Omaha daily bee., 1921-07-02
Bringing Ocean to Farm.

Omaha, June 27.--To the Editor
Of The Bee: The long awaited re-
port Of the international Board of
Engineers who have been studying
the problem Of constructing chan
mel for ocean going vessels through
the rapids Of the st. Lawrence river
from Ogdensburg, N. Y, to Mon
treal, Canada, distance of 120 miles,
by which Duluth at the head of
Lake Superior and Chicago at the
head Of Lake Michigan and all cities
down the lakes may have direct
ocean transportation to every part
of the world, has been completed
and will be laid before the joint in
ternational commission for submis-
sion to congress and the Canadian
Parliament in a few days.
The report will pronounce the en-
terprise practicable under present
day construction systems. 1t will
recommend river channel slack wa
ter" dams and short canals, requir-
ing system of 10 locks to give
channel for vessels of 30-foot draft
from the ocean into the Great Lakes
water system.
AS a result Of this construction,
merely an incidental feature of it,
water power aggregating $4,000
theoretical horse power will be cre-
atcd. But the great achievement
will be to bring ocean going vessels
1900 miles inland to carry the sur
plus produce of the farms to the
north and central west to world
markets at a cost greatly less than
the rail and water rates now exist
ing. On the basis of freight rates
existing under government operation
Of railroads Generally 35 per cent
below present costs) secretary Of
commerce, Hon. Herbert Hoover,
said the construction Of this pro-
posed canal would add at least s
cents per bushel to the value OF all
grain produced in the northwest.
II that opinion was measurably true,
the canal, doing business with rail-
road rates on the present basis,
would render service of untold value
to the interior of this great CONT
nent.
We are told that our farmers
have now to compete with the cheap
lands and cheap labor of Argentine.
This is only theory. We know,
however, that we may have to COM
pete with cheap ocean freighters
from Argentine, the arabic part of
that great and fertile country being
within 500 miles of acean transpor-
tation. And 1t is never denied that
wheat and corn can be brought from
Argentine ports to our seaboard
cities at a much lower cost than it
can be taken from Chicago to the
same points.
We are told by engineers that the
construction costs of. the river i'm
provements proposed, at present
prices, will be about $250,0Oo,0 900.
This Is great sum of rnoney-egual
to the cost of six modern battleships!
But the engineers tell us, also, that
the water power developed by the
construction will pay for construct
ing the water way improvements in
few years! From this we infer
that not agriculture alone but manu-
featuring industries will reap great
benefits from this canal.
There is a wellorganized oppo-
sition to the canal construction pro-
gram. The interests opposing it are
those who, having long profited by
old channels of commerce, believe
their graft has become a vested right
and that new methods and new lines
of traffic, however economical, may
not shake them loose from their po-
sition.S Their appeal will be to ma
tionalism. The river is part way in
ternational-part way wholly Brit
ish. This is unfortunate. But God
made the river, and men made the
national boundaries. We have to
take the river where we find it. The
benefits of the improvement will be-
long to the world, but most directly
and in the greatest degree to the
farms and cities of the middle west
l.. f. q. M'INTOSH,
Manager Agricultural Department of
the Omaha Chamber of Commerce.