Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-08-26
CAN MAKE RIVER
NAVIGABLE HERE.
SAYS MAI. GRAY
No Reason Why Not at Very
Reasonable Cost, Says Army
Officer Expert on Subject
HARRISBURG is FAVORED
Best Transportation Center in
East, He Says; Will Give
Project Attention Later

There is no reason why the Sus-
quehanna river should not be made
navigable for freight and passenger
traffic at a very reasonable cost"
SAID Major William B. Gray. speak
ing before the Harrisburg Rotary
Gun at its noon luncheon in the Y.
NJ =. A. building to-day. After the
war II is my purpose to return here
ana take up this project seriously"
Major Gray, who is in charge of
the Middletown ordnance depot
which will be finished in about two
weeks, after which he and his staff
will go to Mount Union for the erec-
ton of another war plant, was the
guest of the club to-day. With him
We're Captain Douglas and Lieuten-
ant Avery.
Major Gray, at the request of Pres
1dent Eli N. Hershey, explained why
the government chose Harrisburg as
site for its ordnance, aviation and
quartermaster's depots.
Great Railroad Center
Your unexcelled railroad classifi-
cation yards and your many radiat-
ing main lines of standard railroads
to the big trade and shipping CEN
ters were responsible for the location
OF government depots in Harris
burg" he said. First the govern
ment located it's necessary depots on
thte seacoast. Next it looked about
for interior sites for the assem- bly,
ing of finished supplies to be held
and classified for shipment to the
seaboard as needed. Harrisburg as
a shipping center surpassed all other
cities for the purpose. 1t is the CEN
ter of shipping of a great manufac-
turing community and of the forty
eight great railroad yards in the
country three of them are located
in this immediate vicinity. with 9TH
ers at Marietta and Columbia. No
other city was able to offer such op-
portunities far rapid classification
and dispatch of freight.
Another consideration which 1
heard voiced in the councils of the
War Department when the subject
was under discussion. was the ex-
treme loyalty of Pennsylvania Off
GERS contended that with the depots
located in the heart of the Key
stone state there would be ample as
surance of protection from invasion
or attack either from within or
without" the assumption being that
Pennsylvanians would rise en- masse
to protect the government from any
danger, if necessary.
Cost $25, 100000
Major Gray said that the aviation,
ordnance and quartermasters depots
here would represent, when finished,
approximately $25, 100000, and their
contents when filed three or four
times that amount.
But with all your manufacturing
and all your redistribution of prod
ucts manufactured elsewhere" said
Major Gray, Harrisburg has been
sitting patiently waiting for nearly
200 years since John Harris built
his cabin on the banks of the Sus-
quehanna for somebody to come
along and make the stream naviga-
BILE.
A Navigable Stream
There is no reason why your coal
should not be shipped from the
mines by boat as far as tidewater
for distribution along the Atlantic
coast at a fraction of what it costs
to ship by rail. and there is no reason
either why your big steel industries
should not also ship their heavy
freight by boat more cheaply than
it can be done by rail.
''And this is no idle dream. I have
had charge of a number of larger
water developm ents. one of them the
channeling of the Mohawk river in
New York and more water flows
down the Susquehanna river at low
water in one day than comes down
the Mohawk in week? In the Mo-
hawk we had to go down $50 feet
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