The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-02-21
st. Louis Newspaper Does Not Like
the Size of the New Government
Lock as it Has Now Been
Determined Upon.
VIEW OF THE FUTURE
Warshlps Cannot Land at Points
Above keokuk Unless a Larger
Lock is Located at
This Point.

With an eye to the future when the
Mississippi shall be made navigable
for the largest boats and ships, the
ST. Louis Republic docs not want
lock at Keokuk in the water power
dam. of the size contemplated at pres
ent, but one which will be large
enough to accommodate United States
man of war. In an editorial entitled
Shall the Upper River be Bottled
up?" that newspaper says this morn
ing:
One of the most important liver i'm
provements ever undertaken in he
United States is the drowning out
of the lower rapids of the Mississippi
river, which begin at Keokuk, and ex-
tend some nine miles above that city,
by means of great dam. This will
furnish deep water navigation over
the full width of the river where
Omega Patch, the Englis.- Chain,
Lamellees Chain, and the Spanish
Chain now fret the water, convert the
present canal into a negligible Diet IL
of the river bottom, and generate an
enormous water power, whose energy
will be distributed by means of high
potential transmission all the way
from Davenport to ST. Louis. The riv-
er has no flood-plain at this point, but
flows through gorge" which is
geologically very young; the dam will,
therefore, be rock founded, and the
fowage damages, on account of the
peculiar topography, will be relativel,
small
The construction of this dam will
of course. involve the us of locks by
all traffic. Hitherto, boats had the
choice, at all seasons OF high water,
between the canal and the open river
bank to bank, this option will no long
er offer itself. And the plans of the
government for locks in connection
with the new project are such as
should join all the river towns from
st. Paul to New Orleans in demand
I'M a change They contemplate a
lock 400 by 95 feet. This is go feat
too short and Is feet too narrow.
1t is not necessary, in order td
demonstrate this, to invoke the plant
asmagoria of dreams and pi .ure
ocean liners at the wharves of Musca
tine and warships in St Paul harbor.
1t is sufficient to apply the tape to
boats which hcee pasted down the
upper Mississil during the past five
years, and to lay the scale-rule on
blue-prints of vessels about to enter
| the upper river trade.
AT Dubuque are situated the Iowa
Iron Works. builders OF steel river
craft, including the famous towboat
| Sprague, and hydraulic dredges in use
between st. Louis and Cairo. There
( is now at Vickslurg the steel car
/ ferry Albatross, of 10 foot beam. She
was built at Dubuque, and brought
down the river by Superintendent
( Killeen. Being too wide for the canal,
the last of the old pilots of the lower
rapids took her through the open river
The construction of a 95-foot-wide
! lock at Keokuk will me a that the
/ Iowa Iron work can bid on no more
large size car ferry boats. But this
is not all, nor the wc~st. The Mis-
4 sissippi Valley Transpo rtation com
pany now has plans drawn for pow.
i er-barge, recently described in the Re
| public, which will he 500 by 60 feet
and will draw but twelve inches light
She will carry 1000 tons for each ad
ditional foot of draft; tnat is, she viii
be able to go to st. Paul, and bring
down 1000 tons of -four on three feet
This boat is intended for the st. Paul
New Orleans trade, loading deeper as
she goes down the iver.
If the designers are forced to re
model her to conform to the dimen
sions of the projected lock, it will re
duce her carrying power $50 tons or
the foot and increase her light draft;
she will carry 1,500 tons on three and
one-half feet, instead of 1000 on three
The difference in cost of operation
speaks for itself.
The lock should be wide enough to
admit the Albatross, and long enough
10 dllOW iOT u SlOH vi VI iuu lSSL IL
the length of cargo boats over the
present plans: it should be 10 by GOO
Such a lock viii cost a little more tt
build than the one planned, but viii
be no more expensive to operate ant
maintain and will take no longer tc
fill and empty.
Shall an INDUSTRY now in existence
On the upper Mississippi be shut ou
of field which it has made its own
and designs for freight carriers re
Gently completed be changed for small
er and less economical models, JUS
for the lack of a few more yards o
concrete and few thousands of dol
lars in the construction of lock
Can st. Louis afford to have the uppe
Mississippi bottled up SO far as tn
best freight carriers are concerned?