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The Decline of the Great Lakes Package-Freight Carriers*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Daniel O. Fletcher
Daniel O. Fletcher
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Economics, The Ohio State University
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Abstract

Once a flourishing transportation agency, the Great Lakes package-freight carriers passed through a period of decay and disappeared during World War II. This article analyzes the economic factors causing the diversion of traffic that was the primary reason for the decline of the package freighters.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , Winter 1962 , pp. 387 - 407
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1962

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References

1 Transportation Act of 1940, U.S. Statutes at Large, LIV, p. 898, Section 303(b), p. 931.

2 U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers, Transportation on the Great Lakes (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1926), p. 373Google Scholar; U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers, Transportation on the Great Lakes (Rev. ed.; Washington: Government Printing Office, 1930), p. 357.Google Scholar

3 U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers, The Ports of Buffalo, New York, and Erie, Pennsylvania (Lake Series No. 1, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1952), p. 134Google Scholar; U.S. Congress, House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, Hearings, Conversion of Certain Vessels to Types Suitable for Use on the Great Lakes, 81st Cong., 1st Sess. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1949), pp. 94–195.Google Scholar

4 Minnesota-Atlantic Transit Company Control, 250 ICC 85, 90 (1941).

5 U.S. Commissioner of Corporations, Report on Transportation by Water in the United States, Part IV (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1913), Table 1, p. 56.Google Scholar

6 Lake Line Applications, 33 ICC 699, 709 (1915).

7 Lake Line Applications, 33 ICC 699, (1915).

8 “Boat Line Ownership,” Traffic World, XVII (March 4, 1916), p. 469.

9 Minnesota-Atlantic Transit Company Control, 250 ICC 85 (1941).

10 U.S. Commissioner of Corporations, Report on Transportation by Water, Part I, p. 260.

11 Rotes via Rail-and-Lakes Routes, 37 ICC 302, 305 (1915); U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission, Bureau of Transport Economics and Statistics, Selected Financial and Operating Statistics from Annual Reports of Carriers by Water (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1920–1942).Google Scholar

12 U.S. Statutes at Large, XXIV, p. 379.

13 Jurisdiction over Water Carriers, 15 ICC 205, 207 (1909).

14 ICC v. Goodrich Transit Co., 224 U.S. 194 (1912).

15 U.S. Statutes at Large, XXXVII, pp. 560, 568.

16 Ibid., pp. 566–67.

17 Ibid., p. 567.

18 Lake Line Applications, 33 ICC 699, 709 (1915).

19 Ibid.; Lehigh Valley R.R. Co. v. U.S. and ICC, 243 U.S. 412 (1917).

20 Application of Grand Trunk Ry. Co. of Canada, 43 ICC 286 (1917).

21 Five Per Cent Case, 31 ICC 351 (1914).

22 Rates Via Rail-and-Lake Routes, 37 ICC 302 (1915).

23 Eastern Class-Rate Investigation, 164 ICC 314, 456 (1930).

24 Lake-and-Rail Butter and Egg Rates, 29 ICC 45 (1914).

25 “Joint Rail and Water Rates,” Traffic World, LXVIII (September 6, 1941), p. 570.

26 Boston Wool Trade Association v. A. and K. Ry. Co., 142 ICC 39, 42 (1928).

27 Transcontinental Cases of 1922, 74 ICC 48, 60 (1922).

28 Sugar from California to Chicago, 211 ICC 239 (1935).

29 Application of American Barge Line Co., 190 ICC 177 (1932), p. 180.

30 See above.

31 Commercial Club of Duluth v. B.&O.R.R. Co., 27 ICC 639 (1913); Second Duluth Case, 46 ICC 585 (1917).

32 Twin City Case, 33 ICC 577 (1915).

33 Western Trunk Line Class Rates, 164 ICC 1, 212, 213 (1930).

34 Eastern Class Rate Investigation, 164 ICC 314, 457 (1930).

35 Lake and Rail Class and Commodity Rates, 205 ICC 101 (1935).

36 Eastern Class Rate Investigation, 164 ICC 314, 455 (1930).

37 Sugar Cases of 1933, 195 ICC 127 (1933).

38 Differential Routes to Central Territory, 211 ICC 403 (1935); 218 ICC 611 (1936).

39 Newsprint Paper to Central and Trunk-Line Territories, 215 ICC 191 (1936); Newsprint from Eastern Canada, 219 ICC 397 (1936); Newsprint Paper, Paper Articles, and Paperboards, 219 ICC 513 (1936).

40 U.S. Army, Chief of Engineers, Annual Report, Part II (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1931–1939).Google Scholar

41 U.S. Board of Investigation and Research, The National Traffic Pattern (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1945), p. 83.Google Scholar

42 Automobile Manufacturers Association, Motor Truck Facts (Detroit, 1959), p. 14.Google Scholar

43 U.S. Board of Investigation and Research, National Traffic Pattern, pp. 64–65.

44 Ibid., p. 58.

45 U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission, Selected Statistics from Annual Reports of Carriers by Water (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1925–1942).Google Scholar

46 U.S. Commissioner of Navigation, Annual Report (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1918), p. 69Google Scholar; Fay, , Spofford, , and Thorndike, , Great Lakes Commerce and the Port of Oswego, New York (Boston, 1925), vol. I, p. E–27.Google Scholar

47 U.S. Commissioner of Navigation, Annual Report, p. 52.

48 Figures were supplied by the M. A. Hanna Company of Cleveland, Ohio.

49 U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers, The Port of Chicago, Illinois (Lake Series No. 5, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1931, rev. 1939).Google Scholar

50 “The Shipping World” Yearbook (London, 1918–1939).