The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1914-08-22
MILITARY VALUE
OF {. & D. CANAL

Senator Salisbury, of Delaware, de-
livered an address in the Senate re-
Gently on his amendment to the River
and Harbor Bill appropriating 81 $780,
600 for the purchase OF the Chesa-
peake and Delaware Canal and author
izing the government to acquire the
canal for condemnation proceedings if
the governments first offer is not
accepted by the canal company.
Senator Saulsbury's address was an
the History of the Chesapeake and
Delaware Canal from the time its
charter was obtained in 1888 until the
present day. Mr.. Salisbury quoted
from every report made by the engi-
neers of the Army on the military
value of the canal and from many
other documents showing the vast
commercial interests in Maryland,
Delaware and Pennsylvania served by
the canal.
Opens Up Big Markets.
Senator Salisbury said:
'Those who labor upon the great
Chesapeake Bay and it's tributaries
will have opened to them, by quick
water transportation, the markets
where millions of people in the great
cities of Trenton, Camden, Fhiladel-
phia, Chester, Wilmington and the
surrounding territory buy their food.
The people of these great communi-
ties will have opened to them, by
quick water transportation, the great
markets where the people of Baltl-
more, Annapolis, Norfolk, and the
South purchase the manufactured ar
ticles necessary for their daily USE
Millions of tons of freight will be in
terchanged and enhanced to value by
the readiness with which customers
can obtain the necessaries of life. Mil
lions of people will be benefited bv the
lessened cost of articles they daily
ueS.
eff those who know the best about
this great work are not absolutely
and entirely mistaken, the military
and naval defenses of a great portion
of our Eastern seaboard will be more
than doubled and the strength of this
government can be readily concentrat-
ed at any point where attack is to be
feared. The cost of making such con-
centration possible will only be that of
cile VI lNO SHIPS VI wal, anu II Oll ~
to 20 per cent.-possibly greater
percentage than that-on its cost will
be saved to the commerce OF the coun-
try annually.
To Help Railroads.
"The canal, completed in accord
ance with the estimate of the engin-
GERS, will prove an automatic regula-
ton Of railroad rates, and at the same
time relieve the railroads Of their con-
gested traffic, TO the great benefit of
all their customers.
"There can be no better place found
in the Union to test the value of
modern canal than by the purchase
and enlargement Of the now small
waterway between the Delaware and
Chesapeake Bays. A great traffic al
ready exists, and the amount of its
interchange between producer and
consumer will thoroughly test out the
great project in an intracoastal water
way.
"Wide markes, where millions of
consumers will be benefited, will open
to the people of Maryland and Vir-
ginia engaged in producing the neces-
sites of life. Exchange Of manufac-
tured goods for foodstuffS will be in
creased for the benefit of ali.
Will Save Many Lives.
at is difficult-indeed, impossible
to accurately estimate the great adj
vantage which will flow from unfetter-
ing the commerce of the two sections
and making easy the free interchange
of between fifty and hundred mil
lions Of tons annually, which is the
combined commerce of the two bays.
"The government can obtain this
waterway at less than its actual cost
and with a certainty that no loss will
be incurred. The character of the pro-
ject is not new one. A similar but
smaller project Of this character was
carried through when the government
purchased The Chesapea. and Abe
marie Canal, and the advantages if
that purchase have already been plo-
ven in some measure
"it is no small thing to take into
consideration that many human lives
will be saved each year, now sacrificed
TO the fury Of the sea on the outside
passage between the Delaware and
Virginia Capes, if this waterway
should be properly opened
Existing, as it now does, it may be
said to be almost ali obstruction to
commerce rather than a benefit, for if
it did rot exist at all the short barrier
to the Interchange of the great COM
merce of the two bays and their tribu-
taries would not be allowed long to
exist"
The Twenty Year Test