The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-04-26
TWO BIG CANALS.
Congress Considering the Prac-
ticability of a Scheme,
To Save Great Distances in
transportation.
STARVED TO DEATH.
Sad Ending of a Brilliant Wash
ington Belle.


The house committee railways and ca
mails is struggling vigorously with several
matters which have been comparatively
neglected until few days past, and the
subcommittee is investigating the bills
for canals The great project of a ship ca
nal from the Mississippi to Lake Superior
has got so far to demand serious atten-
ton, and Hon Mr. Kiefer of Minnesota,
who introduced the principal bill, has Sc
cured many favorable opinions for it. His
proposed canal would start at ST. Paul,
follow the Mississippi to near it's head and
then go through chain of lakes to Duluth,
thus describing a complete senicircle. An
other route advocated is up the St. Croix
to its head and then across the summit
level by way of numerous lakes, and a
third leaves the St. Croix and follows up
an eastern branch of it, running into Du-
luth from the south All these are far
north of the much discussed Hennepin ca
nal, and it is easy to figure on the basis of
existing transportation what the gains
would be-
Reduction In transportation Rates.
Last year about II, 900, 600 tons of freight
passed over the 500 canal of which
about s. 900, 900 tons went to points on the
proposed canal. At the ordinary reduction
from railroad rates the canal would have
saved 50, 100000 on that amount. It is
claimed that the saving would be 10 cents
per barrel on the 5OO 600 barrels of flour
shipped from Minneapolis on this route,
and of course the cheaper transportation
for coal would greatly increase its con-
sumption by the prairie states in the north
west. The engineers estimates of the ca
nal vary all the way from SIS, 900, 600 to
nearly twice as much.
The hearings and arguments on the pro-
posed Niagara ship canal are also quite in
teresting. The bills introduced by Mr..
Chickering of New York and Mr.. Powers
of Vermont are almost identical, and &
general hearing preparatory to final action
is to be had within day or two. The
proposition is for a ship canal from the
great lakes to the Hudson. Another and a
rather surprising proposition is for an en-
larged canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio
river to start at a point near Erie, Pa,
and terminate near Pittsburg. The pres
ent bill, which provides only for a survey,
was favorably reported to the Fifty -second
congress from this committee, but not
acted upon, and present indications are
that all bills appropriating money for any
new scheme Will be ignored by this house
Financial Matters.
The banking and currency committee CT
the house has before it IA bills for repeal
ing the tax on state bank circulation, and
yet those who have pOlled the house care
fully are not yet able to say positively that
they find q majority in favor of such re-
peal. Mr.. Swanson found about 16O pres
emit members in favor of repeal in various
ways and reported that enough of the abb
sentees were known to be of that line to
give a safe majority. 1t appears, however,
that about a third of those favOring the re-
peal do so on condition that state bank
money shall be surrounded by various fed
eral safeguards. In short, they would con-
sent to state banks of issue if they were
somewhat better braced than the present
national banks. In many sections of the
10 Ietf
ing in last summers panic than the ma
tional banks, and this fact is being used
for all it is worth in argument that the
present advantages of the state banks as
to security for deposits might be united
with the advantages of the national banks
as to security for bi1lhOlders, and thus
ideally perfect system established
The arguments pro and con before the
committee and the documents filed in sup
port thereof are enough to make a common
mans head ache, and this appears to be
one of the chief reasons why the measure
makes so little progress. The average man,
and therefore the average congressman, very
soon tires of disquisitions on finance, and
so far as an outsider can see the commit
tee is little if any nearer to a decision
than it was a month ago Altogether there
are &c bills before this committee to make
money plenty and the currency elastic. The
committee has devoted the most earnest
study and thought TO Mr.. Walkers bill to
reorganize the system of providing a ma
tiona1 currency, and just at present it
seems to have a fair chance of being ia
vored.
The hot fight between the Alexandra
and Mount Vernon railroad and real estate
owners as to the of the reclaimed flats
has been prolonged before the District
committee and in the city generally until
it has become a burden However, the
board of trade has at last decided over
whelmingly against allowing the railroad
to cross the flats, and this will probably
settle it unless there is some sly work be-
fore the committee.
A Sad Case.
The intelligence that the once beautiful
and brilliant wife of Attorney General
Williams had starved herself to death at
her Oregon home excited general regret
and much comment here. Although near
20 years have passed since she was the
reigning queen of official society and vir
tually mistress of social observances at the
White House, yet she is remembered with
admiration by every one who was then
here. Her case is remarkable as that of a
woman of beauty and talent whose early
life was stormy and trou bled to pitiful
degree and her later years unspeakably
sad, and yet the middle period of her life
brilliant and happy. When she went from
Iowa to Oregon it would have seemed to
an ordinary observer that a very retired
life was all that remained to her, yet she
married eminent judge, came to Wash
ington the wife of a senator and often
had occasion to extend social patronage to
those who had derided her in early wom
anhood. The end of it all was religious
fanaticism, voluntary starvation and death
in comparative obscurity.
A Noticeable Stir.
Although the advance members of Cox
ev'S army declare that it is the most peace