in the second.