The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-07-12
CHEAP TRANSPORTATION.
New Convention for the Hen
nepin Canal.
Opinions on the Water Cour-
ses generally.

1t is well to know that the recent effort
to secure canal from the river at this
point to Hennepin has not been totally for
gotten, although after the convention at
Davenport it would have been difficult to
state where the Hennepin canal came in,
A. new convention, and it is to be hoped
a canal convention, has been called to meet
at Chicago, when the generalities about
cheap transportation at the Davenport
convention will be called out, and few
resolutions approving canal will be pass
ed. In that event some good may result,
and ultimately the canal may be built, but
it would require several hundred such
gatherings as that held at Davenport to
effect the least change in the congressional
heart so far as appropriations are con-
eerned
The meeting of the committee having
the work of new convention in charge,
will meet in Chicago next Thursday at II
o'clock. A full attendance is requested.
RIVER CONVENTION.
The chief local object of interest and
concern to the people of the ten states
bordering on the Mississippi river, is the
Mississippi river itself /; and the chief OBJ
ject of these ten states and of the seven
others drained by its tributaries, ought to
be the Improvement of that great stream.
If there be doubts of the national charac
ter and importance of other large rivers of
the United States there cannot be doubt
as to the national character and importance
of stream which, beginning on the north
ern boundary and reaching to the southern,
flows through the very heart of the coun
try, and with its Briarean tributaries indi
Gates its true configuration and points out
the ultimate groupings of its population.
The nationality of the great stream
being recognized, the necessity for its i'm
provement by liberal congressional boun
ties follows as corollary. The river is of
incalculable benefit to the country, not
only to those regions which border on it,
but to regions remote from it also; for it
has been demonstrated that the cheapening
of freight rates down the river from st.
Louis to New Orleans has the effect of
cheapening rates by rail across the land
frsm ST. Louis and Chicago to New York,
besides. If the people of the West shall
demand of their representatives and sena-
tors in congress to assert and press their
claims until congress shall place the Miss
iSsippi on its schedule for liberal annual
appropriations, the man object will have
been gained. 1t will be time enough to
consider such kindred subjects as the i'm
provement of the tributaries and the dig
ging of canals to connect the Mississippi
with the lakes afterwards The first great
step in the improvement of Western navi-
CATION for the purpose of reducing the cost
of transportation is in the deepening of the
channel of the Mississippi alone, and the
people of the West ought not to suffer any
side issue to divert their attention from
this fact.
These remarks are suggested in part on
learning, as we do learn with pleasure, OF a
movement contemplated by the leading
members of our Merchants exchange and
other enterprising citizens to hold con
vention in this city sometime in the fall,
say during our annual fair, to discuss the
material interests of the Mississippi valley,
to which assenblage the leading congress
men and other representative gentlemen of
this grsat and growing section
shall be invited. Such convention, con-
ceived and managed in the right spirit,
would be sure to accomplish vast amount
of good, and we trust the movement may
be pushed forward vigorously and effect
ively.-St. Louis Republican.
THROWING COLD WATER.
The Henry County Neaos, in a recent is
sue, contains the following:
The very worst calamity that can befall
any enterprise is too many fool friends.
We had at any time rather see a meritor
ious enterprise furiously fought by open
enemies, than to see it made a hulk for
fool-friend barnacles to cling to. Now,
the gentlemen who 'tgo in" for a ship canal
from Rock Island to Chicago, undoubtedly
mean well enough; but they should reflect
that by loading down the demand upon
congress, the thing will sink of its own
weight. and we will get nothing. A good
barge canal will do very well. 1t is just
what is needed by commerce. We can not
see that ship canal will be of much adj
vantage, for these very evident reasons:
river steamer is SO constructed as to sit
high upon the water. Very few OF the up
per river boats draw more than two or
three feet of water. Such boat on Lake
Michigan, or any of the other lakes, would
be as helpless as a balloon, in a gale of
wind. They would be pounded to pieces
by the pillows in short order. And the
lake boats, which draw, many of them.
from fifteen to twenty feet of water, could
not be navigated On the river. They could
not be taken over the rapids, nor brought
near enough any wharf to admit
Of loading and unloading. This is the case,
as any unprejudiced man will admit.
The river steamers, if they could get to
Chicago through the canal, void have to
break bulk there, and the cargo be reload
ed into lake vessels for transportation to
the seaboard. This breaking of bulk might
as well be done at Rock Island. The steam
ers from the upper and lower Mississippi
would then flock in great argosies to Rock
Island, where their cargos would be trans
ferred to barges, and conveyed by them to
Chicago These barges, sitting low in the
water, and having no balloon-shaped up
per decks or rigging can ride out the
storms of the lakes in safety. when towed
and managed by lake tugs or propellors. |
Thus the barges could travel from Rock
Island straight through to New York, Bos-
ten, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and all the
great cities of the east. We have faith to
believe that the 'boom" given by the canal
convention in Davenport, will result in the
canal being built, and that in the very near
future. But it viii be a barge canal, not
ship canal. Asking for ship canal is |
very apt to result in the utter failure of
the whole business. The congress owes
the canal to the Northwest, region which |
has asked and received few fayors from |