The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-04-18
GERMANS, HELD UP ON NORTHERN LINE,
START OFFENSIVE AT THE SOUTHERN
SECTION OF THE LYS BATTLE AREA
GOVERNMENT TAXES >
OYER BARGE CANALS
Will Operate Erie and New York State
System Under the Railroad Admins
tration and Will Build Barges.

| Washington, April ls,--Director Gen
eral McAdoo last night ordered that tho
| Erie and New York state barge cana
system be taken over by the railroad ad.
ministration, and that fleet of barges
be constructed Immediately and operated
there under the direction OF G.. A, Tom
linson of Duluth, Mimi, TO relieve freight
! traffic
This is the first inland waterway
whose operation under the railroad sd.
ministration has been definitely decided
upon as a result of the extensive investi-
cation made by the committee on inland
| water. Within few weeks, however.
the director general is expected TO order
several other canal systems and navi-
gable rivers, including the Chesapeake g.
Ohio canal the Black Warrior river in
Alabama and several Atlantic coast wa.
terways used actively by the railroad
administration to relieve traffic on the
rail lines. Construction of barges within
two or three months and their intensive
use in the late summer and fall is
planned. Investigation now is being
made of the practicability of concrete
barges, which, ii is said, can be built
quickly and cheaply
he mad decided to construct as quickly
as possible and put into operation a line
of barges to be operated by the govern
ment on the Erie canal"
The barges," the announcement con
tinued, will be of modern construction
of the most improved type and will be
operated in conjunction with and as a
part OF the general railroad and water |
ways transportation system of the coun-
try under the control of the director gem
eral of railroads. This will insure the
coordination of the Erie canal |
facilities with the railroad facilities and |
it is hoped will greatly enlarge the avail
able transportation facilities throughout
eastern territory.
&c. A. Tomlinson of Duluth, MINI, a
man of large practical experience in lake
navigation, has been appointed general
of the Erie canal operations, in.
,luding the construction of barges and
general equipment. Under government
control of the railroads and the canal
here can be diverted to the canal all of
he traffic that can be handled to the
1est advantage by water and the canal
De made in the highest degree serviceable
n the present situation"
Several hundred steel barges of about
90 tons each will be ordered immediate.
y from construction companies on the ,
sreat Lakes, and the first Of these prob
4bly can be completed in, five or six ;
weeks Each viii cost about 100000.
lost of the old equipment will not be !
sed to any extent.
fhe canal system, running from Buff
alo to Waterford, near Troy, on the /,
hudson river is capable of carrying :
bout l0,000,000 tons Of freight season, :
nd probably half of that amount will be :
auled this year. Grain from Buffalo
nd coal from Ithaca and Watkins, n. Y,
ill be the principal commodities trans |,
orted. Grain will move through the !,
anal and down the Hudson river to New II
ork, where it will be taken largely by
lie food administration grain corpora a
on for storage and transhipment to Z
urope. Coal will be carried from Troy r
nd other upper Hudson terminals by '
Ill to New England D