The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-12-11
WATERWAYS AND MoToRwAKs
 ARE THE ONLY RELIEF.

|
 Higher rates will not increase the | speed or volume of freights carried
 by the railroads. Rail and terminal
 capacity is the test of that service. i Both are now taxed beyond capacity,
 though comparatively little freight is I accepted outside of war essentials.
 Such a condition cannot long con tinue without great hardship. Freight
 for the ordinary industries of the
 country must be moved. They can-
 not live in isolation. There must be
 a more or less free How of traffic in and out of our factories aside from ! the carrying of war materials. Oth- erwise the factories must, close down.
 Every day that passes, however, lessens the volume of freight capried
 for other than war purposes, and ] tightens the. strangle-hold on our 1n- l duStries due to our failure to develop the waterways and motorways of the country. The barge canal, for in- 1 stance, from Buffalo to this port, should be in full operation by spring. An inland waterway paralleling the Atlantic shore should be one: of. the nations greatest assets. It would be so regarded if it were now ready for | traffic. Yet we have only the little Cape Cod canal! The waterways of 1 the central West should also have been developed so that they would | now be crowded with barges and 1 river craft laden with freight that is now congesting our railroads.
 The trouble, we are having is due to the fact that in transportation America has been a nation with 8 single track mind. For a half cen- tury, throughout our period of great est land and industrial expansion, we have built an empire on the slender foundation of pair of steel rails. Our Congress has given no heed to ap- peals for developing comprehensive waterway systems, bankers have turn ed deaf ear to appeals for financing such enterprises, and investors gener- ally have preferred to risk their money in over-railroading certain sec- tions rather than in developing real l competition with existing lines by es- l tabhshing water and motor routes. l Politicians have been permitted by Congress to suuander hundreds of millions on isolated and impossible rivers and harbors, but not dollar has gone. for intelligent water de- velopment. aa
 l Here in. New York we have been spending s1o0, 100000 or more leis- urely-mueh too leisurely-in re- building the Erie canal so as to carry
 great freight barges from the great lakes to this port. The canal is now
 open for traffic as far north as Oswe- | go and Whitehall, but 1t is said that
 another year will be required to finish ] the job as far west as Fuffalo. Prf- vate enterprise would have finished 1t two or three years ago, and we l would be reaping now some benefit 1 from our heavy investment. The
 Cape Cod canal, built by August Bel l mont, makes possible water freights
 from Boston to New York wholly in-
 dependent of railroads and of the
 fogs so perilous to steamers that were formerly compelled to go outside Cape Cod. In that enterprise we have an object lesson in miniature of what l the government and our bankers
 should have been engaged in doing
 the past twenty-five years.
 The traffic gorge on our railroads at this time of greatest need ought
 to stir Congress to develop bclh
 waterways and motorways. By that means alone can the industrial pros
 perity of the country be maintained We have outgrown railroad transpor- tation as our only reliance in the large sense. We should have a sys-
 tenn of national motor highways con meeting all of our industrial centers and leading to our great ocean ports They cannot be built toe
 quickly, and should be built whether | they can be completed in time for
 war use or not. From present out looking, America is to be a busy place, industrially. for many years af.
 ter the war. And we cannot com pete with rehabilitated Europe if we
 are forced to rely on freight-gorged
 railroads to get our goods to the mar. kets of the world.
 We cannot build three thousand
 mile highways over night, but we car build sections of them month by month, thus affording gradual relief rf the building of such system oi ~oadways could go hand in hand with he development of our inland water
 ways, the industrial future of ouI
 country would outstrip it's marvellous