Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1907-12-17
CLEARWATER IS
NOT NAVIGABLE
GOVERNMENT ENGINEERS HAVE
ALREADY PASSED ADVERSELY
UPON A PROJECT TO DEVELOP
FOR BARGE NAVIGATION

The feature of the meeting of the
Commercial club last night was the
report of S. w. Roessler, major Of
the corps of engineers who made an
investigation of the Clearwater riv-
er with view of it's improvement
for barge navigation. and the report
of d. w. Lockwood, lieutenant colo
mel of the corps of engineers. in
which both engineers reported un-
favorably to the improvement of the
river at the governments expense.
In concluding his report, which
contains letters from prominent
shippers of the Clearwater section
all of which are unfavorable to the
improvement of the river. Major
Roessler says:
After personal inspection OF
the river l am inclined to the opin-
ion that the case is correctly stated
by the above quotation from the let
ter of the Kamiah Trading COM
pany. While the lumber industry
might be benefited to some extent
by the removal of rocks and shoals
which break up the log RATS, it is
not believed that anything short of
canalization would result in develop
ing traffic in any other line of bus
mess. The only effect that improve
ment would have upon the general
business would be to cause a reduce
ton in the present railroad tariff.
I'm view of the foregoing facts /
am of the opinion that the Clear
water river is not worthy OF I'm
provement by the general govern
ment with view of developing
barge navigation"
The conclusion of the report of
Lieutenant Colonel D. w. Lockwood
says:
From careful study of the ply
steal characteristics of the river 1t
is evident that systematic i'm
provement would involve great ex-
pense, and that canalization is the
only method which would furnish
safe and reliable channel through
sufficient portion of the year to de-
velop any considerable traffic. The
cost of this method of improvement
would be wholly disproportionate to
the benefits which it would afford.
In view of the foregoing, the board
concurs with the district officer and
the division engineer in the opinion
that 1t is not advisable for the
United States to undertake the i'm
provement of the Clearwater river
with a view to barge navigation"
The club adopted a resolution pre-
pared by the Portland Chamber of
Commerce favoring the passage of a
law which requires railroads to de-
fend any proposed change in inter ,
state rates before the interstate rail-
road commission.
A committee composed of r. d
Thomas. G. Orr McMinnimy, Robert
Schliecher Secretary Rohrabacher
and Storey Buck was appointed 10
secure the statistics relative to the
needs of government building for
Lewiston.
A communication was received
from the Benton Land company in
which 1t was stated the companv
would gladly pay the expenses of
any engineer which the club might
employ to Investigate the company's
project at Five Mile rapids. A COM
mittee composed OF DIR. ]. B. Morris
and f. H. Kilam was appointed to
employ the engineer for this work.
A committee composed of Storey
Buck and r. c. Rohrabacher was an
pointed to investigate the conditions
81 the Clifford mail service. with a
view Of relieving the embarrass-
ment alleged to have been occasion
ID by the change in railroad sched-
nle.
The matter of establishing a de-
tention hospital was brought before