Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-09
PITTSBURG'S CHANCE.
The Claims of the Erie Ship Canal to
Be Presented Before the
DEEP WATERWAYS CONVENTION.
James A. Henderson Will Represent the
keystone State.
THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE OHIO RIVER

On Thursday, December IL, representa-
tiyes interested in the inland water naviga
tion of the United States will meet in De.
troit to attend what is styled the Deep
Waterways Convention, the primary
object being 10 urgeupon the Government
and nation at large the importance OF
making the channels of the lakes and theil
harbors deep enough for safe navigation fol
vessels drawing 20 or 21 feet Of water, and
at the same time TO discuss the advisability
Of digging canal TO connect the lakes with
the ocean, the proposed canal, of course, to
accommodate vessels of the draft spoken OF.
Since the whsleback has demonstrated
the feasibility of the United States
revolutionizing the carrying trade oi
the world at 90 per cent Of the
cost of the present merchant marine al
Clyde prices, the lake shippers and navi-
gators have awakened to the Importance OF
channels sufficiently deep TO accommodate
vessels several times the tonnage of the
McDougal whalebacll that lately steamed
from Duluth to Liverpool. All the trades
and professions of Detroit have joined to
make the convention a success.
James A. Henderson VIII Attend.
They asked Governor Pattison to attend,
and he replied that he could not, but sug-
gested that they invite the men he ap-
pointed delegates to the Evansville con-
vcntion, and they have acted on the sug-
gestion, and James A. Henderson, of this
city, has been asked to go, and will be on
hand.
At the Detroit convention the advantages
of a canal from this city to Lake Erie
should be urged strongly, as the great
minded men who have made those cities can
easily be made see the mutual advantages to
be derived. Colonel T. p Roberts has fire.
quently called attention to the great posi-
bilities or rather certainties, that would
accrue from such a work, but they should
be repeated and dwelt upon until they take
possession of the public ear.
But there is another matter of great i'm
portance that should also be kept before the
public, and that is the necessity of improv-
ing the Ohio river by slack-watering it.
Railroads cannot do the heavy freight busi-
ness of this country now, even at the great
cost of carriage and what will be the con-
dition when the West, Northwest and
Southwest are as densely populated as the
Middle States? But the cost of improving
the Ohio river would be less than that of
building one great trunk line railway and it
would enable us TO move more freight than
all the railways in the country can handle
and reach by means of short railway con-
nections every place of note in all those
sections. We cannot depend on the su-
periority OF our coal for supremacy, for in
time the South will take away a vast part of
our market if we do nothing to stop it.
The Home of Heavy Freight.
As this city originates more heavy freight
than the entire Atlantic seaboard, the cost
of handling il is of first Importance, and the
following table of comparative rates in six
classes of freight is of interest Twenty-Five
TO 80 per cent difference between water and
rail freights between Pittsburg and Cincin-
natl or Louisville; Il to 39 per cent between
Pittsburg and st. Louis, and 40 to SO per
cent between Pittsburg and New Orleans
are extremely interesting items when it is
considered that in dull times this saving
may be all the profit obtainable from the
manufacture of an article. Following is the
table: