The Republican journal., 1914-05-14
Inland Waterways.
Their Commercial Value and Importance for
National Defence.


Their Commercial Value and Importance fol
National Defence.
WASHINGTON, D. G., May II, 1914.
That waterways are of value, not only
in time of peace but in time of war, and
that an inland waterway along the At
lantic Coast as means of national de-
fence would be of even greater value
than the Panama Canal, is the opinion
expressed by Mr.. Theodore Justice of
Philadelphia, who is Commissioner of
Paramount Park.
"How many of US realize" said Mr..
Justice, that but for the sinking of the
battleship Maine the Panama Canal
would today not even have been begun?
When we were suddenly facing war we
found our fleet divided, one part in the
Atlantic, the other in the Pacific, and
each division liable to being defeated in
detail. The long, hazardous trip of the
Oregon around Cape Horn was a matter
of intense anxiety and aroused the whole
nation to the need of the Panama Canal
as a means of national defence, SO that,
in case of need, we could unite all our
warships in one mighty fleet and in
either ocean.
'In my remarks before the Conven-
ton of the National Rivers and Harbors
Congress in December last, I pointed out
that the question whether the Panama
Canal, which was wholly paid for by the
United States and is wholly within
United States territory, is to be absolute
ly within United States control, had
seemingly become an international ques-
ton and had created situation that was
surcharged with danger, one that might
lead to conflict with the whole world
united against US, and that this conflict
might come upon ns as suddenly as did
the sinking of the Maine. The danger
which existed at that time has been null
tiplied hundredfold by the situation
that now confronts us in Mexico.
"Under such peril our greatest
cities, New York, Philadelphia, Balti-
more, and even Washington, the capital
of the nation, might be at the mercy of
united European fleets, but this danger
would be fully averted if the waterways
that now connect New York harbor with
the Delaware river and Chesapeake bay
were deepened sufficiently to allow the
passage of torpedo boats. This inland
waterway would be safe from battleshIp
attack and would have all the advant-
ages of short inside line from which
offensive warfare might be more safely
carried on. The benefits indicated for
the section from New York to Chesa-
peake bay would be vastly extended and
multiplied with the completion of the
entire project, giving protected water
way the whole length of the Atlantic
coast.
1.-The broad, national value of such a
waterway would be far greater to the
people of the United States than even
that of the Panama Canal, conceding, as
l do, quite as much for the national
value of the latter as is claimed by its
most sanguine advocates.
''Will any broad-minded and patriotic
citizen of the United States not concede
that matters of national defense should
have precedence at all times over the
many other meritorous projects that have
been proposed? All of the latter pro-
posed plans contain great commercial
value to the nation, and l hope that
within the course of reasonable time
all of them will be developed, but in the
interest of the whole nation the greatest
project of them all is the immediate
for national defense con-
tanned within the plans of the Atlantic
Deeper Waterways Association, extend
ing all the way from Maine to Florida"