Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-12-12
TO Be A SUCCESS
{. & D. CANAL
MUST Be FREE
So Far Government Has Failed to
Provide for Operation or De-
velopment of Waterway.
BENEFITS POINTED OUT

Although the Secretary of War and
representatives of the Chesapeake and
Delaware Canal Company have agreed on
the purchase price which the government
will paw for the waterway, 81 ,5l4 ,2S9.70,
and an appropriation covering that
amount will be included in the
Rivers and Harbors bill now pending
before Congress, no provision appears
vet to have been made IN the bull
for the cost of widening and deepening
the canal, or what is even more important,
for operation free of tolls.
That the Chamber of Commerce
especially should at once get IN touch with
the Rivers and Harbors committees OF the
Senate and the House, through their
representatives in Congress, and push
both these vital provisions IS the con
sensus of opinion among men who best
see the great benefits Wilmington IN par,
ticlllar and the whole district IN general
will derive from deeper, wider and en-
tircly free sea level inland waterway,
Frank G. Warner, United States enCi-
neer for this district, when spoken to in re-
gard TO the canal project, called atten-
ton to the estimate made Tor widening
and deepening the canal by a former chief
engineer in 1918. He recommended the
enlargement of a sea level waterway 10
depth of II feet, with bottom width of
90 feet. at a cost then of about 5000,
900. with the considering of a subsequent
enlargement to a depth OF % feet. with
bottom width OF l25 feet, at then es-
timated cost of 81 .50O.OO0 after observa-
tions had been made as to the commercial
advantages derived from the first I'M
provement-
Mr.. Warner agrees that il would be
IL fn
these costs to allow for increased prices
at the present time. The cost Of main
tenance and operation of the present
canal for the year 1917 Is given by the
canal company rs s76,677.3l. The L. 5.
Board of Engineers, in q special report,
dated February II, 1912, estimated the
cost of maintenance and operation of
t2-foot waterway at Sl0i, ,220. Even
with an addition TO cover increased costs
during the present time, the amount would
he small, compared with the $4,000 for
the Christiana river and the s., SOC, 900
Tor the main channel of the Delaware,
appropriated annually by the govern
ment.
While wider and deeper waterway is
needed, :" said Mr.. Warner, the abolishing
Of the toll system Is OF paramount I'M
portance. Even In the present condition
OF the Ca1A. Ntlt LlApQAA ~
would increase three or four times under
free passage. The total gross tonnage
passing through the canal for the year
ending Nav 81, 1917, according 10 the
report of the Chesapeake and Delaware
Canal Company. was 746,72o and the
revenue derived from this was sl45, HAAS.
This amounts TO 23.494 cents per gross
ton, for the IS 5-S miles Of the canal
length, an enormous rate.
These rates are indeed prohibitive.
and great congestion OF freight, especially
lumber. along the Delaware division of
the Pennsylvania railroad is the result
Here. all through the summer, great piles
of lumber and piling for Hog Island could
be seen piled along the tracks. All this
should have been brought through the
canal at less rate than that charged by the
railroad Wilmington lumber dealers IN
questionably welcome the free canal.
Coal from Norfolk, Virginia, also
could be brought here through a free
canal greatly to the benefit of Whining
ton people"
Mr. Warner also said that the work Of
widening and deepening the canal could
be done without interfering with present
traffic. Small tugs could work between
the locks, leaving tho excavation N the
locks TO steam shcvcls, Perhaps three
fourths of the Improvements could BE-
accomplished without holding up traffic =
he said,
4 free canal would furnish an outlet
for Eastern Shore vegetables, many OF
which cannot now be marketed, since
Baltimore cannot take II ali and rail ship
ments are high and uncertain Many
growers could maintain their own craft
and the markets oi Wilmington and
Philadelphia would be opened to them.
and a saving afforded to the people Of
both cities