Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1915-09-09
GERMANY BUILDS WATERWAYS DURING WAR

+ The VfstuIa river has been mentioned
many times of late IN the reports of the
battles in Poland and the capture 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 peaceful instead OF
Harllke. For, although considerable
work remains to be done before it is
entirely completed, the waterway
which connects the Fisrula with the
Oder has recently been opened to trat-
ic.
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 sixty miles almost due
east of eBrliui it follows up the Warrhe
and Metz rivers, crosses the summit
/ level by a canal II miles long and then
goes down the Brahe, past the city of
Br0mberg to the Tistuls. It enters
this river just at the point where its
course changes sharply from north
west TO northeast. Through this wa
teTwav boats carrying $50 tons can
pass from Berlin 10 the seaport Of
Danzis and the city Of Koenigsberg-
The statesmen of Germany, even in
~he midst Of the greatest war in all his
tory, with the empire fighting for its
+ very life, are not only maintaining and
operating 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
words could do that waterways are
( considered to be of vital Importance
to German interests.
Prussia had already spent nearly
SIS0000,000 on waterways when on
April /, 1905 the landtag authorized
. the expenditure OF over S80,000,000 OF
number Of important new projects,
Of which the Oder-Vistula waterway
was one. 1t must be remembered. too,
that Prussia had no less than S2.225,-
100000 invested in a system Of state
owned railways.
What this really means can better be
understood by comparison. Prussia
has an area Of less than $4,000 square
miles, while that of the United States
. is more than 3 100000. If the congress
Of tae United States, after investing
$50 ,764 000 900 in railways and spend
ing s3,465, 100000 on waterways, should
pass a single rivers and harbors bill
authorizing an expenditure Of $780,
100000 more, il would have done ex-
actly as much for transportation. in
-sv
tries, as Prussia had done 10 years
ago
Germany, as is pointed out in a re-
port by Consul General Thackara, is
fully alive TO the fact that transporta-
tiou facilities are at the very founda-
tion Of the industrial prosperity of any
country, and appreciates the advantage
Of a complete and unified system Of
internal transportation. both by land
and water. On the face of it. it looks
like absolute folly for a nation 10 spend
hundreds Of millions OF dollars in
building waterways to compete with
its state-owned railways, in which it
has billions of dollars invested and on
which it depends for the greater part
Of its revenue. but Germany has been
doing that very thing for 40 years And
the results? Nothing in all history
has ever eQualed or approached, the
marvellous growth in commerce and in
dustry which has been made by Ger
many within that time. Volumes might
be written but a single comparison
must suffice
n every one OF the 90 years ending
with 1918 the foreign commerce Of Ger
many has exceeded that Of the United
States. Fast as our commerce has
grown. that Of Germany has grown
faster still The average annual ex-
cess Of German commerce for the i've
years ending with 1898 was 1907 .00o.- /
coo; in the next five years the average