The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-11-17
GREAT WATERWAYS
CONVENTION MEETS

rial benefit to commerce. Thus far
congress has provided for improve
ments very largely according to the
insistence of various localities One
river has received much attention and
another river has received little.
What we really need in the United
States is comprehensive system by
which waterways may be developed
so that depths and widths may be
standardized for ships or barges.
can instance of the manner in
which the people have been lulled to
sleep is displayed along the Atlantic
coast. Canals have been closed up
which, prior to the advent of the rail-
roads, were the chief means of trans
portation. Today the manufacturers
Of New England and of many Of the
unable, because of the heavy pressure
upon the railroads, to obtain prompt
service in the delivery of freight. New
England is practically bottled up and
to a large extent is handicapped, both
in the shipment of freight and in the
transportation of passengers in rush
times, because of it's dependence upon
one railroad company.
"This is not wholly a New Eng
eler through the great northwest dur
ing the period of the Seattle EXPOSE
tion must have observed that the rail-
roads were simply overcrowded and
that the population of the country is
increasing more rapidly than is the
power of railroad managers to obtain
new capital to build new roads. For
some reason or other, there is strong
opposition in Washington to the open
ing up of the waterways as competi-
tive means of communication. How
long this opposition will be able to
thwart the popular will remains to be
SEEN"
Speaking of the advantages of the
inland waterways route along the At
lantic coast, he said:
"a comparatively straight course
from Baltimore to Norfolk down the
Chesapeak bay and across Hampton
Roads to the Elizabeth river reaches
the existing canals-the old Dismal
swamp and the Chesapeake and Able
marle-which connect with the Abe
marie, Cortan and Pimlico sounds, and
complete the inside passage from
Boston to the Atlantic coast at Bea--
fort, N c. Strange as it may SEEM
these little-known bodies of water AL
bemarle (fresh) and Pimlico (salt and
brackish), are the largest water areas
in the country except the Great
Lakes Fed by $500 miles of rivers,
they have practically mo outlet to the
ocean. There are a few shallow inlets.
but none of them suitable for extern
sive commerce The vessels that find
their way south through the upper ca
nails and waterways into these sounds
are caught in a cul-de-sac, around
which they sail, but out of which they
cannot go except by the way they
came. And yet the sounds protect the
craft that use them from Capes Look
out and Hatteras, the latter the most
feared by mariners of all the dangerous
capes along the Atlantic coast. We are
asking the government to cut through
the barriers at the southern end OF
Pamlico sound to let the shipping
through When this is accomplished,
the vessels that start inland from
Boston, by keeping the course herein
outlined, may pass out into the At
lantic ocean below Cape Hatteras,
with barely a glimpse of the ocean
throughout the entire inside distance
of 739 nautical miles"