Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-03-19
|CHICAGO'S GREAT CANAL
COMPLETION OF ONE OF TIE MOST
STUPENDOUS OF UNDERTAKINGS.

Single American City-NotabIe For Its
Small Cost--Dug by Machinery.
Mississippi Valley Representative
in Congress, particularly those from
Illinois and Missouri, are watching
with great interest the developments
in the Chicago drainage canal contro-
versy. While the sense of the coun-
try would doubtless be that this was
no time to ask for the abandonment
Of the project after the Chicago peo
pie have spent $34, 500, 900 upon it. it
is also true that Chicago played
rather shrewd game in neglecting to
secure proper Congressional permis.
sion to create this great waterway un-
til the work was so nearly completed.
1t was the 21st of June, 1899, when
the trustees of the sanitary district
of Chicago secured permit from Sec
retary Alger to turn in the water.
The Missouri plea is that Secretary
Alger had no power under the Consti-
tuition to issue this permit. They
next maintain that even if he pos.
sessed power over the subject tenn
porarily, any such permit becomes in
effective the moment that Congress
convenes, since Congress has exclu-
sive jurisdiction over the lakes, rivers
and other navigable highways of the
United States. The Secretary of
War, the Chicago people say, has ar
ranged to send experts, as soon as the
canal is in full operation, to take
soundings of all the harbors in Lakes
Michigan, Huron and Erie, and to see
if there is any reduction in the lake
levels or in the depth of the harbors.
These soundIngs will be continued at
intervals for two years, and if at any
time it appears that injury Is done to
the shipping by diversion of the
water, steps will be taken to correct
it. 1t is probable that Congress
would then be asked to establish some
kind of compensating dams in the st.
Clair channel. In this respect, too,
Chicago has been shrewd. 1t has
provided for letting out the water
from Lake Michigan, but, if it be-
comes necessary to Offset that by hold
ing the water back at the other end,
the task will fall to the United States
Government.
h Besides the important question oi
lake levels, with which the military
engineer department has to do, the
sanitary question is at the front.
This is the one that interests Mis-
souri,. The singular fact is that while
st. Louis is 365 miles away from Chi
cago, and takes its water from the
Missouri River and not from the Mis-
sissibpi, it is grievously concerned
over the possibility of pollution,
while series of towns in Illinois
which take their drinking-water out
of the very streams through which
this canal pours its current have ap.
parently become fully reconciled to
the situation. La Sale, Peru, Henne-
pin, Peoria, Pekin and Beardstown
are mainly dependent for their water.
supply upon the Illinois River, into
which the Des PLANES flows. The
one Illinois town which continues to
protest is Joliet. Nor does its OBJ
lection seem wholly unreasonable. 1t
maintains that sufficient provision has
not been made against the overhowing
of the Des PLANES River at high
water, and that, with the great en-.
largement of volume caused by spring
freshets, the city would be in danger.
The drainage people assert that their
regulating works at Lockport, three
miles nearer Chicago than Joliet,
would take care of all this.
From MANY 1Npiptc Of riau, 41,;e
drainage canal is one of the most
stupendous of human undertakings.
1t is certainly one of the great arti.
tcial waterways of the world, and yet
has been built substantially by the
corporation of single American city.
The sanitary district, however, is not
exactly coterminous with the city
limits. Itincludes about forty square
miles of territory outside of Chicago,
aud excludes within the city territory
now occupied by 250,00 people. All
that part of the city south of Eighty
seventh street, as far as One Hundred
and Twenty fifth street, gets it's drain
age through the Calumet River, al
though it is now preparing to organize
% oahithiy ul5UIlCb VI iIS OWL uuu CCD-
struct a channel from the Calumet
River to the drainage canal.
This artificial waterway is notable
also for its small cost. Tho years
between 1892 and 1897, when most of
the supplies were purchased and
most of the work was done, were
years of low prices for labor, for iron
and for most other commodities
necessary. The excavating machinery
especially designed for the under
taking has been much admired. Huge
cranes have been used, with arms $50
feet long, which would pick up box
the size of freight-car at the bottom
of the channel and deposit its con-
tents high and dry 800 feet away. 1t
is thought that these cranes and
other drainage-canal machinery may
be carried to the isthmus for the
canal work there. For fifteen miles
the cuttings were made through solid
rock, and for only thirteen miles did
the builders have the advantage of
soft earth. Three hundred thousand