The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-11-28
Inland Waterways
From Maine to Florida Great Importance of the
 Project
What Is Already Done and What Is Desired-OfGcial Engineers Report Prom
 ised for Next Month

Extracts from Annual Address of
 President Moore to Atlantic Deeper
 Waterways Association.)
 For two hundred years sporadic at
 tempts had been made to cut through
 Cape Cod to save life and property.
 the loss of which has disgraced Massa-
 chusetts since it first began to do bus
 mess with it's sister States, and has
 been no more creditable to the Gov
 ernment of the United States. There
 has been no relief at Cape Cod, and
 may be none until the efforts of this
 Association are successful or the prob
 lem is in part solved by a private en-
 terprise, which, despite the indiffer-
 Government of the United States has
 actually undertaken and has now in
 actual course of construction, an eight
 mile cut for a ship canal from Sand
 wich on the north of the Cape to Buz-
 zard's Bay on the south.
 Between New York, the greatest Am
 erican city, and Philadelphia, the sec
 there is a stretch of but ninety miles.
 Since 1884 water communication be-
 tween these important centers of pop ulation has been maintained by the an-
 cient Delaware and Raritan Canal,
 with it's depth of 2 feet and it's four
 ternative, the outside ocean route along
 the dangerous shoals of Barnegat, a
 distance of 1S4 miles. The length of
 the canal is approximately S4 miles.
 Since 1929, inland waterway commu
 nication between Philadelphia and Baltimore and points farther south have been maintained through the old l-a Cono1 wifh
 a present depth of nine feet, and locks limited in width to twenty-four feet. This canal is about one fourth the length of the Panama Ca nal, or thirteen miles. It connects up the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays and saves an outside sailing distance from Philadelphia to Baltimore, of about 326 miles. Not later than next December we are to have the govern ment engineers report upon the ex- pediency and cost of a free. govern ment- controlled canal between the Chesapeake and Delaware.
 It was high time that this Associa- tion should have been formed, and it was timely that through it's efforts, an appropriation of $10O000 should have been obtained. as it was in the Rivers and Harbors bill of March 3, 1909, for definite recognition of the Eastern coastal project. That appropriation provided for survey for continuous inland water way along the Atlantic coast from Boston to Key West. It is a great project and must necessarily occupy much time for examination, and the preparation of plans and spe- cif1cations. We have not been unrea- sonable as to this, but have looked for and expected an early. report from the United States engineers, which at last we are promised by the opening of the next session of Congress. A deter mined effort has been made along Ele valley of the Connecticut, to break the dormant spirit of the potentialities oS New England, so that the manufactur- CTS of Massachusetts and Connecticut may flow south to the markets, and the coal of Pennsylvania and sWest and of Indiana may flow into the factories and furnaces of New England. The cost of living in New is affected largely by the price of fuel. and the Boston Chamber of Commerce complacently admits that millions in freight upon the thirty millions worth of coal it annually uses.
 Tn New Jersey, while the engineers have carried on and completed the survey authorized in 1909, the state itself has been at work upon an inland waterway improvement along the At Iantic coast. The taking over of the porS of Trenton for municipal purpos- es iS another evidence of the interest of New Jersey, in addition to the most act in recent inland water way legislation in any of the northern actual appropriation of b500, ,O00 to secure and donate the right l of way, as an incentive to the federal government, to move speedily in the of the intra-coastal ca nal.
 Summing up the work of the Asso- ciation to date, it is safe to say that by reason of it's activities every state along the coast from Maine to F'lori- | da has made distinct gains in the mat ter of waterway improvements. While l general progress has been made in | bringing public attention to the i'm l pOrtance of a connected intra-coastal | waterway, there has also been de- ! ,ided advance in local projects, and 1 an increasing tendency to improve wa .erways as a means of transportation. | And while we have spurred to greater | activity other associations, notably | hose of the West and South, we have | oy better acquainting ourselves with | heir projects and prospects, made it | plain that the Atlantic Association is ! factor to be reckOned with, and | hat it expects a square deal at the | hands of interested parties and the | 
 Improved inland waterways are not o be feared by any but those who would suppress and retard the natural 1 rend of business. If waterways orig nate trade, as we contend they do, or | attract new business in territory hith- | srto waste, or without the means of exit for it's product, existing transpor- ation companies will not be injured, | put profited. The creation of new business by waterways in unimproved l areas, must necessarily feed the su- ,erior facilities of the railroad. There | .an be no real injury by one to the | other if each is permitted to work out | ts lawful and reasonable purposes. If | lew employments are created as the | 'esult of newly constructed works, the congestion of the cities will be reliev- d and the wholesome circulation of 1 nen and money will ensue.
 .One of the strongest arguments in avor of an inside route,' says the Committee on Traffic, "is the fact that n the single decade from 1900 to 1909 here were over 5,700 disasters to ship ping on our Atlantic seaboard. Not | LII losses are reported, but these ac- .idents are known to have destroyed 40, 5OO. 900 worth of vessels and cargo md to have caused the loss of over 200 human lives"
 Here indeed, is a startling present | nent which demands consideration at he hands of the government Of these
 &- ~vn4 ncni