The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-08-23
VlSTULA RIVER IS
 SCENE OF NOTABLE
 ENGINEERING FEAT
Great Waterway Connects Ii With the Oder River
 Germans Continue Work.


 The vistuIa river has been mention ed many times of late in the reports of the battles in Poland and the cap ture of Warsaw, the largest city on its banks Now the German portion of the river furnishes an item which is worthy of note, although it is peace full instead of warlike: Fot, although work remains to be done before it is entirely completed, the waterway which connects the Vistula with the Oder has recently been open ed to traffic.
 This new waterway, which takes the place of an older and much smaller one is 1s2 miles long and consists al most entirely of canalized rivers. Starting at Custrin, a fortified city on the Oder some 60 miles almost due east of Berlin, it follows up the Warthe and Netze r1vers, crosses the summit level by a canal IT miles long and then goes down the Brahe, past the city of Bronberg, to the Vistula. It enters this river just at theN point where it's course changes sharply from northwest to northeast. Through this waterway boats carrying. 450 tons can pass from Berlin to the seaport of Danzig and the city of Koenigsberg
 The statesmen of Germany, even in the midst of the greatest war in all history, not only maintaining and op- erating the waterways they already have but are actually building more This fact, says a statement issued by the National Rivers and Harbors Con- gress, shows more plainly than any word could do that waterways are considered to be of vital importance to German interests.
 Prussia had already spent nearly $130.oOo, 1000 on waterways when on April 1, 1905. the Landtagz authorized the expenditure of over $80.000.00 on number of important new projects, of which the Odgr-Vlstula waterway was one. It must be rernenbered,too' that Prussia had no less than $2,225,- Ooo, ,0oO invested in system of state owned railways.
 teWhat this really means can better be understood by a comparison FTa1H- sia has an area of less than 135,0Ou square miles, while that of the United State is more than $500, o,e0o. If the Congress of the United States. after in vesting S59,764, ,o0o, ,0OO in railways and spending $3.465 100000 on waterways should pass a single rivers and har- bors bill authorizing an expenditure | of $2,160, ,000, ,000 more, it would have done exactly as much for transporta- | ton. in proportion to the size of the two countries. as Prussia had done 10 years ago.
 'sGerrnany as is pointed out in 3 report by Consul General Thackara- l is fully alive to the fact that transpor- tation facilities are at the very 1foun- 1 daion of the industrial prosperity oi 1 any country, and appreciates the ad- vantage of a complete and unified sys- l tenn of internal transportation, both l by land and water. On the face or it I 1t looks like absolute folly for a na- tionssto spend hundreds of millions oi dollars in building waterways to com I pete with it's state-owned railways ir ! -f,s1 N s|-.
 ed and on which it depends for thu greater part of it's revenue; but Ger many has been doing that very thing for 40 years. And the results Moth ! ling in all history has ever equa1ed. ol 1 approached, the marvellous growth il l commerce and industry which ha' I been made by Germany within tha, tine Volumes might be written bu
 a. single comparison must suffice.
 stIn every onelof the 20 years end ing with 913 the foreign commerce Q ] Germany has exceeded that of tn i United States. Fast as our commerc has grown. that of Germany ha grown faster still. The average an s nual excess of German commerce fo I the five years ending with 1893 wa sl $207, COG, ,0o0; in the next i've year I the average rose to $221. 900, 900 ;, il I the next five to $4O0.o00,000; and il l the next to $712,oOe.0o. For 1911 the excess was $853s so0e,oo0,
 eThere would be nothing in thes figures for the United States to boas I of if the two countries were equal il l size and resources. But compare j with Gernany the United States
 more than | 2 times as large has 5
 per cent more population, more tha1 I twice as much accumulated wealtl
 and natural resources at least Q time
 as great. Yet in the race for com l mercial supremacy Germany passe l us 20 years ago and. until the wa
 broke out, was steadily leaving U Il farther and farther behind.
 ssCheap transportation is just a
 vital to industry and commerce a
 ammunition to an army
 s'It would pay the United States t Il improve it's waterways.