The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1910-01-21
WALTER WELLMAN SAYS LAKES
To-GULF HAS NO CHANCE
IN CONGRESS.
NOT ENOUGH TRAFFIC
Ohio River Likely to Receive Favor
able Consderation--To
Passing Cairo is
81 Criterion.

Washington, Jan. 20.-There is ex.
cellent authority for the statement
that, SO far as this congress Is con
cerned, the lakes-to-thegulf deep
water way project is dead.
A public man thoroughly familiar
with the situation in both houses OF
congress says the scheme has no
earthly chance of going through. In
his opinion it will not even be favor
ably reported by the house committee
on rivers and harbors. His informa-
ton, usually most accurate. is that
only two members of the Republican
majority of the committee favor it,
Even ii the committee should report
it, this authority declares, it cannot
be adopted in either house.
Three factors have combined to
bring about this result
/. The attitude of President Taft,
who is distinctly cold toward the
scheme, notwithstanding his famous
trip down the Mississippi,
q The editorial in the Record
Herald, which has been much talked
about in Washington.
3. The inquiry into the merits Of
the project started by these express
sions from the White House and from
Chicago.
The advocates of the plan to Sc.
cure government commitment to a
hundred million dollars improve
ment which every one knows may
be twice or thrice that sum before it
is finished-have by no means given
up the fight Senator Lorimer re-
turned to Washington today with
news that Engineer Cooley has seven
or eight craftsmen at work preparing
charts designed to show what an eX'
cellent thing the deep water way
would be. And these charts are ex-
pected in Washington early next
week. No one explains who is paying
for all this work.
According to the census report on
transportation by water the Hud
son River carried in 1906 total OF
2,000,Q09 tons of freight, or an ay3r-
age f about 6,000 tons per business
day. equivalent to five or six freight
traiAs per day, hagatelle compared
to the freight traffic of the railroads
skirting this magnificent water way
The Hudson is naturally navigable,
so much SO that in all the history OF
the government only $5,000,000 of fed.
eral money has been spent upon It.
Yet it is not success as traffic
route.
Students of water transportation
point out the fundamental difficulty
which Is the inability of water craft
as a general rule to reach the plants
from which come or to which go the
heavy shipments, While the railroads
by means of special tracks and sid
ings, carry their cars to the points ot
HEdhg tIdHlt pStHtttlHS vi uittli
loading and unloading, in the case ol
steamships or barges it Is generally
necessary to wagon the commodities
to or from the wharf. and at the
wharf, as one authority expressed Il
today, "the freight generally must be
carried to or taken from the ships or
the backs of men" Under certain
circumstances, as in handling ore
grain and coal, loading machines cal
be employed, and the wonderful rec
ords made with ore cargoes at Lake
Superior ports is case in point. But
these conditions are net applicable tt
general traffic and that Is the founda
mental weakness of water transporta
ton, save in tho few cases where tht
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