The Minneapolis journal., 1902-07-07
FROM LAKES TO SEA

| At a meeting last week VI |Ao npso
committees of the New York produce ex-
change and the canal association OF
Greater New York, committee was ap-
pointed to take action looking to the de-
feat for denomination and election OF
members of the state legislature who
voted last winter against the Dill proV1o-
ing for the Improvement Of the Erie ca
nal. SO as to accommodate l'ooo-ton
barges. This committee represents six
teen of the most important commercial
| bodies in the city of New York and state.
It is likely that this movement will
have a. salutary effect upon the New York
stat esmen who have contracted Ideas as
to what the Erie canal needs in the way
| Of reconstruction.
| In the movement to enlarge the Erie
up to the present needs of traffic from
the lakes to the sea, the west and north
west are directly interested. The city OF
New York is also deeply interested in lib
eral canal improvements, for there Is in
creased probability that the Canadian
canal routes to the sea will ultimately
| take from her the traffic which can be
| maintained and increased by the expend1-
ture of some of the states surplus mil
lions. The chief competitors of the Erie
and other New York canals are the Geor-
gian Bay and the St. Lawrence river. The
Liverpool rate by this route is TX cents
| bushel cheaper than via Newly ork,1 and
the effect of this rate is seen in the rec
ord of grain shipments for the week end
ing June %, whereby 1t appears that the
Canadian rout es carried 1,O02, 1855 bushels
of wheat, oats and rye, which Is 617,l4S
bushels greater than the New York
routes record and 25e, 45s bushels greater
than the grain traffic of all the leading
American ports. These figures are sig
nificant enough to make New York busi-
ness a little nervous. The commercial
bodies propose to do something, even if
they have to go into politics to accom-
plish it.
AS the case now stands, the dilatory be-
havior of New York with reference to her
| canal Improvement, in the face of tre-
mendously increasing traffic, is largely in
creasing shipments by the Canadian
route, and undermining the supremacy of
New York commercially. Yet the oppo-
sition has been strong enough to obstruct
any improvement except the most trivial
and utterly useless enlargement, on the
ground that a. deep water canal built
by the government, with the consent OF
New York, might benefit the northwest
and middle west principally, ait the ex-
pense of New York and other Atlantic
ports, and would stimulate the iron and
other Industries of the lake regions and
make Atlantic cities merely shipping
ports of lake cities. -.~ H.
This is not a very patriotic view to take
of the project of a national deep water
way from the lakes to the sea-.
The United States deep waterway COM
mission reported last year, as the result
Of invest igation, that thirty foot water
way would furnish the lowest cost Of
transportation to foreign markets and
permit the construction of the largest
seagoing vessel on the lakes, while a
twenty -one-foot waterway promises
greater return of value relatively to it's
cost than the thirty-foot waterway, the
former to be built around Niagara Falls;
thence via Lake Ontario to Oswego and
through the Mohawk valley to the Hud-
SON river. - I
/ Upon New York depends the favorable
result of the deep waterway talk. Trans
forming the Erie into a ship canal in
wolves the abandonment of the old ditch
by the state of New York. The present
state of mind in New York does not in
dulge an ambition to have more than such
an enlargement OF the Erie canal as will
accommodate a 1,000-ton barge line. If
that is to be the ultimate Improvement.
1t is safe to predict that American traffic
will increasingly go to the Canadian
waterways, upon which our neighbors
propose to spend more money in the i'm
mediate future. The New Yorkers think
| that twelve-foot barge canal will check
| the drift of American business to the
| Canadian canals. It will not.
From 26,O00,0o0 to 10000, 900 tons Of
/ freight pass through the sault ste. Marie
canal per annum. The Suez canal passes
not over 40 per cent as much. These facts
certainly foreshadow imperative necessity
| Tor better accommodations for ocean
bound freight from the northwest before
this new century is out of its swaddIins
clothes The national government should
take the matter in hand, il New York
can be induced to give her consent.
~