St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-09
MINNESOTA WATERWAYS COMMITS
SION AROUSED TO ACTIVITY
AGAIN.
SESSION IN MINNEAPOLIS
TO DISCUSS RIVER AND HARBoR
WORK FOR WHICH TO ASK
APPROPRIATIONS.
Will Be Urged, Also Work on the
Upper Mississippi and ST.
CfOfx.

The Minnesota water ways commits
sion, appointed in 1862 consisting of
Col. William Crooks, of st. Paul; Hon
e. w. Durant, of Saltwater, and
Plat b. Walker, of Minneapolis, held
two hours session in the Guaranty
Loan building in Minneapolis yester-
day afternoon for the purpose of con-
sidering what movements were neces-
sary on the part of the commission
to secure our proportion of the amount
to be appropriated by congress this
winter on the river and harbor bill.
The commission formulated certain
plans which they propose to lay before
the governor of Minnesota, to be
placed by him before the committees
of the house and senate asking for an
increased appropriation for the Mis-
sissippi, the Red River of the North,
the harbors of Lake Superior, the ST.
CroiX, Chippewa river, and the upper
Missouri These are the outlets and
inlets to Minnesota, and upon these
several water ways there floats larg-
er tonnage than that going in and out
of the city of New York during the
year 1895. The importance of the sew
eral works recommended by the Unit
ed States engineers can be better I'M
derstood by little proposition that
the cost of transportation between
Minnesota and the seaboard has been
reduced from 80 cents per hundred to
six cents during the last twenty years
of the existence of this commission.
And no appropriation has ever yet
been made except those that have
been advocated and fought for by this
commission, and every improvement
they have asked for has been carefully
considered and approved by the en-
gineers of the war department, to
whom rightly belongs the task OF de-
termining how our rivers can be inn
proved. When the plans of the COM
mission are fully formulated, they will
not ask congress for money to carry
out the plans, but Minnesota appoints
a commission to insist that these i'm
proVements recommended by the en-
gineers shall be made, and liberal APP
preparations be made to this end. The
commission thinks the senators and
representatives. of Minnesota, while
heartily desiring these appropriations,
have no time to devote to the study of
the subject, the dependent commerce.
The expense Of improvement and the
general benefit to the people of Mime
sofa of the carrying out of these plans
of the government engineers. The leg
islature of Minnesota for twenty years
has placed at the disposal Of the gov
ernor ample means to cover the ex-
pense of it's appropriation. 1t is now
proposed by the commission that this
state receive it's full per cent of the
o,no,nt ,ubiob shall ha allowed nv con-
gress for the Improvement of the wat
err ways of the United States. The
tonnage movement of commodities, in
Guiding grain, merchandise and ore, ex-
ceeds that of New York city, and this
commerce is Independent of the great
international traffic passing over the
Pacific lines. During the last few
years there has been little or no effort
made for a general appropriation in
the Northwest. Duluth has made ex-
ira efforts to secure special appropr1a-
tons for her harbor, but no concerted
action has been made in behalf of the
Northwest The st. CroiX, represent
ed by Col E. W. Durant, of the COM
mission, is especially interested in Sc
curing liberal allowances for the i'm
provement of the Mississippi at Lake
Pepin, and an earnest appeal will be
made for the completion of the resef-
voirs on the upper Mississippi, and the
river between ST. Paul and Minneapo-
lis by Col Plat B. Walker, of Mime
apolis, while Commissioner Crooks, be-
ing more familiar with the Red River
of the North and the upper Missouri,
will make a special effort in that di-
rectiOn