Evening journal., 1913-06-23
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Father Of Americas
Important Canal Systems
By Holland

In the course of an afternoons
chat with the late Major Frank Bond.
he attributed his own conception of
ship canal across the lower penin-
sula Of Michigan to Lake Erie to
John C. Calhoun.
It was at Saratoga that this con-
verastion took place. The late Com
modore Van Santvoord, the great
capitalist, who was the owner of one
of the leading American steamboat
lines plying between Albany and
New York, was present while Major
Bond was narrating the story of his
Indebtedness to John c. Calhoun.
Major Bond was widely known as
one of the ablest of the railway
managers of his time He was
prominently associated with the bril-
liant group which perfected the Chi
cago, Minneapolis and ST. Paul Rail-
road system. / asked him how It
happened that he. who had been so
prominently identified with the rail-
roads of the United States, after he
retired from the army at the close
of the Civil War, should have be-
come such an earnest advocate OF
the construction Of a true ship canal
across the lower peninsula of Micni-
gan, connecting Lake Erie with Lake
Michigan directly.
Without answering my question
Immediately Major Bond said: Il
suppose that it can be truly said
that John G. Calhoun was the father
Of the important canal systems Of
the United States. When he was a
member of the cabinet of President
James Monroe, as secretary of war,
Calhoun earnestly recommended the
great national work by which an in
terror coast line waterway, from
Boston to Savannah. could be es-
tablished He pointed out the ease
with which a canal could be con-
structed across Cape Cod, connect
ing Massachusetts bay with Buzz
yards Bay, from that point naviga-
tion by Long Island Sound TO New
York harbOr, thence by canal across
New Jersey to the Delaware RIVER,
thence across Delaware and Mary
land TO Chesapeake Bay, thence by
canal through the Dismal Swamp TO
the sounds of North Carolina and
then across South Carolina to Sa-
vannah.
What Calhoun advised eighty
years ago has in part been accom-
plished. 1t is going to be completely
accomplished within the next twenty
five or thirty years.
81 had occasion to look up some Of
the records of the war department at
I.ft
the report made by Calhoun in favor
of the interior coast-line canal sys-
TEN. / read It with intense interest.
l afterward learned that it was in
great measure due to the suggestions
of Calhoun that Dewitt Clinton ad-
vocated a canal across New York
State by which Lake Erie could be
connected by an artificial waterway
with the navigable waters of the
Hudson.
q often thought of the immense
inspiration Calhoun gave toward
canal construction in the United
States.
"At last I reasoned that if it were
commercially practicable to build a
canal across New York State it would
be in the highest degree adj
yantageous commercially to construct
a ship canal across the lower penin-
sula of Michigan Railroad man as I
was l did not hesitate to advocate
this plan, but ! believed that a canal
of that kind should be constructed
on the lines laid down by Calhoun,
mainly as a national work.
by the way" continued Major
Bond" / have heard that Calhoun
was first inspired with the conception
of an interior coast-line canal while
he was a student at Yale College.
think about the year 1902 or 1903. He
was greatly interested in Long Island
Sound when he was a student, and
frequently visited its shores, which
were within an afternoons walk OF
Yale. College a study of the map
showed him that if a canal were
built across Cape Cod that there
would be practically interior water
navigation by way of Long Island
Sound to New York and Boston ard
furthermore the building OF a snort
canal across New Jersey would con-
meet Philadelphia by interior water
way with Boston.
when Calhoun entered public life
about ten years after his gralua-
ton, he still thought of the interior
waterway. and when he became sec
retary of war he had worked out ms
plan, which is now in great meas
ure adopted. It is for this reason
that l call John c. Calhoun the faith
er of artificial waterway construction
in the Cnited States. ana this con-
struction has been of tremendous
commercial importance to the coun-
try"
Copyright, 1918. by 2. J. Edwards
All rights reserved.)
Tomorrow Mr.. Edwa;ds will tell OF
"a Pioneer in the Southern Railway
System"
PATTY At MARSHALLTON.