The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-02-08
a CROWD AT ONE
or The LOCKS.

Special Correspondence of The SUNDAY Republic
Rotterdam. Jan. 19.-This IS the age o.
railroads.
Ii promises also to be the age of canals.
Water transportation is still cheaper thar
Many other. aud the European nations ar,
deepening their rivers and constructing ca
rails to join their waterways.
1t is only a question of time when tn,
United States will do the same, and whe,
we shall have ship canals Joining some o
the principal parts of our country.
l came from Antwerp TO Rotterdam BY
boat TO learn something about the canals at
the Dutch, and since then L have visited
their waterways in the north. Holland Il
the canal land of the world.
1t has more interior waterways than any
region except the Yang-tse-Kiang Valley
about Shanghai. Hangchow and Soochow.
1t Is, all told, only about as big as Mas
sachusetts, but If you could stretch its navi-
gable waterways out in one straight line
they would carry you from New York &c
San Francisco and almost back to Chicago
before you got to the end of them.
There are in all about 1000 miles of ca
nals-enough to reach from New York &c
Denver-and also 1900 miles of other water
ways, including little rivers and the mouths
nof the Scheldt and Rhine. and also the Zuy-
der Zee and other places where the north
ern ocean runs into the land.
Indeed. there is SO much water here that
Ona of the most important duties of the
Government is the taking care of 1t.
The Government has a department
known as The Waterstaat. and the Queen
has in her Cabinet a Minister of Water
ways.
This department has some OF the best of
civil engineers.
1t has men who devote themselves to
studying how to keep the North Sea from
,itSbfnr in and drnWninp mt fha country
for almost one-half of Holland is below the
ocean. so that in some places the fishes out
side swim high above the level of the
matched house roofs.
Dixie TO BE BUILT
ACROSS ZUYDER ZEE
1t has men who are engaged in planning
and building ship canals. such as the mighty
waterways which connect Amsterdam with
the ocean. and 1t has others who are
scheming how to build a great dixie across
the Zuyder Zee to redeem as much land
las q good-sized Texas county, which. when
Sredeemed. will be worth hundreds of dol
lars an acre.
This undertaking is for a time in abey-
ance. but there Is no doubt that it Will
eventually he carried out.
The Dutch have done much of such rec
lamation in the past. About fifty years
ago they lifted a billion tons of water out
of the region near HARLEM, and made
seventy square miles Oh good farming lanu.
1t cost them more than a million and a
half dollars, but the land was worth IT.
In another place they have redeemed A.
oS acres at Il cost of about s4.OOo. 900, and
as sooo as the work was done a foreign
syndicate offered them s2,09O.W0 for the
property as a whole.
The Government refused this offer. and
eventually got several hundred thousand
dollars more than it cost 1t to make the
Improvement.
As to the Zuyder Zee scheme. this Is a
bigger one than any that has yet been I'M
dertaken. 1t is estimated that it will cost
over SIS. 600. 0oo. but it viii result in the rec
,amation of a vast tract of land.
The work will take thirty-three years.
mud the taxes on the land recovered will
then bring in $1,000. 900 a year to the Gov
arnment making the matter a good long
time investment.
Al present the Government is afraid Of
a. and although all the plans have been
completed no work has been actually done.
Have YOU ever heard of iceland? 1t IS
a., southeastern province OF Holland. cor
.,",;ny of nine islands lying in the mouths
- tbe scheldt and the Mas. formed by the
81, brought down by these rivers.
The most of the province is below sea
,.,,ai being protected against the ocean by
E,nttv dikes. 1t was through the province
me, 7 came from Antwerp to Rotterdam
~ .be little steamboat Telegraf III.
p.,ooNI,AND WITH CARGO
Of AMERICAN GOODS. ;,
rode down the ,Scheldt I passed the
nsa,,and of our own American line NOV
- ar Will a cargo. from New York for
s.rerp. and n little later on came in
.iaht of the dikes-
Near the Dutch boundary the river is