The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1916-07-19
Their Usage Dates From
Many Years Ago.
OLDEST CANAL IS IN FRANCE
Americas First Canal Dug In
Massachusetts When Wash.
iugtOn Was President.
ARE VALUABLE IN EVERY AGE

The historians will tell the next
generation about the enormous val
ue of canals in this European war
Over exactly the caravan route
traversed by the Crusaders 500
years ago the Germans have a canal
from the Rhine to the Danube. I.
1t is therefore possible to send a
submarine from Cologne to the
Black Sea with as much freedom
from a hostile shot as to navigate a
canoe on the Sohuylkill river.
That Black Forest Canal is play
ing a vital part in Germany's swift
mobilization of war munitions. Just
as the Kiel Canal makes her feet
as safe from an enemy's battleships
as if it were in the great park at
Berlin and miles from a navigable
stream.
The Egyptians had canals before
the days of st. Paul, but the lock
canal which made it possible to
cross mountains in a boat came only
a few years before Columbus discov-
cred America.
To be told that Raphael in his
spare moments when not painting a
Raphael was constructing locomo-
tive would scarcely surprise you
more than to be told that Leonardo
da Vinci was a pioneer canal lock
builder.
But the hand that put upon the
walls of that historic church in Mi
Ian 1.-THE Last Supper" also design
ed the locks for Milan's canal.
That was just five years before
another Italian from the nearby
town of Genoa sailing a Spanish ship
came to anchor at San Salvador. Be-
fore the lock system was born canals
had to be on level ground, although
in China they had them on slight in
clines.
OF all canals that are of real use
to-day, the Oldest one cuts across
France from the Bay of Biscay to
the Mediterranean. It is as long as
from Atlantic City to Harrisburg
and rises upon hills more than coo
feet high.
That canal was finished the year
before William Penn set foot on the
site of PhiladeIDhia
Americas first canal was dug at
South Hadley, Mass, when Wash
ington was President. 1t was COM
pleted 100 years ago. That little
waterway gave De Witt Clinton his
idea of the canal across New York
State-the greatest single impetus
ever contributed to the upbuilding
of a large city.
II was the Erie Canal that gave
New York the needed speed to pass
Philadelphia as the metropolis of
this continent.
Barring only the Panama Canal,
which sewers North and South Amer
lea, and the Suez Canal, which made
an island Of Africa. by far the most
idea for a canal was
framed by John C. Calhoun.
When that illustrious Democrat
was Secretary Of War. almost a CEN
fury ago, he advocated a Govern
ment canal to connect Boston with
the Gulf of Mexico. This apostle of
State rights. whom President An
brew Jackson threatened to hang.
vas the father of that inland road
Tor ships which wideawake Congress
men are advocating to-day.
The Cape Cod Canal and the cut
across New Jersey as well as the
Delaware and Chesapeake were in
calhoun's head. as We're canals
across the Great Dismal Swamp and
to the Gulf.
Washington was also a canal pro-
ector. He planned a waterway to
connect the Potomac with the Ohio
liver.
In the light Of the things we hear
about insiders and their
winnings. the action of
In that canal scheme
hines like a full moon on a clear
light.
They offered to give him $50
hares In the company. but he re-
used to accept them. He said he
'ould urge the building of a canal