The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1906-01-13
SHIP CANAL PROJECT
The WIDENING OF The Delaware And Chesapeake Canal OF
Vital Interest To Cecil County

Vital Interest To Cecil County
CECIL COUNTY is vitality interested in see
ing the Government widen the Delaware and
Chesapeake Canal that important local water
way connecting the Elk River through Back
Creek at Chesapeake City, with the delaware
River at Delaware City.
Wilmington is alive on the subject and Elk
ton must get in line and see that proper Con-
greSsiOnal action is taken.
1t is apparent to many men in pubic lie that
the government would be wise to provide an in
land waterway connecting the two great bays,
not alone for commercial purposes but as an adj
iunct to the coast defenscs along the Atlantic
The matter has been thrcshed over Tor thirty
wears or more, and several gentlemen whose
business it is to watch such matters are on rec
ord as iavorng the ship-canal pro jcct. The sur-
vevs and measurements and the rest OF the ne
cessarv data arc on file in Washington. The
records show Just what the old canal IS and what
it can be made. The matter has been presented
in proper form and there is nothing now to DO
except to provide for a campaign OF education.
1t does not seem at all necessary to have any
committee of Congress go over the route and to
be told what has been told so often and 50 well,
and which is now in writing and on file. There
is nothing new to be discovered in regard to the
physical characters of the route and all that sort
OF thing.
What is to be done in Washington is now for
those who have charge OF such matters to de-
ternne whether not the national govern
ment should go into the project and provide
for the use of merchant vessels and ships OF the
navy an easy and quick way OF inland travelling.
The government now has part interest IN the
Delaware and Chesapeake Canal, and the next
step would be for the government to secure full
control of the canal and throw it open to the
masters of vessels of every description. Then
it would be to provide for widening and deepen,
ing the canal so that the biggest warships could
pass from one bay to the other, and SO that wa
ter communication between Baltimore and
Philadelphia would be easier, and so that YES
sells bound up the coast for the Delaware river
could save long cruise outside in all sorts OF
storms
When it is recalled for instance, that during
the Civil War the old canal was found to be OF
inestimable value for the handling OF troops and
the shipment OF provisions and ammunition 1t is
clear that the widening and deepening OF the
canal would be OF the utmost importance If, I'M
fortunately, this country should ever have
trouble with some foreign power. AS pre-
cautionarv measure, if nothing else, the canal
should be made capable of accommodating the
biggest ships aloat. 1t is not an engineering
feat of any serious quality bat it is simply the
expenditure of money.
The country can well afford to add to its
WATERWAYS a short route between Philadelphia
and Baltimore and Washington, and it ought to
do so. The cost of one battleship would be
sufficient to rebuild the Delaware and Chesa-
peake Canal and it ought to be done. Thus far
the physical character of the project is known at
Washington. and now it is only to impress upon
those in authority the wisdom OF and the neces-
sty for aCtiOn-nOt ten or twenty years hence,
but now. BY the process of evolution it has
come that there is now a kcener appreciation of
the value OF Waterways for the handling OF
Il, Il, AID
the proposition in respect to the Delaware and
Chesapeake Canal is so simple that we wonder
anybody who has charge OF the governments
work should hesitate to endorse and advance
the project.
As fact there should be a system OF inland
WATERWAYS devised and perfected as prccautlon
for the future OF the unhappy event of war For
instance it should be made possible to send war
ships from Washington to Duluth inland. This
could be done by improving the canal through
Delaware. to do the same thing through New
Jersey to New York and then. when the Erie
canal is completed under the new schemes a
direct route to the great lakes would be opened.
Iron ore from Lake Superior could be hauled
by water inland all the way to Baltimore and be-
vond. when other canal projects carried out
further south. The opportunities for such an
inland water route apparent that it is am
azing to find little interest in and appreca-
ton of the necessity and the advantages OF such
general system. Whatever is now to be
done now in agitating the Delaware and Chesa-
peakc project is only to be in the direction OF
providing information respecting the absolute
wisdom o. the scheme. Thcr is no need to go
back thirty wears "r more and to start fresh with
data and figures and estimates. All those facts
are established and on record. Information as
to the value of the proposed water route has to
be impaired to the new men at Washington and
as to details they can be referred to the papers