Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-09-22

20. about forty a month. But
thereIl often be three or four days
with none"
That was the answer OF a lock-
keeper on the Hennepin canal
when | asked him how many lock
ages he had a month.
The answer was becoming stere-
otyped. 1 had been getting it for
more than a hundred miles.
Structurally and in the concep-
ton of usefulness which prompted !
its construction, the Hennepin |
canal tmore accurately but less
generally called the Illinois and !
Mississippi canal is the most
creditable OF all our valley water
ways.
Commercially, it is the biggest
joke.
1t is the best kept up as to chan
mel, as to banks, and as to lock |
keepers houses OF any canal |
have seen in Europe or America. |
1t is an ornament to the country !
side il penetrates-and is ready to /
serve in an expert manner The 1
federal government owns It and, |
although the federal government |
may be neither very alert nor very |
thrifty in running railroads, it GER
tainly knows how to keep its wa
terway holdings shipshape and to /!
operate them competentIy. Run !
ming canal is a 1eisureIy job any
way, and the government does il |
we'll.
The Hennepin canal, called so !
not for the priest and explorer but /
for the little town of that name in |
Putnam county a mile and three !
quarters south of the Chicago /
wards entrance of the canal, was !
begun in 1892
1t was <16 years abuilding.
Cost was $4,000, 900.
1t cost $75 900, 600.
That IS nearly one-fourth OF |
what the actual construction of
the Panama canal cost The Hen |
nepin is a mile longer as to the !
actually canalized part, but in all !
other dimensions q toy by compar-
ison.
(The figures giving the cost or
the Hennepin seem incredible. but (
/ copied them out of a standard /
work.
The Hennepin canal has 81 con
crete locks. 20 feet long and 50 /
feet wide
They carry you. going from Chi
cago, 10 feet up over the hog back /
that separates Lake Michigan /
from the Mississippi and then !
drop you so feet to the great river
1t is mighty work. this Henne
pin canal.
1t is the big link in an almost (
straightaway path across the state /
of Illinois between Chicago and the |
Mississippi.
Ignored by Shippers.
And 80 out of 100 shippers OF |
heavy freight in Chicago could not |
tell you how long it is. or what |
counties it taps. or what it cost, or |
how much time is required to send |
a barge through il.
They could not tell you that il
one other-and shorter canaliZed
portion of the path of which the
Hennepin is part were made as
good as the Hennepin they could |
barge heavy freight direct to such |
thriving cities as Rock Island. Mo /
line. Davenport. Clinton, Musca-
tine. Burlington. Fort Madison,
Nauvoo (which has no railroad,
but has 500 acres Of vineyards
within the corporate limits and
$500 900 in bank deposits. Keo-
kuk. Warsaw, Quincy. Hannibal,
and so on up and down the upper
Mississippi.
AS Mark Twain used to say. it's
the "gaudiest" proposition in cheap !
transportation on the face OF the
globe.
Here is another angle of it:
About half the people in the state
of Illinois-and that probably
means more than 1000 ,0O0-live in
counties bordering on the Illinois
river and its continuation, the old !
Illinois and Michigan canal. That |
waterway through the richest part |
of a great commonwealth links up, |
neat and direct, with the Hennepin !
canal, price $75,0O0,000.
Thus these 1000 900 producers
and consumers are given north |
erIv connection with the Mississip |
nj river. These same 100000, !
through their resplendently stra- !
tegic position on the greatest nat |
uraI system of waterways nature |
ever devised for mankind. have F,
also southerly outlet into the !
Mississippi, where the Illinois riv-
er empties into It at Grafton.
And in this so blessed region. !
linked up by water with a great !
commercial capital a little to the |
south of it (St LOuisl and with a |
greater to the north of it (Chica- |
go). they are letting the grapes |
wither on the vines at that town |
of Nauvoo because. after sending |
to the railroads enough grapes to |
fill 100 cars. no baskets could be !
obtained in which to ship more.
Would Lower Food Prices. |
Four million people as purblind |
as that can hardly resent having !
their. wits sharpened a bit by the |
lessons inherent in the high cost
of everything. For every man in
this region who has studied barge /
tran portation in relation to its &C
tuaI effect in the past and its prob
able future effect on railroad |
freight rates. believes that the de- |
velopment Of barge transportation
will substantially lower food |
prices.
Before the war, when the Ger
mans were building the Rhine-We-
ser canal. they estimated, and they
did not figure loosely, that that
canal would ultimately have to
take care Of traffic Of 100000