The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-07-30
A GREAT NEED.

the greatest need of the commerce of the north
erh section OF this continent is the construction of
snip canal through the state of New York uniting
Lake Erie and the Hudson river That COM
merce seeking shipment by water should be con-
fined to route such thought adequate a
hundred years ago is pretty discreditabe cir
cumstance to the American people of today espe-
cially to those of our own section
There are those of who grow grievousIy ex-
clted after contemplation of the delays that have
taken place in building Nicaraguan canal We
unite with the people of the gulf and Pacific states
in somewhat hysterical shoutings about what is no,
OF the slightest concern to own commerce Bur
we have never word to waste on a public under
taking thousandfold more important to American
commerce. and Incompatible in it's special importance
to US with all the deep sea dredging which may be
put in operation along the Atlantic or Gulf coast for
a century to come
The dispatches recently published in the G lobe
Indicate that the preliminary work of the pronosed
survey of the route for such a canal has been COM
pleted The work involves the construction of 4
canal 30 feet deep and $40 feet wide thus providing
a waterway which will be entirely ADEQUATE to at
least the present ends of the great carrying com
merce which now secures transshipment at Buffalo
or seeks an overland route from the other great
Eastern ports of the great lakes
1t ought not to be necessary to say a single VOID
to the reader of any Northwestern newspaper as to
the tremendous influence for good which the estab
Hshment of such water route would exercise ON tbe
fortunes of this great section With rational pocv
IN force with reference to the commerce of the limited
States in the North Pacific and a waterway navigable
by the heaviest steam vessels from the lakes to the
Hudson, the period of time is within estimation when
the Northwestern states from Lake Superior to Puget
sound would be thickly settled by prosperous cit
zens as is that section of country from the tIenespe
valley to the city of New York embracing the states
Of New York. Pennsylvania and New Jersey We
would be in the direct line of the worlds commerce
portant function in the commerce of the continent
as Chicago does today.
only IN the most perfunctOry way have we in the
Northwest concerned ourselves in this most important
subject. The proposed canal lies within the state of
New York and therefore neither the other states nor
the federal government have been position to in
slSt on any line Of action whatever the part of
the interests directly concerned New York has
played the dog in the manger in connection with the
transaction. But public sentiment has grown too
strong and the mere pent-up Utica which has kent
the Erie canal what Dewitt Clinton made it. for an
entire century. is about to burst it's limits
Had the people of this section understood and in
sisted on their interests and the interests of the en-
tire nation in this direction we would long since
have gone beyond the apocryphal gain of a pre-
lfmnary survey of such a canal. If the interest
which was generally shown in the subject some eight
or ten years ago in the Northwest could be revived
no doubt the canal would be an accomplished fact
IN the lifetime of many of us who by no means
young.