Norwich bulletin., 1921-09-08
GATEWAY OF THE EAST
 THROUGH EASTERN CONNECTICUT

A bright future for eastern Connect icut was predicted by Waldo E. Clark of New London in an interesting ad- dress on the development Of New Lon don harbor at the regular monday luncheon of the Norwich Rotary club at the Wauregan Hotel on Wednesday. MT. Clark, who is a member of the state harbor commission graph ically described the possibility of development in the eastern part of the state should New London harbor become one of the gateways of the east. The speaker told at what little cost New London could be made one of the largest seaports on the Atlantic coast
 MT. Clark said in part: New London harbor is one of 10 harbors in the United States that boasts of 35 feet of water at low tide. thus allowing trans Atlantic shipping to come and go at will. This has already been demonstrated when during the past year several flour ship neats together. with fruit boats and lum- 1 Der boats have loaded and unloaded al 1 the state pier. This pier to date has only netted the state through rental about per cent and If made into a shipping center the return would be a great deal more. What we want to do is to devel- op a regular freight service. not a passenger service. New London would have a large territory to supply and drawn from. It would have a slight sd- vantage in many ways and with reduced | freight rates it would have a big ad- vantage.
 I believe that the coast-wise business will in the near future be developed from this port, for shipments from the west by rail take approxi-r+tsly e5 days while by water this is cut town to 30 days. The rates too. can be made much less by water than by rail.
 We are working upon self-propelled barge line which would take in Norwich. New London, Westerly and all points in this vicinity for the distribution of car goes entering New London harbor. New London harbor has no adverse currents and ships can arrive at the pier without assistance in most cases. There
 is plenty of room to turn a ship about Not only can there be trade relations
 with this port and practically all of New
 England but also with the north extend ing clear into Canada vita the use of
 the Central Vermont railroad. True this
 line is not kept up to standard but we
 are expecting to have a conference with
 the heads of the railroad and the Cana
 dian government officials who have not
 taken over all railways running into
 Canada and we feel assured that the ser
 
 diately upon there being established ar
 importing and exporting port at New
 Ipn0on Last year Canada exported
 mere than 50 per cent of its grain iron
 United States ports than from it's own
 We are working to get a grain elevator
 built in New London, either by the rail road or by the state, and when this i! done it will be only a question of shor time when New London and the Thame! will be considered grain terminal.
 Freight by rail now moves at about miles per hour but with a coastwise ser
 vice and western coast service th'
 freight can be moved about miles pc hour. The cost aRd maintenance of ship ping facilities is much lower than othel , methods of transportation.
 New England must have cheaper ship , ping facilities if she would compete witt
 the other sections of the country. Nev .. England needs more gateways and i New London should be made a shippinl lcenter it would mean the rapid growtl ' of eastern Connecticut. The manufact urers all along the Thames will mutuall,
 profit by such a development of NeN
 London harbor and we want all of tn civic bodies the manufacturers asso
 citation and Rotary clubs to gee back c < this movement.
 Mir. Clark was given a rising vote c appreciation for his talk which was highl
 interesting and the theory if worked ou would materially boost New BnglanC
 especially the districts in the Thame
 valley.
 d During the business session of tn - meeting several communications wer 7. read. An invitation from the Brockto Rotary club inviting members of tn .i local club who might be in attendanc I at the Brockton fair on Oct. to be tn . guests of the Brockton club at dinnei ; The Lewiston-Auburn club of Main Il has written the local club regarding res $ ervations for the annual fafl conclav e which is to be keld at Poland Sprin $ on Sept 2S-30.
 l. A communication was received from th
 New London club asking that the NoI e wich, Willimantic and New London club t hold a get-together meeting in Norwic > seon at which District Governor Herbel IS Wilson of Worcester would be present. e The meeting as usual was enlivene by chorus singing. quartette selection = and a falsetto duet by Joseph C. Wort d and E. HowaAi Baker. MT. Baker wa j. also song leader and Henry LaFontair e was the pianist.