The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 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 experimental and regarding whose ul-
innate cost there Is any serious doubt; that the
opening of this great waterway by canal canal
lied river, and deepened channel thereby en-
ablfng deep-sea ship to load at Duluth and not
break open her matches until she reached Ham,
burg London Marsees 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 an international one. Canada.
at its own expense (about $5Oy0O0.OO0) is recon-
structing the Weand canal between Lakes Erie
ana 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-
tonal 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 S60.OO0,0O0 and of the Canadian river, S50,OOO.-
0OO 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 extract from 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 21 feet
will enable large numbers of ocean vessels to
steam directly TO the ports of the Great Lakes.
The two barriers 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 Weand canal. The differ
ence of lake level will be overcome by locks
in the new Weland canal in distance of %
miles. These lock chambers will be 1000 feet
long, 80 feet wide and will have lock sis sunk
to depth of 80 feet, that will permit the passage
of vessels of % feet draft when the channels
dredged to 80 feet From the Welland canal to
the foot of Lake Ontario there 16O miles of
straight sailing and then open navigation in the
wide st. Lawrence river. Out of the total of 1872
miles to Montreal, there 10 miles of improved
channels. with at present 46 miles of canal With
this project, with dams and six locks of 800 feet
in length so feet in breadth, and possible depth
of 30 feet with slack water mdstream navigation
would reduce the total canal and lock navigation
to 20 miles less.
"The proposal is to build dams across the river
with locks in the dams. Vessels navigating the
river will not pass through canals around
the rapids, as they do now in the present 14-foot
Canadian canals, but will sail majesticaIly Gown
the center of the stream in slack water produced
by the dams and pass from level to level through
the locks.
Assuming that vessel has passed
through the Lakes to Superior Duluth and has
loaded 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 33
miles, which is improved river channel and
canal liz miles with lockage. Past this re-
stricted channel the vessel will have 90 miles of
free sailing through the deep water of Lake
Huron. It will then pass 81 miles of open naviga-
ton and IS miles Of restricted channel in the ST.
Clair river, 13h 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, it will lave free