The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-04
FOURTEEN FEET
 THROUGH VALLEY
Significance of Great Meeting
 in Memphis Today
GREATEST PROJECT YET
Fourteen Feet of Water From Lake Michigan to Gulf of Mexico Will Mean More Than the
 Panama Canal.
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN.

BY FREDERIC ]. HAsKIN.
 Shall the Unted States dig a canal that will turn back the clock of time some thousands of years and permit the waters l of the great lakes to be connected with the Gulf of Mexico through the great l Mississippi river? Shall Uncle Sam, al
 ready engaged in digging the costliest canal ever undertaken, dig again Into his treasure chest to provide a 14-foot waterway from the lakes to the gulf? These are the questions in answer to which a great gathering of men is to be held in Memphis today. The President of ] the United States, the governors of twen- ] ty states, and scores of representatives of the great interests of the valley will meet and take counsel with the members of the national inland waterways commission. ] This convention is the second held in sup i port of the lakes-to-the-gulf project. l There will be much cheering and much 1 boosting. They will sing "Fourteen Feet Through the Valley to the tune of the Battle Cry of Freedom, and Dig Her ] Deep through Dixie'' to the tune of Dixie, | yet the stern business of the day will not be forgot and arguments profound and exhaustive will be made on every phase i of the question.
 1 To turn the commerce of the great 1 northwest from Lakes Superior and Mich- l lgan through a canal into the Mississippi 1 river would work an economic revolution 1 When the Panaman canal is completed such an undertaking would mean even 1 more. As the produce carrying facilities 1 of the country are now developed. the 1 great northwest pours it's crops through l the lakes to Buffalo and to New York, or ! by rail to New York. When the Panama i canal is finished goods will be sent to ] New York and from thence around the i Floridas to the isthmus If this great in- land waterway is built d great proportion of this commerce will go directly south | from Lake Michigan, through the canal
 down the Mississippi to the gulf A glance | at the map will show what economy of 1 distance that change would mean.
 | The city of Chicago, acting under It's | legal alias, the sanitary district of Chi ! cago, has already done the hardest part l of the work. It has cut its drainage canal through the great rock divide south ! of Lake Michigan, and has opened the ! gap for connection with the waters of the Mississippi. This work has cost S52, ,oOo,- OO0 This portion ,s of the canal extends from the west fork ofSthe Chicago river l to Lockport, on the Desplaines river, within sight of Lake Joliet Lake Joliet Is five miles long and is about 75 feet | ha1r I Ta1ya r,t.~ sanitary district proposes to cut its canal into the little lake. From this lake flows | the Illinois river, which has fall of 100 feet to its confluence with the Mis- sissippi. To make the 14-feet-through-the- valley would be matter of river im- | provement then, and the cost from Lake Joliet to the Mississippi Is estimated at | $27000,000 How many millions It will cost to deepen the Mississippi to II feet ! Is problem. In an effort to Keep the i father of waters within his banks, ana to assure eight feet from the mouth OF the Missouri to St. Louis, and nine rect from St. Louis to the mouth of the Ohio at Cairo, the government has already spent $12, GOO OO0 and S2O, ,O00,O00 more IS re- 1 quired.
 What can be done with the Mississippi even with no more than nine feet depth Is wonderful. If the 14-feet depth is cured 1t will become the greatest com mercial highway in the world. River and canal transportation is so much slower than rall transportation that it will never compete in hauling fast freight, but 1t is so much cheaper than the railways that | | Is water enough to carry 1t. The Mis- sissippl valley. through the Ohio, the lakes, the Tennessee and Cumper.and rivers drains practically all of the iron ore lands of the country, and could care for the transportation of the ores. How much that means Is indicated by the es- | tablishment of the steel city on the snores of Lake Michigan in Indiana, just be- cause of the advantages of water trans port ation. St. Louis hopes to become a steel city. and the whole valley hopes for the encouragement of iron industries.
 The Mississippi river has not kept pace
 with the growth of the country The rail- roads have proved to be too swift and
 the commerce of the great river has fal- len off from year to year. The greater portion which 1t now carries originates in
 the Ohio, much of it from the coal fields.
 The steamboat life which Mark Twain
 described is as dead as are the galleys of
 Caesar and Pompey The commerce Of the river is carried in barges The pas
 senger traffic is practically a thing or the
 past Where once the mighty steampoat lines strove for the mastery the field Is
 now deserted and a regular line from
 St Louis to New Orleans is thing of the
 past But do not scorn the barges.
 One tow boat, the powerful Sprague
 recently carried from Louisville to New
 Orleans tow of 56 barges loaded with coal. So,O0o tons of coal. This was four times as great a load as the Lusitania could carry. It would have required a train of coal cars nearly a hundred miles long pulled by 300 locomotives to have
 hauled this coal at one time. With this