The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1912-08-21
MILLIONS SPENT TO GET
COMMERCE
United States Rivers Better Adapted
Than Foreign Streams.
Philadelphia, Aug. 20.

To show the rare natural advant-
ages possessed by this port for max
ing ii one of the greatest along the
Atlantic seaboard through future de
Yelopment, Director George w. Nor
ris, OF the Department of WharYes
and Docks, has had some illumina-
tive facts and figures compiled, show
ing the tremendous difficulties under
which most European ports have had
their growth, and how, by the liber-
al expenditure of millions of dol
lars, they have been made the most
prosperous ports in the world, re-
paying many times over the cost of
the improvements.
Were it generally known here
what tremendous obstacles have
been overcome abroad" said Direc-
tor Norris, Il believe there would be
a more general appreciation of our
own natural advantages and a much
stronger tendency to reap the full
benefits thereof. ! venture to say
that the average man is not aware
that the Schuylkill river, which is
but a secondary stream to this port,
is considerably wider and deeper
than many European rivers which
have been made the channels to
some of the finest artificial harbors
in the world"
In illustrating a somewhat SINH
lar argument recently, Director Nor
ris pointed to the Port of Hamburg,
where upward of 100000 has
been spent since 1880 in channel
dredging and port and harbor i'm
provements, and from a narrow,
twisting stream of six-and-a-half feet
depth at low water and thirteen feet
u oil hA
dredged since the early forties to a
depth of twenty-siX feet at low wa
ter, and thirty-two feet at high tide,
the total expenditure for channel
dredging alone having been more
than twelve and a half millions of
dollars.
Because of the narrow channel of
the Elbe, it was impossible to follow
the cheaper methods employed here
of building piers out into the
stream, and instead it was necessary
to cut great basins or artificial lakes
inland. In the making of two Of
these basins 1000 property owners
were appropriated and 24,OOO per-
sons made homeless.
To-day the harbor front is almost
entirely publicly owned as indicated
by the fact that out of 5,761 vessels
docking at Hamburg in twelve
months, only 736 used piers private
ly owned or held under private
lease.
The River Clyde, on which the
great shipbuilding interests of Glas-
gov are centered, and the River
Schelde, which is the channel to the
Port of Antwerp, form even better
examples for comparison with our
Schuylkill on which almost nothing
has been spent in improvements,
said Director Norris.
The Clyde, Director Norris pointed
out, is so narrow that the large yes
sells constructed there have to be !
launched sidewise to prevent their |
bows being stove in upon the oppo-
site shore. Its tides make it a diff !
cult stream to navigate, and its de-
Velopment has been at tremendous
expense, yet it has become one Of
the most important commercial
streams in the world, the channel to
the most important shipbuilding in
dustries of Europe.
The natural difficulties which con-
fronted Antwerp in her efforts to pro-
cure navigable channel to the sea |
OF sufficient depth to accommodate |
modern draft vessels were greater |
than tnose or Glasgow or Hamburg |
Antwerp, with a population of only |
10000, has already expended S45,-
100000 upon port and channel i'm
provements, and the projects nuder |
way call for the spending of $50
100000 more. AS a result of the |
way Antwerp has made expenditures
on port and harbor improvements, on |
river dredging and pier construction, |
1t is today one of the leading ports
OF Europe.
Dykes had to be constructed |
which now keep the surface of the |
Schelde on a level with the roofs of |
houses along its course. 1t too, was
a stream so narrow that pier con-
struction was utterly out of the |
question. Large and expensive ba-
sins had to be dug inland, and a sys-
TEN of canals laid out TO permit OF a |
continuous course about the docks on
the basins for the Schelde is so
narrow at Antwerp that the average
ocean liner cannot turn in the
stream. Yet by dredging and dyk-
ing the river has been given a depth |
of from 80 to 81 feet, permitting the
deepest draft ships TO make the port.