The gold leaf., 1908-01-09
THE HENDERSON GOLD LEAF III
Recognition Of Inland Waterway.
RaleigI, News and Observer.

= 1NSSO6esess~sS 1
RaleiyI, News and Observer.
A liul- while ago Marshal Parks
and u few progressive spirits in East
-fn North Carolina were discussing
the value If the inland waterway to
Eas.sr,i North Carolina. When Col.
Harry Skinner went to Congress he
askeI iii appropriation and got
nothing. When Mr.. Small entered
Congress eight years ago he began
the study of waterway and intro
.lucr,l II bill for iin appropriation
He soon SAW that as IL State or local
proposition, the project would not
appeal soon to Congress and that
the enterprise was one of national
Importance. lie began first to show
the commercial interests of Balti-
more. Norfolk. Jacksonville AMI 9TH
er points on the South Atlanticcoast
the great value OF this inland water
way. Conventions and conferences
were held and after much agitation
there approval of the waterway in.
half IL dozen States, bnt no impress
sion was made apparently in Con-
gress, because the Speaker happened
to jump to the conclusion that it was
a local matter and put his foot down
on it. But Mr.. Small and the Others
who with the vision of the statesman
saw the advantages were not deter
red. The last Congress appropriated
half Il million to begin the work in
North Carolina The interest felt in
the waterway from Jacksonville to
/ Bostonhas asattracted' Il public attention
and the great meeting at Philadel-,
phi;a gave it "a mighty impetus. Col
ier's Weekly devotes a leader to it's
consideration and says:
THE great scheme of Lakes to
the Gulf waterway, which is exciting
80 much enthusiasm in the West,
has it's counterpart in the East,
where delegates from the Atlantic sea-
board States in convention at Phila-
delphia have formed a permanent or
gnnizatiOn to work for q coast ship
canal from Boston to the ports of
-NOrthCarolinn, with the extension to
Kew West. Nature has already done
most OF the work on this great en-
ierprise, and what remains for man
to do is simple, easy, and compara-
lively cheap Long Island Sound,
the Delaware River, Cheapeake Bay,
/ AIioeniarle and Pamlico Sounds, fur
niSh sheltered throushfareS in peace
and war. All that is needed to make
one cQiltlnnOus. waterway from the
rOtt fields OF the South to the mills
OF New England is to cut four low
nerks OF landf or rather to cut one
. and enlarge existing cuts across the
her three. The four obstructiOns
are Cape Cod. New Jersey. and be-
tween Raritan River and the Della
ware, the little space between Della
ware and Chesapeake Bays, and the
stretch in Virginia and North Caro-
: lima now traversed by the Disma
|, Swamp Canal The total length o
cutting required to complete a con
tinuous waterway OF eight or min,
hundred miles long is only sixty-si,
miles, and the cost with the Florida
y extention is estimated at only $35,
600, 900, or about a third Of th
Pennsylvania terminal improve
d ments in New York City.
! 'In the opinion OF Mr.. Charles He
Der Clark, one OF the speakers at tn
Philadelphia Convention, mot fiv
: time since man first stood on th
/ earth has an opportunity offered 10
o creating SO important an avenue fo
commerce" And ~commerce is no
the only national interest that woul
;. be promoted by the Atlantic water
way. It's whole cost could be pai
II by the price of battle ships it woul,
y save. With a perfectly sheltere
- base over eight hundred miles long
:, from which they could emerge a
'e points as far apart as Black Islam
IT and Beaufort, North Carolina, ou
t. warships would be absolutely in
!" !. mune from blockade, no matter wha
Of navy. might try to seal them III
Of And no enemy would venture t
oa ,a blockade cur ports, for he, could no
,e observe more than one of them at
a time without exposing a divide
y force to the sallies of a united defenC
OF OF ing feet.
i 'The enormous advantages of thi
;" thoroughfare were recognized in til
~ ~ infancy Of the Nation. Some of il
Of links were planned, and companie
III to construct them were chartered,
I'd the eighteenth century. The Co
. ernment took the matter up a hui
st dred years ago. It stands now a
H. most where Gallatin left it. Three
I'D the four canals have been dug in
Is small way and private company
nd now digging the fourth, across CAY
n, Cod. But the Philadelphia conferen'
hse he thinks that private interests shou
:" be entirely eliminated and the who
err waterway made purely a Cover
q. 5h lnent enterprise