The Concordia sentinel. (Vidalia, Concordia Parish, La.) 1882-current, 1921-06-04

there is nothing in the plan or scope of the en-
terprise which goes beyond well established en-
cheering precedent, or calls for constructions
that are experimental and regarding whose Ill
innate cost there is any serious doubt that the
opening Of this great waterway by canal, canal
lied river and deepened channel, thereby en-
abling deep-sea ship to load at Duluth and not
break open her matches until she reached Ham
burg London or Marseilles, is as certain of being
taken in hand as it is that the will rise daily.
So it asks: "Why not today?"
The project is international one. Canada.
at its own expense (about $50O0O,000) is recon-
structing the Welland canal between Lakes Erie
and Ontario, in order to give ocean-going ships
access to Lake Erie. Thanks to the enterprise of
Canada the problem broadly reduces itself to
submerging certain rapids lying in the interna-
tional waters of the st. Lawrence river between
Lake Ontario and st. Regis, and then dealing in
a similar way with that stretch of the river ex-
tending from st. Regis to Montreal. The esti-
mated cost of the international river improvement
is $6O,OOOOOO and of the Canadian river S5O,OOO-
GOO. The establishment of power plant sites
would entail additional expense.
An argument brought forward for the project
is that it saves distance. From Duluth through
the Detroit river by deepdraft vessel the distance
is 693 miles.
Following is an extract from an official state
ment read into the Congressional Record by Rep
resentative John NJ. Nelson Of Wisconsin:
with only two barriers removed even the
present depth of channels and harbors of q feet
will enable large numbers of ocean vessels to
steam directly TO the ports of the Great Lakes.
The two barriers are the ST. Lawrence river rapids
and the Niagara Falls. The barrier of the Niagara
Falls is already being overcome by the Canadians
in the reconstructed Welland canal. The differ
ence of lake level will be overcome by seven locks
in the new Welland canal in a distance of %
IOay ah0 will ho
long, so feet wide, and will have lock sls sunk
to depth of 80 feet, that will permit the passage
of vessels of % feet draft when the channels are
dredged to so feet From the Welland canal to
the foot of Lake Ontario there are 160 miles of
straight sailing and then open navigation in the
wide st. Lawrence river. Out of the total of 49,
miles TO Montreal, there are 10 miles of improved
channels with at present 40 miles of canal With
this project, with dams and six locks of 800 feet
In length, 50 feet in breadth, and possible depth
of 80 feet with slack water Inidstream navigation
would reduce the total canal and lock navigation
to 20 miles or less.
"The proposal Is to build dams across the river
with locks in the dams. Vessels navigating the
river win not pass through narrow canals around
the rapids, as they do now in the present 14foot
Canadian canals, but viii sail majestically down
the center of the stream in slack water produced
by the dams and pass from level to level through
the locks
Assuming that an ocean vessel has passed
through the Lakes to Superior Duluth and has
loaded a cargo of western grain and is sailing
for Liverpool, the first leg of the journey, the
length of Lake Superior will be 3S3 miles of open
navigation. Then comes the st. Mary river. So
miles long This is all open navigation except SO
miles, which is improved river channel and
canal 1.6 miles with one lockage Past this re-
stricted channel the vessel will have 220 miles of
free sailing through the deep water of Lake
Huron. 1t will then pass q miles of open naviga-
ton and 13 miles of restricted channel in the ST.
Clair river, 1874 miles of open and 3.5 miles of
restricted navigation in Lake st. Clair, and %
miles of open and miles of improved navigation
in the Detroit river. Again, 1t will have free nav