The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1916-04-16

NEW ORLEANS, April 15.-"can
the boats come back to the inland
riversi" m, -
On April 15 there sails from st.
Louis for New Orleans, scheduled TO
arrive In the latter city April rs, the
"Inco No. IL, first OF a feet Of thirty
hve modern water craft contracted
for or planned, with which the In
land Navigation Company, capital
ized at $9,000.000. propose to put
the issue to practical and gigantic
experiment.
The "Inco No. /" looks like no
other craft that ever moved on the
mississippi, and in plan and opera
ton It Is as dissimilar from It's pre-
decessors as Its looks imply.
John H. Bernhard. aged 20, Hol-
lander OF Amsterdam. Is the practical
dreamer whose ideas are at the bot
tom Of the new venture. d. A.
Thomas. now Lord Rhondda, Of
Wales and London, is the capitalist
witt. vision, whose faith. and whose
chtck book enabled Barfhafd to- ut
- idean - The tee<1tf actuaIl rial
Watch New Venture.
The Inland Navigation Company
will be the first great corporation to
essay long distance service on the
Mississippi in a great way since the
Anchor Line and the Mississippi VAL
ley Transportation Company went out
OF business nearly a quarter OF a
century ago.
From one end OF the valley TO the
other, business men, commercial
organizations. transportation COM
panies, are watching the new venture
keenly-for the most part hopefully.
II 1t succeeds, and its promoters
admit no chance OF failure, the
causes which have produced trans
portation crisis this spring in the
whole Mississippi drainage basin will
be, In great part, removed.
For twelve years, the Mississippi
valley dreamed fond dreams OF what
would happen when the Panama
canal is finished"
1t was finished: The valley could
not use the rivers to connect up with
the gulf-and-canal routs to the Pacific
markets and sources Of supplies. The
Atlantic seaboard did use the ocean.
Billions Needed.
Ten years ago James ]. Hill de-
clared that the next boom period in
American business would swamp the
railroads: that billions would be
needed to so rebuild the steel lines
md SO enlarge the rolling stock, that
the two would be adequate to carry
the commerce OF a thriving America
in 1920!
1t isn't 1920. but the railroads of
America have been unable to meet
the traffic demands OF the last six
months Of 1915 and the first three
of 1916.
From st. Paul and Minneapolis
down to New Orleans. and cross
ways from Pittsburgh to Kansas
City and from Chicago to Fort Ben
ton. business organizations are say
ing: Put boats back on the Missis-
sippi and its tributaries; build term
inals at the river ports; use the
rivers and the railroads; take the
rivers out Of the pork barrel"
The Chicago Association OF Com
merce, through its spokesman before
the Illinois legislature when the bill
was pending for navigable canal
between Lake Michigan and Chicago,
declared:
I'VE w,mt the Mississippi available
for an outlet to the sea. not for our
self interest, but for our self-protec-
ton.
Yet in this spring OF 1915 the
$4,000 miles OF the Mississippi river
system", with 5000 miles Of main
fr1lnk 1ino' ha tA
whole heart OF the continent run as
empty to the sea as does the Amazon,
nearly as useless as the Congo!
1 The season OF 1856 the valley
Is estimated to have produced eleven
hundred million tons OF freight
and the railroad service has reached
the utmost OF its capacity of mileage.
yafdage and rolling stock! Another
hundred million tons and vt will be
insufficient.
New Boats Upon the River.
Now. however. the first through
going. amply financed, broadly pur-
posed effort to put the boat back
upon the rivers" is ready to be made.
Back in 1914, John H. Bernhard,
a young Netherlands marine and
electrical engineer, who had picked
out America for his oyster, under
took a laboratory experiment in
modern commercial navigation OF the
Mississippi. His voyage in 1914 was
with low-powered. 1000-ton. shall
low-draft propeller craft originally
constructed by him for the Alabama
and New Orleans Transportation
Company to move coal out OF the
Warrior river, Alabama. to New
Orleans.
On the very day the Panama canal