The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-01-20
A Truly NATIONAL IMPROVEMENT.

OF melted snow in last "a hours, D.
NOte-BarOmeter corrected for temperature
and elevation. p. F. Lyons, Observer.
A TRULY NATIONAL IMPROVEMENT.
The report of the deep waterway
commission which has been submitted
to congress, together with the accom-
panying commendatory message Of the
president, deals with the only really
great and legitimate public work now
before the American people. 1t is I'M
happily characteristic of the trend Of
public affairs that a proposition to
steal $1OO, 900 from the pepoIe and
give it to the Nicaragua canal jObbers
can command consideration by a vote
of about two-thirds of the United States
senate, where a proposition to make
only the necessary surveys and obser-
Vations preliminary to the deep water
way scheme has hard work to get
modest appropriation. To every one
who has studied the progress of our
internal development and the recent
movement Of commerce in connection
with the foreign competition that our
agricultural interests must meet, there
is nothing that can for a moment COM
pare in Importance or necessity with
the provision of a deep waterway from
the head Of navigation on the lakes to
the Atlantic seaboard. We have felt
already the pressure of the peasant
labor of Europe, and the price of our
farm products has gone down as the
wide plains of the Argentine have
thrust their fruits upon the markets Of
the world. We have struggled with
the competition Of India and her I'M
speakably wretched labor We have
found that we would have been unable
to challenge any of these successfully
but for the progressive reduction in
railroad freight rates, and this saving,
in its turn, has been impelled and ac-
CELEBRATED by the competition of our
waterways.
The carrying business Of the Great
Lake route is already something enor-
NOUS The great fleets that ply be-
tween Duluth and Buffalo, carrying
East cargoes contributed by the fertile
prairies of the Northwest, and bringing
in return coal and iron and all the
commodities that a new community
needs to purchase from an old, are the
creation Of the multiplying needs of
tha In ct fav wears Within q for., won, 49,,
more we can see that these needs will
have so augmented that they cannot
be met without a more ambitious sys-
tenn of interior water communications.
AS it IS now, the trade of the lakes
IS hampered by partially deficient chan
nels, and is bottled up at Buffalo, where
commodities must be reshipped to be
transferred again at New York city,
thus adding to the price Of our prod
ucts the cost Of successive shipments
and reshipments. It is as clear as any,
thing can be made that a public
waterway which will admit ocean-go-
ing steamers to the Great Lake ports,
and carry our grain to the markets of
the world in the bottoms that receive
it from the primary elevator, will give
an enormous impetus to home produc-
ton and add to the price received by
the producer at least a part of the sum
saved in transportation charges.
The reverse Of the picture is no less
compelling. This country is going to
be subjected within a few years to a
competition still more intense than any
in its past experience. AS a means OF
representation, to fortify our agrf-
cultural industry against new and most
dangerous attack, the deep waterway
is a necessity. The readers of the
G o b e have already noted our ac-
counts of the nearing completion of
the great Russian railroad across ST.
IBERIA, and the fact that this will bring
Ender settlement and into connection
With the rest of the world an illimitable
space Of fertile land well adapted to
the raising Of the harder cereals.
Population is focking from Russia and
over-crowded Europe to the territory
for the first time opened to agriculture
When the trans-Siberian road is carry
ing to the Black sea millions Of tons of
Siberian wheat, we will have to meet a
0unpetition compared with which that
Of India or the Argentine is a trif1e.
We will be able to do it If we can fight
land traffic with water traffic. If the
products of the Northwest and the cen
trail valley Of this country can be taken