Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-04-19
AWAKE AT LAST

WAR is doing to mems vision what
w Commodore Decatur said it does to
mems lives. 1t broadens it.
Nothing but this war would have
forced the utilization of the canals which
has been begun by Mr.. McAdoo's order
taking over the Erie Canal in New York
to supplement the railroads. 1t would
have taken years of ordinary develop
ment of that newly improved waterway
to reach the stage of use at which it will
~rive in few months. There has been
a concerted campaign to persuade the
country that New York has wasted the
$l54O00000 which it has spent in en-
larging the Erie and its tributaries. We
have been told that the day of water
transportation had passed and that the
railroads ,oull serve busine- S much bet
tor than it could be served by the canals
]! ut the railroads have broken down
under the pressure of business. They
are incapable of carrying the freight Of
fered. The Erie Canal is provdentially
ready to do the business. 1t affords a
water route from the great grain fields
o. the West to the Atlantic ports, and
by its tributaries running south to the
finger lakes in central New York it
brings the coal fields of this State in
connection with the railroads feeding
New England from Albany. The main
canal is big enough to float 2000-ton
barges propelled by their own power or
towed in fleets by tugs. Such barges are
big enough to withstand the storms of
the Great Lakes.
Necessity has forced the use of this
great canal. The railroads are fortu-
nately under the direction of the same
man who has taken over the .Irie. 1t is
his evident purpose to bring about the
closest possible cooperation between rail
and water transportation routes through
New York. He is expected to continue
in the way he has started and bring about
the transformation of the Delaware and
Chesapeake and the Delaware and Rari-
tan Canals into waterways adapted to
modern needs. These waterways con,
meet the Chesapeake Bay with New York
Harbor. They offer cheap communication
between the great war industries about
this city and the naval stations to the
south and the north. And they will
afford cheap transportation of coal both
north and south. Contrary to the gen
cral impression, freight can be moved
on n modern canal faster than by rail-
road. Barges can go from Buffalo to
New York in eghty-ive hours. This is
a shorter time than it takes to run an
ordinary freight train between these two
points.
We called attention on this page not
long ago to the fact that war has accus-
toned us to spending money lavishly to
accomplish specific purpose, and we re-
marked that the habit which we are now
forming must not be abandoned when
peace comes if we are to proceed with
the work of industrial rehabilitation If
we can begin now to spend money on
thee great waterways between Balt-
more and New York so much the bet
ter. They are needed as part of the ma
chinery for winning the war They will
be needed as part of the machinery of
commerce in time of peace. Money spent
on them is invested, just as money used
in buying Liberty Bonds is put out at
interest. But the war returns alone will
be great enough to justify taking over
the Chesapeake Canal at once and putting
the Panama Canal engineers at work on
its enlargement. Working under pressure,
we are now building in three months
ships which used to take six times as
long. Working under the same kind of
pressure, the canal could be enlarged so
quickly that it would be open for in
creased traffic before most of us realized
that work had begun.
Now that the start has been made by
taking over the most extensive canal sys-
tenn in the world the Government can
not permit neglect of water transporta-
tion to continue. 1t cannot allow the rail
roads TO stife competition, nor can it
deprive the people of the economies to be
found in the use of a great but neglected
resource of the nation. We are awake
at last. There are alert men who will see
to it that the nation does not go to sleep
again.
The third Liberty Loan is behind sched-