Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-23
LOSING THE CANAL.
Pittsburg May be Left by a Waterway
Through the Muskingum.
THE DANGER SIGNAL Is FLYING.
A Startling Phase of the Canal Project tt
the Lakes Crops Out.
CHEAP FREIGHT, THE vExED PROBLEM

/
burg and Lake Erie Canal project will meet
Governor Beaver at the Anderson Hotel to-
morrow.
Ii they can catch the spirit of all who
have investigated the subject it will spare
no effort to do its work thoroughly. Day by
day the matter assumes more importance.
Not only would the slackwatering
of the Ohio to point be-
low = Beaver shoals extend the
period of navigation some months each
year, but practical men have been figuring
and have decided that the canal can be con-
structed beyond any doubt within the
amount originally estimated. The piles to
protect the banks can be driven and as soon
| as a channel is partially cut the work of
| degradation can be largely performed by
turning In the water on the upper levels.
ihe river has taken away more islands with
In the memory of man than would amount
to many times the amount contained in the
course OF such canal, and it has not inter
fered with navigation in the least.
There will not be nearly So much lifting
as some people suppose. Four or five miles
above the mouth of the Beaver, the country
from there to the dividing ridge in Northern
Ohio, is comparatively level, and people
are anxious to know the elevations and how
long time would likely be necessary to
construct the canal. 1t appears that many
Cincinnati people take nearly as much in
terest in the project as do Pittsburgers.
THE PORK cITY's INTEREST
1t is said that Cincinnati now virtually
controls the Kanawha trade. Her capital
is largely interested there, and with better
draft of water, a larger term of navigation
and some days start In getting to the mouth
of the kanawha they have nothing to fear
from Pittsburg coal. They would like to
see the Ohio up this way improved, how
ever, in the interest of general commerce,
and it is comforting to know that opposition
would not be likely to come from that quar-
ter.
While it is true that by operating on a
large scale there is some money in the coal
business for this section under present condi-
tions, it is but little compared with what
goes to dealers at the other end of the line,
and there would be an indefinite expansion
of Pittsburg commerce with the Northwest
could coal be delivered there cheaper than
now. 1t would practically give all that
country as a market for Pittsburg
products. Coal is now mined on the Monon-
gahela and put aboard cars at 80 cents a ton.
It costs 81 65 per ton to haul it to Chicago,
and it there sells at So 25 per ton. This
makes the handling profitable, in Chicago
operators getting seven-ninths as much for
handling as the producer gets for the article,
mining and loading all combined. Even if
transportation by water should cost 80 cents
ton fuel could be furnished so cheaply in
lake ports that all competition would be
distanced.
Mr.. c. Kimberland calls attention to the
fact that water communication between the
lakes and the Ohio will not always be pre-
vented, and that if it is not from this region
it will be by the Muskingum river, and this
will set this section back Indefinitely, so far
as coal, iron and general commercial inter-
ests are concerned, for when coal veins
varying from eight to 13 feet are opened and
coal dumped into model barges, run down
the Kanawha and up the Muskingum, and
thence to Lake Erie, from coal lands costing
from IS to $40 an acre, Pittsburg operators
may hang the trumpet in the hall and study
competition no more.
NATURAL ADVANTAGES OVER.
Continuing, he said:
''There is one thing the average Pitts
burger wants to learn and learn it quickly,
and that is that the natural advantages
which have in the past done so much to
make this neighborhood rich, are largely
thing of the past and that water that has
passed the mill grinds no corn. We have
natural gas, but so has much of the West.
1t has also some fuel, and in those inland
towns light manufacturing can be
carried on as we'll as anywhere
else, and they have an advantage
in reaching after Western development in
the matter of freight rates, an advantage
that possesses peculiar significance under
the operation of the interstate commerce
law. In the South the coal and iron inter-
ests are growing yearly, and will continue
to grow, and there are places in the south
ern mountains where coal iron ore and lime
stone are found close together in the same
hills. There is no longer old-tlme profit in
carrying coal to Cincinnati and Louisville,
and, in a year or two more, to carry it to
Memphis and below will be veritable scar
rying Goals to New Castle"
A business man said last
night: "New York may be penurious when
the subject of building monuments is up for
discussion, but if she had Pittsburg's coal |
and gas and other facilities for making iron,
glass, etc., tell you she would have the |
Erie Canal widened and deepened sufficient |
ly to supply all requirements before next |
fall. II this work is to be done by Congress
that body should be supplied with all the
essential knowledge in the case as soon as it |
meets in December, and practical business |
men should be able to report before that |
time The $40, 900 they have to expend in |
their examinations will buy all the expert |
knowledge needed and secure its delivery in |
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