reach Fort William; but, as a
matter of fact, her wheat can seldom reach Fort William before the
close of navigation; so she must pay twenty-five cents more to send her
wheat on down to St. John, and five to six cents from St. John to
Liverpool, or in all fifty-five cents. The Alberta rate is twenty-two
cents plus a fraction to Vancouver, or forty-five cents to Liverpool.
Now, Alberta wants to know: Why is she charged twenty-two and a
fraction cents for six hundred fifty miles west, and only twenty-five
cents for one thousand two hundred miles east?

There is the nub and the rub and the hub of the whole thing, and the
discrimination bears just as vitally on fruit and dairy products and
lumber and coal as on wheat. It is a question that has to be settled
in Canada within the next few years, or her west-bound traffic will
build up Portland and Seattle instead of Vancouver and Prince Rupert.

The whole problem of the effect of Panama is so new in Canada that data
do not exist to make comparisons; but details have been carefully
gathered by American ports, and the cases are a close enough parallel
to illustrate what Panama means in the world of traffic to-day.
Freight on a car of Washington lumber to New York is from three hundred
ninety-five to four hundred eleven dollars; by water, the freight is
from one hundred to one hundred and seventy-five dollars. To bring a
car of Washington fir diagonally across the continent to Norfolk costs
eighty-five cents a hundred weight. To bring it round by Panama costs
twenty cents, or to ship the very same cargo from Norfolk to
England--which many southern dealers are now doing--costs twelve to
fifteen cents, including the handling at both ends. Dry goods from New
York to Texas by water cost eighty-nine cents; by rail, one dollar and
eighty-two cents. Oranges by rail from the Pacific to the Atlantic
cost twenty-three dollars a ton; by water before the canal opened,
breaking bulk twice, ten dollars, and through the canal, when bulk is
not broken, will cost only five to eight dollars. On oranges alone
California will save twenty million dollars a year shipping via Panama.
The Balfour-Guthrie firm of Antwerp can ship a ton of groceries from
Europe to Los Angeles round the Horn for the same amount the Southern
Pacific ships that ton from Los Angeles to San Francisco--namely, six
dollars plus. The rail rate on salt in Washington is eight dollars
seventy cents for eighty-eight miles;