Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-07-17
IT'S NATIONAL IMPORTANCE

The Hennep N Canal Above Merely
Local A.yiew From Wash
ington
During the controver sy over the routes
for the Hennepin canal. The ARGUS firm
~ maintained that the canal itself as a
measure of national importance wss par,
amount 10 local interests AID the strifes
incidental thereto. The Washington
correspondent of the Chicago News thus
links the Hennepin canal with the bust
ness of ship building on the lakes:
Capt. W. W. Bates. chief of the bureau
of navigation, treasury department. takes
great interest in the rapidly growing
ship-building industry along the lakes
| and he predicts that the time will soon
come when tce lake ship builders will
practically monopol re the ship building
| industry of the entire country. Speaking
| of recent awsrl of a number of contracts
| for vessels for the lighthouse service,
several of which are TO be used on the
sescoast, Capt. Bates said that the sue
cess of the lake builders in these in
stances is due to two primo causes. In
the first place raw material is right at
hand and in the second place the bust
| ness men of the lake regions are far more
| energetic and pushing than those of the
old, almost played out ports of the At
lsntic.
The recent action of McDougsll in
sending vessels of the new type, known
as whslebscKs, through the rapids of the
St. Lawrence to the seaboard TO be used
in transatlantic commerce" said the com
| missioner, "opens up an entirely new
method of carrying ocean freights 1t
has shown the people of the east that the
lakes are ahead of them in the matter of
designing ships and in bu lding them for
| freighting purposes, and l am of the
| opinion that the tine is soon coming
when those economic types will be used
largely in the ocean trade.
bat there is enc serious difficulty
which must be overcome before we can
hope to secure the business for the lake
ship yards which they may reasonably
hope to gain in time That difficulty is
the absence of direct and easy cOmmuui-
! cation between the lakes and the high
seas. At present large vessels built in
the yards of the lakes cannot be taken to
the sesboard without enormous expense
l do not think that the people of
this country appreciate the im>
| portance of securing an internal
waterway between the lakes and
| the coast. If this could be Thoroughly
understood in congress there would be no
| dilly-dallYing with the Hsnnepin canal
| project, but it would be CONSTRUCTED at
once. As rule the advocates of the
canal project lay altogether too much
stress upon the local impor auce o; the
work. 1t is in its bearings 10 the nation
al welfare that il is important, and the
beredt of such canal u the snip 0uild
| ing interests of the lakes is 81 nply meal
| culable. There are at least six months
IN each year wheL it is possible 10 reach
the sea By the way OF the Mississippi
with the largest class of vessels, and if a
connection could be established between
the Mississippi and Lake Michigan of
| sufficient depth to accommodate vessels
| fitted for the ocean trade the surplus
shipping of the lakes would find profit
able employment, hundreds more ships
wou be built and the Gao lcity OF this
country for quickly fitting ont navy
would be 9uadrupled. -