The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-06-22
IS A GRAND ACHIEVEMENT
THE RATIO CANAL IS OF GREAT
 BENEFIT TO GERMANY,

But the French Do Not Look Upon It With
 Kindly Eyes Because Germany Can
 Easily Throw Fleet of War ships on the
 North Coast of France.
 Dresden, June 15, 1895.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER;
 The German government have quite recently completed the canal upon
 which they have been at work since 1887; it Is one of the grandest achieve ments of the age, The Kiel canal con- meets the waters of the North Sea or
 German Ocean with those of the Baltic
 Sea, cutting off the great promontory
 or peninsula of Jutland, and as it Were,
 making an island of that vast tract of
 territory. The cutting of this canal
 will prove not only a great blessing to the commerce of northern Europe, but at the same time it will become pro- digious safeguard to Germany for her fleets can at will, in few hours, be
 transferred from the Baltic into the North Sea, and thus into the Atlantic if necessary. In very short period or time, in case of serious trouble between Germany and her belligerent French neighbor, the Baltic fleet could join
 that of the North Sea and make active demonstrations all along the sea coast of northern France. The cost of con- structing this great canal has been $S7,- 5OOOOO, or one million dollars only over the estimated cost, and it is, as far as Germany is concerned, equal to doub- ling her navy.
 Its advantage to commerce is of the greatest possible consequence. In that dangerous pass between Denmark and the north (this may properly be called a dangerous watery ravine) there are recorded since 1859 no less than thirty five hundred total wrecks, and as many partial wrecks, or in all nearly eight hundred wrecked and crippled ships in less than forty years, and the human lives that have been lost in that tract, which has been a perfect ship burying ground, may be counted by thousands, Hereafter there will be no battling against sudden squalls, ice fioes and rocks in that narrow strait north Of Jutland. The cutting of the Kiel canal win cause Hamburg to develop her commercial prosperity far beyond that of Liverpool.
 Millions of tons of produce will now choose the shorter lines of communica- tion for the Baltic Sea and the Asiatic ports via the German canal, It is rath- CT sad to think that event which has such great possibilities to develop Flu ropean commerce has absolutely no ad- vantage whatever for our own country, During thirty-tive years only one soli- tary vessel bearing the American flag | has entered the Baltic. That sea IS 1 "aqua incognita" to American com l merce.
 This fact should be lesson to a | great nation whose sea-board stretches | thousands of miles through two great | oceans.
 | hundred and seventeen feet wide from bank to bank eighty-six feet wide at the bottom and thirty feet deep, which | thus admits the largest battle-ships; the time allowed to ships passing | through the canal is thirteen hours, but in case of war the battle-ships can pass | from one sea to the other in three hours l if necessary. Russian ports are now | brought several days nearer the ocean, | and the most dangerous waterway in | the world will be avoided.
 It will be a terrible blow to Denmark | and the Scandinavian ports, and it is | feared that those countries will com- | pletely lose their maritime prosperity. | The Russians are cutting canal at St. Petersburg to admit ships to Rus sian wharves, and what the northern | countries lose the Russians will un- doubtedly gain. Copenhagen, which has long been the most important sea port in northern Europe, fairly trem- bles at the prospect of deserted wharves, and the Venice of the north shudders as she remembers the deca- dence of the Adriatic Venice, which was due to the opening of new water- ways and new sea routes Copenhagen in her vain attempts to save her com- merce has declared her port free for all ships that may trade there; this will not even defend her against her fate
 In 1890 the average tonnage of ships which passed through the Sound dur ing the summer was 100000 tons per month; these paid lighthouse dues, anchor fees, &c., &c., to Den mark, and many of these entered the barbor of Copenhagen, and great was the gain to that brilliant seaport of the north. But now the German kaiser re- marks Nous avous change tout celaw Suppose only one-half of the usual tom Dage which passes north of Denmark should pass through the canal, the re- suit to Germany would be a very fair return on the outlay. The construc- ion of this canal is by no means a new 5r modern idea; there have been no less han sixteen projects for connecting he waters of the Baltic and the North ,, Sea during the past five hundred years. ! As long ago as 1898 the Stecknitz canal , Nas built; it connected Lubeck with / Hamburg and is still in use, although , Fery shallow and only suitable for flat lottomed barges; then there was an- lther canal called the Alster; it is no