The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-02-03
AL BUILDING ERA
r nnnrUr, REVIVAL or CANAL &mo1EcTs IN THIS COUNTRY.
<G&3 Pnnnmn snd Erie Canal fre- 1Eetn There Are Others in Pros- $ peof which would Probably
 Cost . BiIIfon-Csnsda F Also Has Canal Plans.

Y XUW York C0rresponoence FuhnuoA- f phia North Americ-n.
 Y Arlother canal building era has come 1o tho United States and Canada. The 4 fknnss1a Canal and the improvement of <hn Erie Canal are two enterprises that m6xk 1t. and other notable projects are 1onfernplated or under way.
 The first canal erl was after the Revolutionary War. It lasted until the railroads came. They practically killed k the canals.
 The great railroad systems are now nearly all built. and new development Of the Transportation problem Is under way of such magnitude that few per- sons except engineers realize what is going on.
 The reason that new canal projects have sprung up is that 1t Is asserted that if costs only one-fourth. as a rule, Z 10 carry freight in bulk by inland wa ! ter transportation of what 1t costs by raiI.
 Railroads are better adapted to car- fyfng freight in small parcels, so to speak. than in great bulk, say the ad- rocates of canals. A 1.ooo-ton barge. { 1t is declared, will carry as much freight as q train of 100 cars, and there 1s little fuel to be burned to add to the cost. The belief has arisen in the minds of some capitalists and engineers that the canals, by moving freight of Breat bulk. will cheapen the cost of m4nufacture and thus increase the output of what the railroads can handle 1ro1tably in smaller bulk.
 IT demonstration of this has come with the carrying of iron ore to the mi1ls in Ptttsburg. It costs more to hau1 the ore by rail from Ashtabuia, O., 70 Pfttsburg, less than 15o miles, than 3t does to carry the same ore nearly 900 miles from Lake Superior mines to Ash xabu1a.
 Esfttssurw . Canal Center.
 And. curiously enough, the greatest canal projects now contemplated. but not vet under way. center about Ffttsburg. There are two schemes 10 connect the Ohio river and Lake Erie and another scheme to, connect Rittsburg with Chesapeake BaY. If they go through, Pittsburg's pf8ce as misunderstanding center will remain HHso1utely secure, the engineers say and the city will be developed as rap Idly as New York was through the nuiIding of the Erie Canal.
 But. aside from the navigable canals pfppogod, a large number of which will probably be dug in turn, and the cost of which will amount to hum 6xeds of millions of dollars, there is 4 great scheme of canal building right m fhe United States that persons in the East know almost nothing of.
 It is the great scheme of Federal 3rriEation in the West, by which more than 3.000,000 acres of land will be M&ded to our cuItivabie domain. and 1waich will cost from $200,0oo, 900 to &800 000, 900.
 Already the expenditure of more Than s4o,ooo.oo0 has been authorized Tor these canals, and it will surprise most folks to know that work has bean begun on no less than twenty two separate projects and that already more than 1900 miles of these canals have been constructed
 No one needs to be informed of the magnitude of the Panama and Erie Canal projects. The latest enterprise of this kind to be taken up is the con- strucfion of ship canal twelve miles long across Cape Cod at a cost of about slo.0Oo, ,oo0.
 It will save many miles in the wa ter trip from New York to Boston, and, # Is thought, will reduce the Massa- chusetfs coast shipwrecks to 6 min- irnuDn. August Belmont and Compa- ny have undertaken the work and it ts announced that operation will be- gin within a year. It will require on- ly three years to finish it after 1t has been begun.
 This canal across Cape Cod is only one of a chain of canals that are pro- jected along the Atlantic coast for an Inland passage for small craft. The plan is to make the Delaware and Raritan Canal across New Jersey nav 1gabie for torpedo boats, and to treat che Delaware and Chesapeake Canal tn the same way.
 The Inside Route.
 Vessels would then pass down the Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk, where they would enter the Dismal Swamp Canal by enlarging the famous Jeri- cho Canal. Passing through the North Carolina sounds and around Hatteras, the inland passage would soon strike Ehe North Florida coast
 A canal across Florida would not be dificult engineering feat. and thus the United States would secure a pas- sage for small craft from New England to the Gulf of Mexico. It would be in- valuable for small naval vessels in time of war.
 With the construction of the Cape Cod Canal, the establishment of an in land waterway becomes feasible, and would not be excessive in cost. The distance across New Jersey is only about forty miles. and the distance from the Delaware to the Chesapeake zs less than twenty.
 The Dismal Swamp Canal would be under fifty miles. The rest is mere matter of dredging. If the Cape Cod Canal Is dug, engineers say 1t Is only