NEWS AND NOTES 



515 



"I have seen the movement for a water- 

 way bond issue grow from a tiny thing to an 

 almost national demand." It has been and 

 is the practise of Congress to first provide 

 for all the legitimate needs of the Govern 

 ment. and then, if anything is left, to set it 

 aside for waterways, public buildings and so 

 forth. If all the revenues are needed for the 

 regular expenses of the national household, 

 it is the doubtful privilege of the friends ot 

 internal improvements to hold the bag. I 

 venture to say that if the Government is to 

 enter upon a policy of favoring systematic 

 internal improvements, a regular annual 

 budget should be provided for that purpose, 

 the same as for the army and navy and all 

 other departments. 



"An issue of two or three per cent bonds 

 to the amount of $500,000,000, to be distrib- 

 uted over a period of, say, ten years, will 

 suffice to complete all great waterway pro- 

 jects whose improvement has received the 

 official recommendation of the United States 

 engineer corps, and will forever solve the_ 

 problem of the permanent improvement of 

 our great waterways. 



"I am well aware of the existing preju- 

 dice in some sections against an issue of 

 bonds in time of peace, but that prejudice 

 does not exist in the district which I have 

 the honor to represent. This prejudice would 

 be justified if the Government proposed to 

 mortgage the future in order to meet its 

 running expenses. But in the contemplated 

 waterway-bond issue an extraordinary ex- 

 penditure would be made, with a return for 

 every dollar, and with all the guaranties of a 

 permanent investment for the lasting benefit 

 of the present as well as future generations.'' 



The River as a Carrier 



John Callan O'Laughlin gives an interest- 

 ing summary of the report of the board of 

 engineers appointed to investigate the matter 

 of a fourteen-foot channel between the Lakes 

 and the Gulf. 



This report, be it remembered, finds that 

 the plan is feasible, but recommends against 

 it. The report stated, as we remember, that 

 $150,000,000 would be required to put four- 

 teen feet from New Orleans to Chicago, and 

 $5,000,000 a year would be needed to main- 

 tain it. In these days of rapid development 

 the commission felt that these figures would 

 show the plan to be futile. 



It we were to get fourteen feet from Chi- 

 cago to New Orleans it would be equal to all 

 the freight a six-track railway could haul. 

 And a six-track railway between Chicago 

 and New Orleans would cost ,probably, 

 $400,000,000. The $5,000,000 for upkeep is 

 a bagatelle. The Illinois Central spends more 

 than that amount for the upkeep of its lines 

 from Cairo to New Orleans. 



In order to secure the benefits of cheap 



transportation by water, more is necessary 



than merely a channel. The railroads of 



this country, like the railroads of Germany, 



6 



France, and England, will eventually come 

 to that condition where certain heavy mate- 

 rial cannot be hauled by them at a profit, 

 lu these countries coal, rock, lime, salt, wood, 

 cement, and brick are hauled by barges 

 through canals or on rivers. 



Heavy structural iron is hauled on the 

 rivers for the reason that cars in England 

 are not made for the transportation of this 

 heavy material. 



Tliere is established in these countries, as 

 it were, a community of interest between 

 railroads and river transporting companies. 

 Switch-yards are established on every water- 

 front. The unloading of boats is done by 

 electrical machinery, and the transferring to 

 cars is done in the same way. 



There is a public warehouse at every 

 water-front in these countries, and goods are 

 carried by machinery into these warehouses 

 and are distributed. 



The time will come in this country when 

 the conditions will force traffic into the 

 water, and this is the main reason why the 

 continued work of the improvement of the 

 rivers should be pushed. Memphis Commer- 

 cial-Appeal. 



& & & 



The Lesson of the " Soo " 



That the loss in a single year from the 

 discontinuance of the operation of the canals 

 at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and Ontario, 

 would amount to between $300,000,000 and 

 $400,000,000 in added freights alone, is a fact 

 developed since the recent temporary loss of 

 control of the waters of the Canadian canal 

 at that point. The engineers of the War 

 Department furnish the figures which make- 

 it possible to reckon this loss and, incident- 

 ally, to throw a strong light on the value 

 to the country of such aids to commerce as 

 these canals. 



St. Mary's River connects lakes Superior 

 and Huron and around its falls are built the 

 canals. That on the Canadian side has one 

 lock, while the American canal has two 

 locks, side by side. A vessel jammed its 

 way through the Canadian lock on June 9 

 and the torrents followed it and became 

 uncontrollable. For two weeks the engineers 

 of two nations were puzzled as to the manner 

 of shutting off that flow ; but the feat was 

 finally accomplished. 



But before this had been done the ques- 

 tion was raised as to what would be the 

 result if the onrush could not be stopped and 

 a similar accident happened on the Amer- 

 ican side. The answer as to freight advances 

 was given in exact figures by Government 

 engineers who for years have kept tab on 

 the freight that passes through these canals, 

 but the damage to business generally is be- 

 yond computation. The freight accustomed 

 to these water-rates would have had to go 

 by rail and would have cost, on the basis 

 of the figures for 1007, $364,000,000, whereas 

 bv water the cost would be but $38,000,000. 

 These actual figures compiled by the Govern- 

 ment engineers show that freight hauled by 



