The Tucumcari news and Tucumcari times. [volume] (Tucumcari, N.M.) 1907-1921, 1910-05-10
GREAT LAKES TO THE GULF.

Washington, May president Taft
is being urged by those behind the good
roads movement to oppose the deep wat.
erway from the treat Lakes to the
Gulf program. Howard II. Gross of
Chicago, representing the good roads
enthusiasts, has fled with the President
documentary proof that the "deep wat.
erway is n colossal blunder and a polit.
ical crime"
The propaganda is made up, she ms
serts" Of many politicians, soldiers of
fortune and a few high grade business
men. "Reciting the requests upon Con.
gress for a vast sum, which 1t is said
may run into a one billion dollars, to
complete the proposed fourteen.foot
channel in the Mississippi River, Mr..
Gross says: "The only justification for
this colossal expenditure Is based upon
the superstition that given the improved
channel m will develop upon
the waterway and provide greatly in
creased shipping facilities, the result
of which will be a large and general
reduction of freight charges through.
out the country.
Upon no other theory could the ex.
pense be justified.
1.-The deep waterway plan demands
a fourteen foot channel from the Lakes
to the Gulf, via. the Illinois River six
foot channel from st. Louis to st.
Paul, and q similar one from st. Louis
to Omaha. These are the principal fea.
lures, of which the Lakes.to.the.G Gulf
stretch is the main stem or artery. That
the channel should be fourteen feet, no
more or less, passes understanding. II
is at least six feet deeper than is neces-
sary for modern barge traffic, based
upon European experience. II it is TO
be an ocean waterway, as the people
have been lead TO believe, it should
be from twenty to thirty feet. If Lake
steamers are to use it, the depth should
be at least twenty feet.
Reduced to the last analysis, the
channel is nothing more or less than u
barge proposition, and for this purpose
nine feet is all that is necessary and all
than can be economically used. The
cost of n nine foot waterway, as against
II fourteen foot will be as dimes to dol.
lars.
Mr.. Gross lays emphasis on the fact
that the United States Army engineers
with years of experience with the
Mississippi river BEND them and with
no axes to grind, unanimously report.
ed against the so.called deep waterway
on the ground that a fourteen foot
channel is unnecessary and hat a nine
foot channel will take care of the pres.
ent and prospective commodities OF com.
merce; that the cheapest way to move
commodities is the only kind of traffic
that means cheap freight and a four
teen-foot channel is deeper than re.
CURED for barges, while il would not
admit lake or ocean vessels. That
lake or ocean steamers could not safe
ly navigate the crooked, swift.flowin
bottom.shifting Mississippi River, even
IL the channel had twice the proposed
depth Of fourteen feet, and IL it were
in fact a deep waterway, it is evident
to engineers"
Admitting that there is a glut in
railroad and water facilities In handling
freight In the grain moving periods
a condition that presents serious ques
tions, Mr.. Gross adds; "When one re
calls the fact that very little grain Il
produced within wagon hauling distanc,
Of any navigable river, and that tn,
one and only way to reach the market
from the grain field Is frat by wager
and then by rail, It Is difficult TO un
derstand how steam bosts would reliev,
the glut On the railroads, unless the,
were amphibious and able to call a
the farm for the grain, thus eliminat
ing the necessary for a rail haul.
"If q remedy is sought for the glut
then build good wagon roads, so tina
the farmers will have with n certaint,
smooth, hard road through the winter
Then many of them will hold thoi
crops for better prices, and In this wa,
prolong the crop moving time from six
ty days to ak months or more. Goo,
roads will save the farmers dollars II
transportation, while waterways will on
ly saw pennies.
II the proposed WATERWAY IA 10 hama