The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-05-31
The Use of Conals
 for Transportation
By HOLLAND

New York. May 30-6 Especial. ) Within short time the government, by reason of it's expenditures at Muscle Shoals. will have completed inn iprovements to the Tennessee river
 whereby that important stream will
 be made navigable for steam vessels
 of considerable tonnage far back of the end of it's present navigable chan Incl.
 l A few years ago a canal was com pleted around the rapids of the great
 river of the far northwest whereby navigation from the sea far inland (which is of great benefit to the farm | CTS, was secured. At the head waters ] of the Mississippi river an artificial
 water way has been constructed to
 Minneapolis, whereby that metropolis
 of the northwest is enabled to take another step in the direction of the lcomm mercial supremacy in that region , which was predicted for it by William l Il. Seward in memorable speech he made while United States senator be- 1 fore the beginning of the Civil war. 1 Within few years Massachusetts bay has been connected by chanal with Buzzards bay thus meeting d recom- mendation made by John c. Calhoun when he was Secretary of War in the cabinet of President Monroe almost exactly hundred years ago.
 A day or two ago a report was made i'll this column of information which reached New York city from New Orr leans that construction work upon a
 canal which will connect Lake Pon- chartrain with the Mississippi river at or near New Orleans, has begun. and when completed this canal will greatly increase the harbor facilities of New Orleans and will directly and indirectly prove of advantage to the entire United States
 Now there are intimatons that the representative of the government, MT ,Tomlinson, who under the authority of Director General McAdoo has been placed in charge of the operation of
 the new barge canal across New York state, is already persuaded that this canal should be converted at least from Lake Ontario to the Hudson river into a ship canal equal in size and in
 navigable capacity to the Welland ca nal and to the other canals around
 the rapids of the St. Lawrence river
 upon the Canadian side. MT. Tomlinson very likely will in due time advocate
 the enlargement of the canal from Os-
 wego to the present barge canal and
 the enlargement of that from a point
 near Syracuse or Rome, New York, to
 lnS I1uuSOH TlVeT so that II VIII be |navigable by vessels of large tonnage driven by steam.
 A REVIVED IDEA
 Many years ago some of the far seeing men of the time earnestly ad- vocated the construction of true ship canal connecting Lake Ontario with the Hudson river. But possibly for reasons of cost and because the state did not fully understand the value to New York and to the nation which would be found in the navigating of a true ship canal from Oswego to the Hudson. the agitation was abandoned and a small canal constructed.
 Should a ship canal with a terminal on Lake Ontario at Oswego be con- !structed, including the enlargement of the present barge canal to ship canal proportions, then there would remain
 only one link to perfect in a com prehensive, adequate deep water way system. whereby large vessels could pass back and forth between the Hud- son, Duluth or Chicago.
 For 10 years an able and responsible