The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1911-06-24
|DES|REABlE DEADLOCK;
BY II. r. Potte:

If the Republican party of Illinois
Is split up the back at the election
to be held in November OF next year,
the catastrophe will be due princi.
pally to the strenuous contest be-
tween leaders of factions Tor con-
troll Of the $4,000, 900 fund voted by
the people for the extension of the
| Chicago drainage canal. Deneen
wants TO handle that fund, so does
Lorimer, and possibly. There are less
important leaders, who are reaching
! for it.
The two statesmen named had
most to do with presenting the
! scheme to the public and securing ap.
prevail of it, at the polls. They work
ed in harmony until the people had
voted the bonds, then they were at
the parting of their ways. Both COM
nenced conspiring to SECURE the hand
| ling of the bonds and expenditure of
the proceeds.
Lorimer has so far had influence
enough with the legislature TO check
the efforts of the Governor to get
virtual control in the matter. Those
| members of the lower house. both
| Republicans and democrats, who vot'
ed to make Lorimer U. S. Senator
have approved Deneen-s plans as to
the Canal project. Speaker Ad-
kins voted for Lorimer, although in
structed by his party at theprimary
| election to vote for Hopkins.
The people were dazzled by the
visionary proposition TO construct a
twenty-four foot low water channel
for seagoing vesselg from Chicago
to the Gulf. Government engineers
agree that this is impractical, that not
more than nine feet can be had from
St. Louis TO Cairo. If the big project
were practicable THE cost Of construe
ton would make the Panama canal
look like a small affair. Then II
would be only summer waterway, as
it would be closed above Cairo by
ice in winter.
Another taking feature of the
| Coh1.,,,n tpav "a, "a ,,ro,ni... +ho% A. 80
tension OF the Canal In Illinois wolilt
be utilized by the State to obtair
water power that should pay the in
terest and principal of the $4,000,
{ 900 OF bonds and afterwards supply
revenue for the State that would de
crease direct taxation immensely
Speaker Adkins says, all the good
power sites on the line of the propos
81 canal have already been bought by
syndicates. Whether they have OF
not, they are as valuable to the origi
nal owners as they could be to specu
| lating syndicates. How could the
state secure them? Only by con
demnation. Then the state must pay
the value Of them. According to Gov
Deneen, on the representation he
makes OF the profits to be derived
from them the value of the water
power sites must be enormous, sc
that all of the $20000,000 voted by
the people would be required to pay
for them, leaving nothing for the con
struction of the canal. This would
lead the people to vote another 500,
100000, else to throw away the sum
already voted and the interest on it
amounting to many millions more
| II the plotting now in full vigol
among leading politicians and their
associate business spectators, to con
troll and handle the $40, 100000 oil
state bonds, results In these syndi
Gates producing deadlock, that will
permanently prevent the issuing OF
the bonds the people of Illinois will
be in great luck, But there will be
danger that the people will have to
60 down into their pockets TO pay the
principal and interest of those bonds
unless they have a chance to with
draw the authority to issue them.