The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1920-11-04


miles mp the Potomac from the cap
ital there IL a work Of stone which
IL : TAR truer monument to George
washington than the impressive
marble spirS which serves 70, we'll
O. I lookout for tourists.
This other Washington monu-
ment consists af the remains OF the
locks and stone-walled channels
which, were built by the Potomac
company, Of which Washington was
president, in an effort to make the
river nayigable and to establish 9
trade route to the west. A good
many Americans have seen the part
of the work which is In the vicinity
Of Great Falls, Va. A rock-wailed
channel with crude locks was here
constructed to carry the canal
boats past the falls, and 1t still re-
mains sufficiently intact to carry
water. Modern engineers say that
it was well-planned and construct
ed. and It is said the European en-
gineers of that time who saw 1t IN
operation proclaimed it q great en-
cheering feat.
A little iarther up the river there
il a long channel, which was built
apparently for the purpose OF get
ting around shallow rapid in the
stream. This channel may still be
traced for the greater part of its
length, showing intact rock walls
eight or ten feet high along much
of its length. 1t is hard to realize
that once this channel carried much
Of the commerce OF the west down
to the sea in flat boats propelled
with poles. Today it runs through
q forest. This part Of Virginia is
singularly wild and isolated. To
bacco exhausted its soil long ago
Commerce has deserted the river
for the railroads. Much OF the land
is run to timber. Great sycamores
throw their branches across George
Washington's, canal and solid for.
ests shut it in on either hand
Saplings nearly q foot thick have
thrust their way through crevice:
| in the masonry. There is no sounc
but that made by the hurrying wa
ter. Occasionally lone Cancels
comes this way for the thrill O.
running the fast water. He seei
no living thing but flock Of Woo
ducks, perhaps, or a big red fo'
! squirrel high in a tree.
Washington Business Man.
This forgotten work, which seems
so puny beside the great engineer
ing feats of today. represents
Washington's effort to fulfill TIL
purpose which occupied the create
part OF his life. That purpose wa
to establish a connection with tn
west, in order t. bind the new ma
ton together, and also to enricl
himself.
OR Washington was bushes
man and money-maker both befor'
he was the Father Of his Count,
and when he had retired from it
service. He has been held up t
our admiration so long as man o
sanity sacrifices that he remain
scarcely human. AS matter o
fact, he was very typical Amer
lean, the forerunner of the hustling
pushing, money making, property
| worshipping American of today. H
was the richest man Of his times
and he was always getting richer
reaching out for lands, rentin
them and selling them.
When Washington was youn
man he was sent by Lord Fairfax t
survey the latter's western lands
Washington saw clearly that thes
rich bottom lands just beyond tn
Ohio were sure to become immense
ly valuable. He determined to sc
his share of them while the gettin
was good. He went back to tn
west himself and he hired agent
. there. He took up all the lands tn
law allowed and bought out tn
claims of others for rs little as
, penny an acre. He was soon tn
owner of rich bottom lands in tn
Ohio and Kanawha valleys to tn
, amount of 10000 acres and had sui
veyed some 10000 acres more wit
, a view to acquiring them. The ge
; ting Of these lands, the renting an
selling of them. and the effort I
reach them with some sort Of tran!
portation. so that their full valu
might be realized, were the cor
cerhs Of the greater part of Georg
Washington's life.