The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-15
GREENE TO HELP DISTRIBUTE?
ODELL MAY PUT HIM IN WITH
BOYD TO BUILD THE CANAL.
Canal Advocate Now Proposes to Run Boats
N Miles an aHOur-WiI They TObOg-
yam Over the LOcks:-NhO'll Grease the
Bottom or the Canal 10 Ease the way:


Bottom or the Canal 10 Ease the way:
Echo PEAK, Yellowstone Park, July ID --
Reperc, ssion of conversation on neigh
boring peak started the report here that
Gov. Odell means to make Gen Francis
Vinton Greene chairman of the advisory
board of engineers for the construction Of
the S10l 900 600 canal In the event OF
the election of Tammany Mayor or any
other kind of a Mayor, except Prof. Low,
1t il expected that Gen. Greene will get ont
as Police Commissioner. The Davis act
carries with it an immediate appropriation
of $40 900, 900, which will be available, If the
people vote favorably on the proposition,
as soon as the State authorities can market
the bonds A section of the Davis act
which appealed strongly to the Governor
for his signature liz the one which says:
The Governor may employ at oompensa-
tion to be fixed by him five expert civil en-
gineers to act IA an advisory board of con-
sulting engineers. whose duty IL shall be to ad-
wise the State Engineer and the Superinten-
dent OF Public Works, to follow the progress
OF the work and from time to time to report
thereon to the Governor. the State Engineer
and the Superintendent OF Public Works as
they may require or the board deem proper
and advisable.
II may be urged in Gen. Greene's behalf
that his experience in engineering the
Asphalt Trust qualities him to assist Charles
Boyd, Columbia II, in the distribution
of the SOL ,OO0, 900. When he was acting
mission Gen. Greene was much troubled
lest the State be looted by canal contract
ors in future, as it had been in the past ;
80 he wrote to Gov. Roosevelt:
THE State has lost large sums Of money
from this cause Unbalanced bids) and there
will probably DO the same trouble in any
future canal work unless some different
system Of bidding is adopted"
To this warning the Legislature and Gov.
Odell gave no heed, and it il not unlikely that
the Generals fears may be realized. The
work contemplated by the Davis act is
large one, and some engineers might be
timid about handling 80 great a sum Of
money but, as the head of the Asphalt Trust
Gen. Greene exhibited no such weakness
In disposing of larger affairs cntailing, it
is said, as much as S24,OO0,OOO.
Charles s. Boyd, the Governors personal
appointee as Superintendent of Public
Works, is under bond in the sum of 10000
for his financial integrity.
Col +. II. Buffers New York confederate
in the canal campaign now wants track
laid alongside the enlarged canal and trolley
engines run on it by the State TO haul the
l,OOO-ton barges free. 1t asks:
"Can there be any greater improvement
imagined in freight transportation than to
see long string Of O0O-ton barges start
ing from Buffalo, each carrying its $4,000
bushels of wheat and owing steadily, sent
safely from Buffalo to New York in forty
hours at a mere fraction of the present
COST"
With steam propulsion ten trips year
was the best that the optimistic Roosevelt
commission could figure. Seven round
trips year is the best the boats now make
on the canal. Yet the Imagination readily
pictures the l .OOo-ton barge flying down
the canal, leaping the locks that make the
70 levels, and maintaining a speed of twelve
miles an hour the whole wayi
The canal is to be IL feet deep and
the ,OOO-ton barge is to have draught OF 10
feet. A loaded barge flying from Buffalo
TO New York in forty hours would be on
the bottom until 1t got to the Hudson River.
The late Elnathan Sweet. who was chair
man of the board of advisory engineers
that made the barge canal survey, figured
it would take barge 1881 hours to travel
from Buffalo to Troy, not figuring the Jour
ney down the Hudson to New York. Hav
ing made a life study of the possibilities Of
canal navigation Mr. Sweet was, of course,
not fit to be classed with the sleight of hand
men who are running the canal campaign
now.
Truly there "a nothing IN freight trans
portation that. to the eye Of the elevator
owner, can compare with the sight Of
10 OBJ 10
OF wheat down to New York. each bushsl
paying more than two cents. each ton 70
cents. in tribute to the elevator and lighter
age pools at both ends of the system.
While the State is supplying free towage
on It's free waterway TO make each bushel
of grain cent cheaper TO some one in
Hungary, Germany or other foreign land,
who is to pay the price,
The taxpayers Of New York who can't
discover the benefit TO themselves. bit will
have a chance to vote on this proposition
next November,