Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1920-05-18
VIEWS ARE SET
FORTH ATfIRST
SESSION TODAY
Continued from Page

sources, retarded settlementla and oc-
cupation. delayed marketing, post
poned credit settlements, hampered
production, due to excessive costs Of
transportation. i'll adjusted rate struc-
lures, inability TO compete in the
prices because of the handicap against
the movement of surplus.
The story of the gatcways will be
told at Chicago. Duluth-Superior, Mil
waukee, Detroit, Cleveland and other
points. These will show what hap
pens n what is prevented from hap
pening as products assemble at these
points. II will be told in terms of
grain, provisions dairy products,
manufactures, merchandise, ct cetera.
The story first from the local angle
in the interior will be told from a new
angle at he lake ports. 1t will inter-
lock with phase three, the story of
shipping which will begin at the Du-
luth hearing with the preliminaries
already introduced at the Sault as to
sells.
The story of power will naturally
come in for presentation in the east,
as will also the national summing up.
w expect to show hat great as
the benefits of the lake system of
communication has beer to the coun-
try, it's value will be doubled when it
becomes an arm of the ocean. We
intend to SHOW thai the benefits of
the improvements in the st. Lawrence
will be as great as the benefits of the
Improvements at the Sault. The Sault
canal paid for itself five times over
in h season of 1918. 1t saved more
than $4,000, 900 in freights and the
cost for the canal and river channel
was but $32, 900. 900.
THE real benefit, however, is not
hi this waterway saves, but what
it makes. We have no way of meas
uring that. The nearest way we can
come to measuring is to guess what
the loss would be if the Great Lakes
system was blotted out.
Needed BY Northwest
THE northern Mississippi valley
states need this great international
waterway moro than any other coun-
try, because the configuration Of this
continent is such that the great agri-
cultural producing areas of the United
States n Canada lie many times
farther from the sea and therefore in
point Of transportation costs, which
are the measure of distance, are under
a heavy handicap as against those
countries with which they nave to
compete.
Central Asia alone shares with the
northwest provinces of Canada and
our Mississippi valley the unfortunate
handicap of a long and high cost
route to market. and is denied the ad
vantages of ocean commerce. Is il
thinkable that the rich soil of ou1
northwest, so rich indeed that up to
the present it has been able to pay
the 1900 mile rail haul to the sea.
board and still meet these compet
itors in the world market who have ar
average of less than, 200 miles. must
continue indefinitely so to do, with a
natural waterway open to the sea but
for the drowning out of a few tumb.
ling rapids? And as to these rapids
is it not a question whether they have
not been put there by a benefcen1
Providence as an asset rather than a
liability to the great nations OF Can.
ada and the United States. because il
is a well authenticated fact that the
value of the power capable of beine
developed in connection with the i'm.
proven1ent of the river for navigation
will far more than pay the total cos,
OF the joint Improvement"
Canton. O.-Mike O'Dowd. former
mlddleweight champion. won the