The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-10-15

Noo9t hii6 canal would prove to be of great benefit to commerce. At that time calhoun was warmly in favor of every reasonable proposition designed to facil-' itate the extension of our commerce by land and by water It was for this req son that he advocated the construction of national highway which would give excellent facilities for the transporta- hon of commodities between the Ohio rlVer and the Atlantic coast Only a lew years after Calhoun's recommenda- tons were made there came the advent of the railroad and that seems to have been sufficient to cause this coast-lins canal system would be forgotten
 Now Secretary Redfield has made report to Congress advocating the con- struction of the national canal system Whlch was recommended by John C. Cal noun when he was secretary of war
 The wonderful awakening of our ma terial resources and opportunities which the war has occasioned in part explains Secretary Redfield's enthusiastic report Tn favor Of government construction of an interior coast-line canal which when completed, would parallel the Atlantic practically from Boston to the far south. For Secretary Redfield says that he is now persuaded that governmental action or this kind should be undertaken as soon as possible. The secretary appar- ently has caused a careful study to be made of the conditions and opportuni- ties associated with canal construction of this kind. He began with the Cape Cod canal that little artificial straight which bisects Cape Cod at it's shoulder and makes possible speedy and safe nav igation between Massachusetts bay and Buzzards bay. Secretary Redfield is convinced that this Cape Cod canal is modern and so efficient in most respects that with a slight increase in it's facili- ties it will be able to accommodate sub stantially all of the coastwise traffic which now goes around the dangerous peninsula of Cape Cod.
 THE FIRST STEP
 Short as is this Cape Cod canal, being only about eight miles in length, it never theless has already proved to be of great commercial advantage. It is a little link but an important one in the entire sys- tenn which Secretary Redfield recom- mends. Navigation through Buzzard s bay and Long Island Sound to the har- bor of New York will be successfully attained even by the largest sea-going vessels.
 Secretary McAdoo finds that the Chesa- peake and Delaware canal furnishes the best basis for connectinss the Delaware
 river with Chesapeake bay. Not very much aid from the government will be
 needed in order to perfect this canal SC as to make 1t available for vessels of
 heavy tonnage.
 On the other hand Secretary Redfelt ! finds it will be essential to build a new canal across New Jersey. having an east err terminal somewhere on the Raritar river and the western terminal upon tht ! Delaware or some miles above Philadel phia. Then according to his view con 1 tir uous intra coastal waterways stretch
 ing from Boston to Norfolk. and witl
 the possibilities of further extension t,
 the sounds of North Carolina. would b' established.
 Secretary Redfield goes much farthe
 than Calhoun did, for he calls attention I to the fact that canal system of thi 1 kind would be a part of a great interna canal system of the United States, 15 1 miles of which would be represented b. | the Hudson river. 300 miles by the nev i barge canal across New York state to th' terminal on Lake Erie, so that the navi gaton of the Great Lakes by means o the barge canal, the Hudson river ant the intra-coastal waterway would pro vide an admirable method for maintain ! ing and incree sing at low cost our in iterpal commerce. Secretary Redfield say that system of waterways of this kin, would serve most the populous and high Fly developed industrial sections of tn
 country and would give what our rail roads do not now and cannot commer cially provide, namely, continuous an' J efficient through highway for transpox 1 tation extending from Boston to th' south Atlantic and from New York | l the Great Lakes It is believed tha Congress, when 1t has the opportunit, carefully to consider this subject, vii 1 adopt such legislation as will make possible immediately after the war end to begin the construction of the intra coastal waterways which Secretary Red field so highly recommends