48 HAUPT— EMANCIPATION OF THE WATERWAYS. [April 12. 



canal to connect the Ohio river at Beaver with Lake Erie at 

 Ashtabula, so that the congestion of the trade in coal, iron and 

 steel may be raised and the price of these commodities be reduced, 

 but in vain. In this district the annual tonnage now exceeds 86,- 

 000,000 which is greater than that of any port in the world, and 

 the great rivers leading to the sea are not yet navigable for boats of 

 even six feet draught. They must wait for floods to float them to 

 the markets. What this means may be best shown by the experi- 

 ence of the season of 1895 when the coal which had been accumu- 

 lating from April 18 until November 28, seven months, and which 

 amounted to 1,200,000 tons was providentially released by a flood 

 only in time to prevent it being frozen in and a large part of it 

 lost. As it was, the cost of keeping the barges afloat amounted to 

 $2,000 a day. The value of the plant thus tied up was estimated 

 at $6,500,000. 



Although the improvement of this river has been discussed, sur- 

 veyed and frequently reported upon, the first dam, that at Davis 

 Island, was not opened until 1885 and since then another, at 

 Beaver, has been completed, twenty-eight miles below. Four 

 above and five below Beaver are under contract, but it is estimated 

 that between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati thirty-seven locks and 

 dams will be required and fourteen more below Cincinnati ; all for 

 a six-foot navigation, but already it is found insufficient and nine 

 feet are now required. At this rate it may well be asked when will 

 the 1,000 miles be available? This is all down grade and amongst 

 the cheapest systems in the world — on a six-foot draught the esti- 

 mated cost is .675 mills per ton-mile and on a nine-foot, .39 mill. 

 The lowest rail movement is believed to be that across the Lake 

 Divide, on the Bessemer and L. E. R. R. where the charge was 

 1.87 mills in 1901, and 2.10 mills in 1904 — or three times the 

 river rate. 



THE COASTWISE CANALS AND PRIVATE ENTERPRISE. 



Again for more than twenty years urgent demands have been 

 made for the creation of harbors of refuge along the New Jersey 

 coast, where there have been 368 wrecks in ten years, which is 

 recognized as one of the most dangerous on the great bay between 

 Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras, but while several estimates have 

 been submitted for projects costing from three to four millions 



