St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-03-18

shipments from the w est. Inc Duik
of the surplus crops, say five-sixths,
is fed to the people who live in the
seaboard states.
"An adequate outlet from the
Great Lakes to the seaboard, there
fore, must, first Of all, serve the vast
port from whence commodities can
be best distributed along the coast.
In a word, it's Eastern terminal must
be New York city, the mart and dis
tributing point for the domestic
trade, and also, fortunately, the CEN
ter of the export trade-the front
door of the continent.
1.-THE movement for deep water
navigation between the lakes and
the seaboard was for several years
divided and uncertain as to it's OBJ
jective. A small party, who had no
idea of proportions, ignored the do
nestle movement and looked for re-
lief to a direct route to Europe via
the ST. Lawrence. Another party
advocated a ship canal from Buffalo
to Albany, and third one from
Oswego to Albany Both these
schools of thought ignored the adj
vantage of cheap communication
with the great and rich provinces,
Ontario and Quebec, and made light
of the engineering difficulties these
canals would encounter. The more
advanced men, including Gen. Poe,
e. l.. Corthell, Lyman E. Cooley.
Hon. Smith M. Weed, Capt. Alexan-
der McDougall and others, realized
that the only financially possible and
commercially satisfactory route is
via Lake Ontario, the ST. Lawrence
river and Lake Champlain, the route
which gives the greatest mileage
80 per cent-of open water, the least
mileage-10 per cent-of artificial
channel, the least lockage, which has
practically no obstructing bridges.
and which has no water supply prob
lem to distress the engineer.
But the earlier men in this school
did not see practical way to carry
out their ideas. They advoca ted
joint action of the two governments
which can never be brought about.
The project made absolutely no
Roadway until 1 found the solution
of the problem.
SIR JOHN THOMPSON'S PROPH-
ECY.
went to Canada, met the leading
men there, capable, liberal men. and
pt'' hed an act of Incorporation for
TIE North American Canal company
authorizing the use, without compen-
sat1on, of the summit levels of the
canadian canals, the acquisition bv
the company of any canal lock dam.
e c., md the construction of ew can
ais ard works to connect Lake Erie
with Montreal and Lake Champlain en-
route to New York.
THE Canadians understand the ones
io1 a great deal better than most
americans. AS a people, we do not
understand or appreciate them. Sir
John s. d. Thompson, the late premier.
said to me:
You have put your last acre of new
wheat land under the plough. Within
ten years you will cease to EXPORT
wheat, and long before that time YOU
VIII be eating the crop raised in our
canadian Northwest, because it is the
pest, and your people will have the
best. The wheat belt is marching
northward, and will soon be in Can.
ada. 1 want the Canadian farmer to
be able to place his crop in the hest
market, WHICH is New York. at the
least possible freight cost
Sir Johns words are just coming
true We now consume the bulk of
the Manitoba crop, and with wheat at
present prices we must either reduce
the cost of transportation or import
wheat for consumption along the sea
i board.
Besides the difficulty of obtaining
Joint action by the two governments
the earlier advocates of a ship canal r.
the seaboard found tremendous diff
ficulty in the matter of locks.
The boldest plan they could propose
involved no less than thirty-ive to
forty locks, while the Oswego project
involved fifty-four locks between Lake
Erie and Albany. To be adequate fol-
| the expected commerce, these locks
would nave to be as capacious as the
new Sault Ste. Marie lock, which is
SOO feet long by 100 wide, and 21b feet
deep, and is costing more than S., OO0..
O0o With locks like the Sault, the
cast for locks alone would be SITS, 600.
600 to $200,O0O,0OO on the st. Lawrence
route, and $4,000, 600 to $500. 0OO. 600 or
the Oswego QUITE. 1t will be seen thai
Horatio Seymour Jr.'s estimate OF
$500, 100000 as the cost of a ship cana,
across the state was not out of the
way. Corthell jumped the question by
proposing ship railways; others, less
frank, proposed small locks, overlook.
ing the fact that small locks, such as
they proposed, could not handle ove1
100000 to 100000 tons of shipping
whereas, they stated there would be
100000 to 25,000,000 1t was also pro
posed to make very narrow canal
| with cares, or short cuttings, in which
| one vessel must lay while another
passed her-and this, in spite of tn,
| facts that in the Suez canal bottom
width of seventy-two feet and twenty
six feet of draught was found adequate
to only 100000 tons of shipping, ant
that the vessels tended to run agrount
| every time they passed care!
THE PROBLEM SOLVED.
$50 long as nineteenth century en-.
cheering was unable to advance be-
yond Leonardo da Vinci's lock, the
problem could not be solved. But the
solution is found now.
81 have proved that a steel lock car
be built with a lift of 100 feet; that the
number of locks between Lake Eric
and New York city need not exceed
five; the number on the branch from
the main line to Montreal two, makins
but seven in all, which will give com
munication between New York AM
Lake Erie, Lake Erie and Montreal
and Montreal and New York city. TIL,
seven locks, big enough to take in tn
Cevic, with 1900 tons of freight, will
require $1,000 to $4,000 tons, of steel, most
" plate. which can be erected for IS