The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-02
PROPOSED WATER ROUTEFRONL LAKES
 ID GULF DISCUSSED
Walter L. Fisher Makes the Chief Address at Confer ence Western Economic
 Society at Chicago

Chicago, June 1.-Walter L. Fisher trr- ner Secretary of the Interior; Governor Dunne of Illinois, and William A. Shelton of the University of Georgia, were s,eak- CTS tonight at a conference of the est ern Economic society regarding the rro- posed lakes-to-the-gulf waterway for which the Illinois legislature has just ap- propriated s5,OoOooo for an eight-foot chan mel from Lockport, IL, to Utica, III.
 Invitations to the conference had an- nounced that there were two sides to the waterways question and much-interest was displayed as to the character of the vari- ous addresses. This was particularly the case in regard to former Secretary Fisher. He suggested a constructive policy of government control to confine the ttsific of waterways to low-grade bulk freight MT. Fisher said:
 ''The conclusions to be drawn from a survey of our own and foreign experiences and policies with respect to waterways s seems to me to be that some waterway expenditures are justified while some gre not; but that practically no waterway can be made profitable unless its reactions with railways are wisely and effectively con- troled by the government SO that both are compelled to serve the public interest in accordance with some general pticy intelligently adopted and effectively en- forced
 Definite Estimates Needed
 "We should abandon the easy sererah- cations and sweeping assumptions that have led to past mistakes and that are dis crediting the cause of waterway develop ment today. It is time to insist upon definite estimates of the available poten- tial traffic to ascertain how this traffic can most efficiently be carried; to make certain that our engineering plans al e fitted to commercial needs and methods instead of learning too late that conmei- cial needs and methods cannot be CO., creed into conformity with unwise ensi- neerlng plans, and to scrutinize our csti- mates of cost so that we may not ind them far too low for the practical exetu- ton of the project
 "The economic revolution and columcr- cial expansion that accompanied and " as facilitated by the substitution of the steamboat and the barge for the wagod and the sled has been followed by d great revolution which the railroad has wrought in our methods and facilities of transportation. In the course of the svo- lution the waterway has steadily lost ground, until today the Great Lakes alone are really able to make creditable snow ing in the volume of traffic and this show ing is due to the heavy bulk freight such as ore coal and grain, carried in Nesss.s of special design, constantly increast stne in size. In traffic of this same sort, osJe- cially coal, the Ohio river alone. of all our rivers, has held it's own in the volume of its traffic. Disconcertng as these ia tts hre. they find their parallel in reports of the canals of Great Britain.p
 ''On the other hand, the Internal wa terways of Germany and France show altogether different results with respect to the volume of traffic. This is due t. the fundamental difference between the attitude of the government toward both canals and railroads in these two coun- tries. Both Germany and France an- parently have accepted the economic law which tends to confine the traffic of wa terways to low grade bulk freight but both have pursued a consistent policy or Giverting as much as possible of this class of traffic from railroads to water ways by the direct interference and con trol of the government
 Professor Shelton took the position tha. the proposed waterway could be nothing but wastefu failure.
 Even the Mississippi river system, with its constantly increasing depth, he said, was a commercial failure and the water way between Lockport and Utica would be much less efficient than the Missis- sippi river below St. Louis.
 "River traffic never can compete with rail traffic" said Professor Shelton. This Is demonstrated by the way the roads have driven freight off the Mississippi and Ohio rivers Business men prefer to ship by rail. Efforts have been made froal