The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-01-29
MONDAY. JANUARY %. 1900.
new YORK. AND rrs CANALS.

NEW YORK AND IT'S CANALS.
For many months those who are inter
ested in the proper development of trans
portation facilities between the Atlantic
seaboard and the great Northwest have
awaited the report OF the commission
appointed by the state of New York to
consider the true policy of that state
toward its canal system. That document
has at last appeared, having been trans
mitted within the past week by Gov.
Roosevelt to the legislature. 1t is in the
nature of a compromise, and, accord
ingly, must be disappointing to many.
But it is to be feared that it is COM
promise which will be productive of the
same result that has attended all COM
promises that should not have been made
failure.
The New York canal commission con-
sidered three Observation-Disclosures the ex-
listing canals should be abandoned,
whether they should be transformed into
ship canals, and, if neither course were
thought advisable or practicable, to what
extent the improvements made should go.
Abandonment was not thought advis-
able, and ship canals were reported as
not practicable. The course recommended
involves the enlargement of the canals
lat a cost of $60,000O00. The plan adopted
is for large barge canal capable of car
rying boats of 1000 tons capacity. The
only reason assigned by the governor for
the compromise agreed upon, aside from
his fallacious argument against the prac-
ticability of the ship canal system, is
that there is every reason, after the
most patient Investigation, to believe
that the large canals will result in
Transportation cost across the state OF
New York as low as that on the st.
Lawrence canal, and far less than any
rate that is possible by railroads at any
time within the immediate future If
ever"
It will interest the people of the North
west to learn, on the authority of this
commission. that 1.-THE speed necessary
to the economical movement of the large
and extensively built lake and ocean
vessels could not be obtained on any
canal: and that the expensive equipment
for economical movement and large nav
igating force would so add to the cost of
transportation that such ships could not
compete with lighter built and less eX-
pensively equipped barges for canal traf-
fc.'
Had the commission confined its con-
eideration of the project of a ship canal
40 it's preliminary statement that that
be considered by the federal government,
It would have done less to imperil its own
reputation as an engineering body. The
claim which is put forward, and which
for by his Endorsement, that steamers
cannot be successfully used both on ocean
and lakes, is simply preposterous, and
reveals the commission as knowing moth
ing whatever about ship building, what
ever the extent of its knowledge may be
on the subject of the possibility Of such
ships competing successfully on the
canals with the proposed barges of 1,aoG
tons burden. If 1t had sought the neces-
sary enlightenment on this subject from
any of the existing ship building con-
Germs 1t would not have ventured on the
advancement of proposition which IS
almost seif-evidently absurd.
Those who look forward to seeing vessels
taking their freight at Duluth and West
Superior and landing their cargoes at for
eign ports after passing through an
American canal, without breaking bulk,
may console themselves with the reflec-
tion that even the plan adopted by this
commission, and which will in all prob
ability be carried to successful issue will
aid materially in fastening the day when
the demands of this great section for
cheap access for its products to the At
lantic seaboard will be recognized. In
the interval it is not improbable that the
Canadian government will show us the
way in this direction to doing what ought
long ago to have been Done just as 1t
has offered us Tauch needed enlighten-
1nent in the direction of successful ORR