The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1921-11-19
OPEN UP WATER
ROUTE TO GET
GRAIN SUPPLY
Important Gathering Held In New
York Attended By Prom
inent Men

New. York, Nov. 19.-Plans. for
bringing a new trade route into the
heart of the North American CONT
nent were taken up today when
American and Canadian engi-
neers, educators, economists and pub
lie officials met in a public forum to
discuss the proposed st. Lawrence
Great Lakes ship channel project.
The meeting was presided over by
Julius H. Barnes, president of the
United States Grain Corporation, and
will be addressed by many we'll
known advocates of the plan includ-
ing Secretary of Commerce Hoover
and Governor Henry j. Allen of Kan
sas.
The forum is being conducted
Jointly by the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers, American So
ciety of Civil Engineers, American In
stitute of Electrical Engineers and
American Institute of Mining and Me-
tallurgical Engineers.
Governors of eighteen states allied
to the ship channel and power pro-
ject either by legislative or executive
action, are honorary chairmen.
Speakers representing western
states are to address the forum on
the need of inland regions for a di-
rect outlet to the sea through the
proposed waterway, characterized by
Secretary Hoover as "a national rem
edy." Charles P. Craig, executive d.
rector of the Great Lakes-St. Law
renee Tidewater Association, will dis
cuss the aims that organization, a
voluntary association of the fifteen
member states of Illinois, Indiana,
Ohio, Michigan. Wisconsin, Mime
sofa, Iowa, North Dakota, South Da-
kota, Idaho Montana, Wyoming, Col
orado, Nebraska and Missouri.
w. l.. Saunders of New York,
chairman of the committee which ar
ranged for representation of the west
ern states at the forum, issued the
following statement in advance of the
meeting:
"The Dominion of Canada is now
undertaking the first and most i'm
portant step toward an adequate out
let to the Atlantic for the enormous
and ever-increasing export production
of the region tributary to the Great
Lakes.
of the route to the sea is the differ
ence in elevation between Lake Erie
and Lake Ontario at Niagara Falls
The great engineering feat of building
canal from lake to lake is rapidly
approaching completion, and, but for
the delay due to war conditions, it
would now be in operation.
Cheap water transportation, and
not the iron itself, is the foundation
of the position of the United States
as the worlds greatest producer of
iron and steel. Wheat and iron, be-
cause of their fundamental position
in the trade and commerce of the
world, have been used to illustrate, in
part, the tremendous movement in
transportation, production and manu-
facture in the region of the Great
Lakes"
Others who will address the gath
ering include DR.. N. S. MacElwee,
former director of the Bureau of For
eign and Domestic Commerce of the
Department of Commerce at Wash
lngton, now a member of the faculty
of Georgetown University, and H.
|. Hartman of Boston.
A new way to the sea, such as the
Great Lakes-St. Lawrence route,
would result in relief to overburdened
railroads engaged in hauling grain
and ore to eastern ports, according to
an announcement by Mr.. Craig.
Thirty million people in the ter
ritory served by the lakes" he said,
ARE engaged in agriculture and other
industry. They produce their full
proportion of the exportable surplus
and of foodstuffs and raw materials
for seaboard industries. They con-
sumo their share of imports. Atlantic
ports depend on the west for much
of their tonnage.
"If western Europe can maintain
the ports of London, Liverpool and
Manchester, of Havre, Brest and
Marseilles, of Amsterdam, Rotterdam
and Antwerp, of Hamburg and Bre-
men, of Lisbon and Genoa, of Riga,
Kronstad and Reval, of Copenhagea,
Christiania and Stockholm-can 30
100000 people in the heart of Amer
lea not find business enough to at
tract vessels to a route as much
cheaper than any existing one as wa
ter is cheaper than rail haul?"