, 1879-02-09

I A writer from Morris, H., in The Tn1B.
| uSE yesterday, complaining for the people
Of Lockport: Joliet, Morris, and places
| further down tho line of the canal, pro-
tests against the use Of the canal for car
ryins of the bad-smelling waters of the
Chicago River. He represents the suffarings
of those neighborhoods Us intolerable, and in
Inmates that, in sef-defense, mob may
lynch the canal by choking it with powders
aud other distinctions. We published the
letter because it expressed fully the extraya~
gance, foolishness, and inconsiderateness of
the complaint generally.
In the first plnce. the complaint is vastly
exaggerated When the winter is severe, as
it hns been this year, the canal is frozen
in places considerable part Of its
whole depth, leaving but small and
contracted outlet for the water. This
year the water, from the time it left
Chicago until it reached the Lockport dam,
passed under the ice, and therefore was not
purified BY exposure to the mir during its
journey, and when it escaped from its icy
cover the foul gases escaped at the samo
tune. This condition Of things does not o.
cur in open winters, nor is it generally of long
duration. So soon as the ice is removed and
the volume of water enlarged and exposed
to the air, the unsavory odors lose their in-
tensiiy. Here in Chicago, whero this foul
water originates, it ceases to ba offensive, or
even noticed, SO long as the canal is open
and the watoS allowed to flow freely away.
This is the case during the greater part of
the year, aud the peculiar annoyance Of this
winter is due to the almost uuexampled se-
verify of the season.
1t is necessity that the canal must be
supplied with water from the luke The
State began the construction of the canal
near}y half century ago. It under
took to e1cavate, not ship"
canal, rs our correspondent absurdly
ilragines, through which sailing vessels
from the lakes we're to navigate; but tho
purpose wGs to conuectt the steamboat nnyi-
CATION Of the Western rivers with that of the
lakes. The original design was to secure by
the deep-cut depth of water sufficient to
float the Mississippi and Ohio River steam
of water wholly impossible in the canal. If
the State could now widen the canal to 12O
feet, and SO deepen it is to give steamers
sufficient water,-say six or seven feet.-the |
original purpose would be fully accomplish
ed, and there would never be lack of water |
in the canal or river at any season OF nevica- !
t'on. The canal, however, was constructed |
on the narrow and shallow cut, the lake I
water having to be pumped into it. Chicago
tue money aud cut the canal five or |
six feet deeper than the surface OF the lake,
dispensing with the pumps, and the Stntc
accepted the work and pnid for it. To |
render it complete the canal should be |
widened TO about 12o feet ut tho surface,
and made about seven feet deep in the clear.
The flow of water would then be almost rs
pura as if there were no Chicago at this end |
of the ditch. II the State intends to nlaip-
Eain the canal at all, it should scoop out the
bed to proper width. Eas the real remedy
$ for the public opinion of Illinois to de-
nand Of its Representatives in Congress IN
United and perserer'ng effort to have this
:annl accepted By the Government free of
lost from the State, and have it completed
or steamboat navigation as q free national
'ighway, connecting the Mississippi with
be lakes. It was never intended that the
anal should be q mere prison for little
orse-boats. The whole scheme conte1n-
lated broad steamboat waterway, through
'hich the water Of Lake Michigan should
ow freely, continuously, and sufficiently TO
urnish both canal and river with unbroken
avigation throughout the season.
Our correspondent writes seemingly in
ympathy with that feeling-so common in
artain parts Of the state-ot doing anything
, annoy Chicago. He, seems to think that
would injure Chicago TO close up the
anal, and therefore. be thinks the canal
,ould be closed. :. The canal is the common
roperty Of the'state, and the fact that it is
ot as wide, nof' as deep, and does not carry
us much water as it might and ought to !
,, is not the fault OF Chicago. ANY scheme
improve and enlarge the canal and to | ]