The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-04-20
CHARLESTON IS
 IDEAL LOCATION FOR PLATEPLANT l

Secretary Daniels and the Naval Armor Plate board have given heal thy boost to the improvement of our inland waterways by the selection of Charleston, West Virginia, as the site for the gigantic plant in which the government will manufacture the steel platings for it's battleships. Both in the report of the board and the decision of Secretary Daniels, there are statements that. the facilities pro- vtded by the Great Kanawha River were ruling factors in the ultimate choice of Charleston.
 The Board stated in it's finds that an ample water supply was a neces- sity, and that consideration would al- so be given to the factors of an oper- ating force, suitable raw materials near at hand and the cost of delivery of the finished product.
 Secretary Daniels, after mentioning the location fof Charleston, protected by the Appalachian Mountains, with nearby coal fields having an annual output of 30,00O,000 tons, with natur- al gas and crude oil being produced all around it, and all the needed basic tances and atSlow freight rates, add ed that the Great Kanawha, River of- fers an ample water Supply an op- portunity for the government to de- |velop its own water power and makes possible water transportation to the Gulf of Mexico.
 Secretary Daniels states that the publicly owned munitions plant will be built either upon the same site or upon one close at hand. $11OOOOOO are now available for the armor plate plant, but it is probable that an addi- tional $8,000,000l will be asked, so that the size of, the plant may be in- creased. ,. The amount available for the munitions plant is $1,7OO,O0O.
 The Great Kanawha river, which enters the Ohio at Point Pleasant, West Virginia. has been improved by locks and dams for a distance of 8S miles, over which distance the chan nel has a low water depth of feet. The project for it's improvement was adopted largely through the efforts of the late Senator Kenner of West Virginia. The first of the ten locks and dams was, finished in 1887, the last three in 1898, and work on the channel being finally completed in 1913.
 / The location of these great new AcCCOliCS dI Shd1 iCSIOII, lI1dhIuS pTOO- ucts of such vital importance as arr nor plate and munitions, will rconsti- tute powerful argument for hasten ing to the utmost the completion of the work on the Ohio River. The plans call for the construction of 53 locks and movable dams which will give minimum depth of g feet over the entire 967 miles from Pittsburgh to Cairo. Only IT of these locks and dams are in operation, and all but four of these are above the mouth of the Great Kanawha. If funds were supplied as fast as needed, the en-. tire work could be finished within four years, or five years at the out side
 ; Whether the government will de- velop it's own water power on the upper Kanawha. and if so, to what extent, is matter for future decision Work upon the armor plate and mu- nitions plants is to be pushed to com pletion at the earliest possible date, and with the development of traffic which will follow, it is probable that the channel in the Kanawha as far as Charleston will be given a depth of g feet, the same as that in the Ohio River.