The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1912-04-08
FEDERAL CONTROL
OF WATERPOWER
MUST COME SOON
Waterways Commission Declares
Regulation Of Rivers Should
be Attended to
WOULD BUILD CANALS
bitches Recommended Through
Various Parts Of Country. En-.
gineers Should Oversee

Washington, April Further
legislation to protect waterways
against railway competition; to cs-
tablish amicable relations between
the two and to promote federal CO.
operation with local interests in
construction of canals are urged In
the first report of the National Wa
terways Commission made public to-
day.
The report declares that the Fed
eral Government within the COM
paratively near future must in
evitably assume control of some feat
ure of water power regulation.
The commission recommends that
army engineers be assigned to super
wise the proposed canal to connect
the Ohio river near Pittsburgh with
Lake Erie when $10,000,000 cash
and $5,000,000 in bonds are made
available by the communities inter-
ested The Secretary OF War, how
ever, may demand that these
amounts be increased The commits
sion recommends that when work Oh
the canal is begun that Congress ap-
propriate FOR an adequate harbor in
Indian Creek on the Lake Erie end
and to improve the Ohio river in the
Pittsburgh district. These i'm
proYements are to be completed
when operation of the canal begins
but the government is not to be re-
quired to buy any land and is not
bound to assume any financial re-
sponsibilities whatever.
a survey for canal from Lake
Erie to the Southern end of Lake
Michigan is recommended and the
commission concluded from its pres
ent information that the most FEAST
Bile route would be through the Matt
NEE river by way of Fort Wayne
and hatFfourteen feet would be a
practical depth.
1t recommends increased power
for the Interstate Commerce Com
mission to govern joint rates and
through routes between rail and wa
ter lines, to compel physical con-
nection between them and to COM
pei railways to charge less than
local rates to all lake and river ports
on through traffic exchanged with
domestic boat lines.
Other recommendations are for
legislation to control public ter
minals; federal participation with
localities in flood control; preven-
tion OF deforestation on non-agricul-
tural lands and reforestation of de-
nuded tracts; amendments of laws
BILE streams and within the public
domain.
The commission points to the traf-
fic possibilities of the Lake Erie and
Ohio canal and says substantial re-
ductions of railroad rates may be ex-
pected to follow 7oepration. The
Lake Erie Michigan canal would OBJ
viate the detour around the Michi-
gan peninsula and give more di-
New York.
Legislation Is necessary to pre-
vent the elimination Of water compe-
tition and to prevent the raising of
water rates under railway control in
the opinion Of the commission. 1t
believes the interstate commerce
laws are now insufficient to preserve
water transportation and foster its
growth. 4 1t urges that every water
carrier in Interstate commerce be
under control of the Interstate Com
merce Commission to enable the
commission to establish through
routes, joint rates and through
bills of lading, without which, the
commission believes, the rehabilita-
tion of water traffic will not be COM
plete.
Ihe report arraigns the made
quacy OF water terminals and urges
that further river and harbor i'm
provements be avoided without as
surances of proper terminals on COM
pletion. Federal condemnation of
private property for public terminals
is not recommended except where i