The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-11-18

tire history of the country.
 The governor declared that 1t would
 require nearly S20o,000!0o0 to com
 plete the river and harbor improve
 ments which have already been ap-
 proved by the army engineers and by
 Congress and which are still held de-
 sirable and that at the present rate of
 progress it would take at least seven
 years to complete these approved projects.
 Continuing, he said, we need to develop every means of transporta- tion at hand, We need to develop our ports and harbOrs, every one to the fullest extent possible to meet mod ern require ments before one dollar is spent to construct a waterway through l foreign country, which if conmer- cially successful, would merely serve to divert shipping from our ports to a foreign country" He affirmed thar the state of New York would gladly contribute her share although this might tend to divert commerce from her own port. He asserted that at
 best the St. Lawrence canal can serve only a small part of the commerce Of the group of states clamoring for 1t, that the great volume of that com merce was bound to be carried by | rail Much more of it can be carried | by existing waterways to the sea, by l the Mississippi and its tributaries to l the Gulf of Mexico and by the lakes | and the New York state barge canal | to the Atlantic. "I hope to see the | use or these WauerWayS QoFelOpeO ana | I hope to see the great Mississippi and | it's tributaries developed to the very maximum of efficiency" the governor | said.
 | He pointed out that Montreal was l ice bound for five months in the year and can not then serve the great needs of the Middle West which would then be mainly dependent upon the gulf
 and Atlantic ports. ''The prime ne | cessity is to improve our own ports
 and inland waterways" he declared. The governor denied the charge which had been made that he was 1 moved by a selfish interest in not | wanting commerce diverted from the port of New York and said that he had no concern whatever about that | for he felt sure that the capacity of | merce, owing to its location and nat
 ura1 conditions He said that plans were now underway to modernize the terminal facilities of New York city 1 which were capable of unlimited de- velopment and that this would be ac- complished without asking the Fed eral government Or New York'S sister | states to contribute one dollar of the expense.
 The governor asserted that the New | York state barge canal was capable | of handling all commerce which could possibly reach the Atlantic even by ship canal and that a grain elevator l was now being constructed in the har- Dor of New York so that for a mere
 nominal charge the grain from the | Middle West can be elevated an6
 transferred to ocean vessels without | any of the delays which had been SC l bitterly complained of. This elevator | would soon be ready for the free us' | of our sister states:
 Governor Miller attacked the p1aI or financing the proposed St. Law renee canal by turning over the wa ter power developed by it to power interests and giving them permission tn ma l<a ha Of | pay the price, saying: ''It is indeed | a generous proposition of the Middle | Western states that the consumers o1 | power in New York and New England 1 shall pay for the construction for z | ship canal to serve the Middle West | and divert shipping from their own
 is nearly equalIed by the imagination | of those who are seeking to convince | the country that ocean-going vessels | will ever navigate an inland waterway more than 2,000 miles long with hun | dreds of miles of restricted channels | and 1ocks.''
 He declared that no practical l steamship operator, either on the that the dream that has fired the | imagination of the Middle West of seeing ocean steamers loading or dis | charging cargo at the lake docks for
 cialiy feasible. '%rhe fact is,'' he said.
 'tthat no appropriated person compe-
 tent to speak believes that ocean-go- | ing vessels will ever navigate such | a waterway. Deep-sea vessels can
 not compete with lake vessels in the Great Lakes. The lake vessels have l three times the capacity of deep sea | vessels of corresponding draft. It | costs under present conditions three 1 times as much per ton of capacity to
 construct deep sea vessels. That alone | puts the ocean carrier out of business | on the Great Lakes.
 l Those facts should arrest the flight 1 of imagination even of our friends of 1 the Middle West. They should arrest | the attention of the rest of the coun- 1 try to the criminal foo1ishness of | wasting hundreds of millions of dol
 lars sadly needed for other improve ments in the attempt to realize an | impossible dream
 l Backed by 8. host of character wit : and sticking fn his OriCinal