Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

The following is a list of money damage, as far as could be learned, to several of the raft-boats, with their tows, during season of 1881 :

[blocks in formation]

Being total loss of eighteen boats, or an average of about $2,500 for each boat. As there were some seventy-five boats in active service, the total loss in 1881 may be estimated in this way at about $187,500.

[From letter of Turner, Hollingshead & Co., Lansing, Iowa.]

LANSING, IOWA, January 2, 18×2.

DEAR SIR: We are in receipt of a notice sent to the Daniel Shaw Lumber Company, of Eau Claire, Wis., and forwarded by them to us. We handle the above company's lumber on the Mississippi River; also that of the Chippewa Lumber and Boom Company, of Chippewa Falls, Wis., and of the Badger State Lumber Company, of Eau Claire. For the three lumber firms above mentioned we run this past season, from the mouth of the Chippewa to Saint Louis and intermediate points, 80,000,000 feet of lumber and 50,000,000 laths and shingles. My reasons for making this statement you will notice farther on. We are not prepared to give you any correct statement as to damages sustained by us in handling the above amount of lumber, as we have kept no account of such damages; and I think you will find this to be the case generally. While we could not give you anything like an exact account of actual damage by the bridges, we could make a statement of this kind: that we would have transported this lumber the past season, from the mouth of the Chippewa to Saint Louis and points between the above-named places, at a certain amount less if it was not for the bridges and their dangerous approaches. For instance, had we run this 80,000,000 feet to Saint Louis, we would have contracted with the lumber companies to run or transport it for 25 cents less per M than our present contract prices; if to Hannibal, Mo., at 20 cents less; if to any point between Le Claire, Iowa, and Montrose, Iowa, for 15 cents less; if to Dubuque, or any point between Dubuque and Le Claire, for 10 cents less. If the receipts of lumber delivered at above points during the past season were estimated at the above prices, viz, 25, 20, 15, and 10 cents per M, it would give a more correct estimate than you can possibly get any other way.

Very respectfully,

Capt. A. MACKENZIE.

TURNER, HOLLINGSHEAD & CO.

I have obtained statistics of lumber rafted to and manufactured at the various points on the Upper Mississippi River, and, following the suggestion of Turner, Hollingshead & Co., arrive at the following results for 1880:

To Le Claire and points above, 278,293,000 feet, at 10 cents
To points between Le Claire and Montrose, 376,249,000 feet, at 15 cents
To points between Montrose and Hannibal, 264,820,000 feet, at 20 cents
To Saint Louis, 229,560,000 feet, at 25 cents

$27,829

56, 437 52, 964 57, 390

Total amount that could be saved to consumers were there no bridges. 194, 620 If we make a comparison of the three estimates of loss and damage to lumber interests above given, adding a reasonable amount for loss

by accident and delay to freight and passenger boats and barges, we may fairly estimate the total loss to the interests of navigation at least $175,000 per annum, solely due to the existence of bridges across the Mississippi River.

Every bridge that may in the future be built will add its quota to that amount. Assuming that 70 per cent. of this loss might be avoided by proper structures at the various bridges, it becomes evident that $122,000 per annum can be saved by such improvements. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

The CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, U. S. A.

A. MACKENZIE,
Captain of Engineers.

[blocks in formation]

A resolution of the House of Representatives, transmitting estimates of pensions for Mexican war and certain Indian wars.

MARCH 27, 1882.—Referred to the Committee on Pensions and ordered to be printed.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

Washington, March 23, 1882.

SIR: In reply to a resolution of the House of Representatives, passed on the 10th instant, requesting "the Secretary of the Interior to prepare and have printed for the use of the House an estimate of the supposed cost of allowing pensions to all the present survivors and the widows of those who may have deceased of the Mexican war, and also of the Indian wars prior to 1846, with the supposed number of such survivors and widows; also an estimate of the cost of such pensions limited to such survivors as shall have attained the age of sixty-five, and such additional information in the premises as he may think useful,” I have the honor to inclose herewith a letter from the Commissioner of Pensions, giving the estimates requested and setting forth the grounds upon which the estimates are based. Referring to the request that the estimates be printed by this department, I would state that the paper cannot be printed by this department as an executive document, and that it is a matter of doubt whether the appropriation for printing for the Department of the Interior can properly be used for printing for the use of Congress.

[blocks in formation]

PENSION OFFICE,

Washington, D. C., March 21, 1882.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of House resolution dated March 10, 1882, requesting the Secretary of the Interior—

To prepare, and have printed for the use of the House, an estimate of the supposed cost of allowing pensions to all the present survivors and the widows of those who

may have deceased of the Mexican war, and also of the Indian wars prior to 1846, with the supposed number of such survivors and widows; also an estimate of the cost of such pensions limited to such survivors as shall have attained the age of sixty-five, and such additional information in the premises as he may think usefuland in reply to said resolution to submit the following report:

MEXICAN WAR.

In a former report made by me on this subject it was stated, as a basis of calculation, that at the close of the war with Mexico there survived 66,087 soldiers who had received an honorable discharge from the service. These figures mainly were taken from a report made by the Adjutant-General of the Army, and were published in Executive Document No. 24, House of Representatives, first session Thirty-first Congress. In reaching this estimate, the naval force employed was estimated at 5,000, and the number who re-enlisted was given as 13,221, these figures having been given some years ago by the National Association of Mexican War Veterans.

The aggregate force employed in that war was 105,454.

Taking the 66,087 who were supposed to survive that war as the minimum, the following Table No. 1 will show the number who survive at each age, commencing with sixty-five:

[blocks in formation]

TABLE NO. 2.

Number of surviving soldiers and the widows of those who served in the war with Mexico, at the age of 65 years, with the cost of pension at the rate of $96 per annum for each class; also the number who would probably survive at each age after becoming 65 years old, and the cost of pension for each age, computed on the basis of 76,382, who survived at the close of that war, at an average age of 26 years.

To estimate the number of widows who survive must be largely conjectured, but as affording information on the subject I have assumed that 90 per cent. of those who left the service, and afterwards deceased, were married, and applied the same ratio of deaths to the widows as in the case of the survivors.

Other official records, since examined, show a larger number in that war than was first reported, principally in the Regular Army, which, with the estimated 5,000 in the Navy, would bring the aggregate force employed up to 110,966, instead of 105,454, as before reported.

The re-enlistment reported is also believed to be higher than proper. There were 29,098 volunteers who had a term of service one year and less, and it is believed that an estimate of one-third for re-enlistments would be the maximum, and this, added to the 524 who re-enlisted in the Regular Army, and the 3,830 who had been pensioned, and the deaths and desertions before reported, would leave as a basis for computation 76,382 who survived at the close of the war, instead of 66,087, as before reported.

The following table shows the number who would survive at the ages before mentioned, or the higher number, and will, it is believed, represent a maximum.

This latter estimate has been subject to such test as the allowances of bounty land warrants for service in that war would permit.

The same rule in reaching the number of surviving widows is used as in the first table.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »