The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-12-17
INLAND WATERWAY
FROM AINEeTo.FLoRfDA-How
 THE PROJECT STANDS
 <0u-
NOW
Extracts from Speech of President of
 Deeper Waterways Association, De-
 livered at Norfolk. Va, on Nov. 17

. : A steadily decreasing wave of spop'
 ular interest in the development ot
 our harbora and inland waterways has
 marked the year since our Baltimore
 convention of November. 190S and has
 Justified the wisdom and timeliness of
 the formation in Philadelphia, in November, 1907. of the Atlantic Deep CT Waterways Association.
 Great as are our railroads. carrying vastly more tonnage than those of any other country in the world. and
 with mileage greater than that of all
 Europe combined. they have yet been unable to keep up with the produc- tive power of the people,
 The condition. is one which affects not only the congested centers along
 the Atlantic coast or in bottled-up New England. but prevails in the Mid dle West and on the Pacific coast.
 | There are more than 60, ,O0O. 900 people
 along the Atlantic seaboard; we have
 been first in commercial and indus
 trial importance; in four of our GUS i tom houses alone we collect so per cent. of all the customs revenues of l the country. and it Is fair to assume
 that we should have given attention
 to our harbors and inland waterways. upon which much of our strength
 depends. This we should have done.
 If only to save life and property: if l only to aid our navy In the event of war; if only to open up new territory ! for the promotion of industry and the : relief of our congested centers of pop . lation- But an inquiry into the condi- | tions as they exist does not show this | to be the case We have gone on with our great enterprises, but we have not built for the future as our more Iwide-awake friends of other sections of the country have been doing Our much as their founders left them. Cape Cod Canal. with it's prospect of saving hundreds. of vessels and thou
 sands of lives. has only been commenc- ed by private enterprise after an az itatiozA of two hundred years. The | Delaware & Rarftan' Canal, with it's
 vast possibilities in linking up points beyond fNew York and Philadelphia. | remains substantially as 1t was in the days when the first railroads made their appearance in this country. The Chesapeake & Delaware Canal-a 13
 mile channel-which saves an outside sailing distance from Philade!phia to Baltimore of 325 miles. is in practical ly the same condition it was when in 1929. before the days of modern steam shovel. 1t was completed by hand
 labor and turned over to its stockhold- CTS The Dismal Swamp Canal, a
 dream of the Father of his Country" in which he was a stockholder, has substa ntially the same width and depfh it had before the use of steam as a
 motive power.
 We have watched with public-spirit-
 edness the progress of the Presidents
 trip along the Mississippi from St. Louis to New Orleans. In spite of an adverse finding of the army engineers. the advocates of a 14-foot channel from the-lakes to the gulf have renew ed their demand for the Improvement, and they believe they have the pow CT to obtain it. Not the whole pro- ject from the lakes to the gulf was reported upon by the engineers; not the full length of 2.500 miles from mouth to source. but merely that i'm portant 1.200 mile section. according to the engineers. ssn would be no less than SIPS 500. .000-more than the Gov ernment has spent upon the whole Att lantic seaboard from the beginning. They said the maintenance cost. would be s6.5O0,OO0 per annum- This is suf- hcient to deepen an inside passage for coastwise trade from Norfolk south through sthek Carolirfas to the Atlantic Ocean, safe Sibelew Hatteras. a. link of our hoped-for inland chain that would open up for cultivation and investment as fertile country as the sun ever shone upon. T
 If s20 000 900 were appropriated by the Government for the taking over of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. in accordance with the report of the i Agnus Commission, the Government would provide a channel of sufficient I depth to accommodate inland the vast | commerce of the Atlantic coast; to
  via; the Delaware into the Chesapeake Bay. or from Hampton Roads north. it would sprovfde for itself the best avenue for war vessels of the greatest depth and beam, that the strategy of cur naval experts could desire. e Thus far since the formation of tn, Atlantic Deeper Waterways associa- ton we have reason for congratula tion upon the progress made. Since the Baltimore convention there has l been a decided awakening of interest l along the coast. In the Rivers and Harbors Bill, approved March 3. 1909. Congress not only provided for the appointment of the National Water tions pertaining to waterways trans portation and the improvement of wa terways, and to recommend to Con- gress such action as it may deem best upon these subjects but 1t fa- vorably considered the claims of our association as agreed upon at Balti- more. appropriating s1o0.000 to cover the expenses of a survey for a con- tinuous inland waterway along the At lantic coast.
 Congress also framed it's authoriza- toin so that the War Department was directed to report upon a maximum depth of g feet from Boston to Beau fort and of F feet from Beaufort to Key West, providing wisely that the ! engineers should report upon such l lesser depths along any section or SecIlOnS or SStlu WdlerWdyS us may De | found to be sufficient for commercial l naval or military purposes. The act | further authorized an exension of the | survey across the Penisula of Florida, | at a maximum depth of 12 feet, and | from St. Georges Sound on the west l coast of Florida. along the north | coast of fffe Gulf of Mexico, to the | River at a depth of feet
 immediately following the passage of the act. boards of officers of the | Corps of Engineers the United States l Army were appointed to take up the survey work, dividing their area into three parts First, fora continuous inland waterway from Boston, Mass. to Bhufort, N- C.; second for "a inland waterway from Beaufort, N. C.. to Key West, Fla. n.,lI n.s,.. tI,. Gtaf, nf E-,r.ri.in -,a 1