Free trader-journal and Ottawa fair dealer. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1920-1927, 1922-07-05
S|XTY-F0UR MILES
OF RIVER HOLDS Up
WATERWAY TRAFFIC
PEORIA CONVENTION DEBATES
WAYS AND MEANS OF RUSH
ING WORK ON JOllET.UTlCAI
CONNECTING LINK.

That Illinois, particularly that sec
4. ton known as the Illinois Valley, is
about at the ropes end and is deter
mined to prevent any more procrastl'
nation at Springfield on the deep
waterway, was evidenced yesterday
at Peoria where several hundred OF
the states citizens gathered to dis
cuss what must be done to get action
on the Joliet Utica connecting link
now the only barrier to navigation
between the gulf and great lakes.
70 Arthur Evans writing for the Chi
cage Tribune, in telling of the con
gress at Peoria, says:
delegates to the lakes-to-gulf
waterway congress today pondered
over the problem of what makes the
Missing Link still missing gap
of siXty-four miles between Lockport
and La Sale separates two great
water systems on which millions have
been spent and keeps the middle west
from Chicago to-New Orleans
barge outlet.
"Men from cities in the Illinois
river valley and from towns far from
the stream mulled over again an
analysis given year ago by the state
engineer to the effect that If the INK
between LockpOrt and La Sale were
built, three-fourths of the farmers OF
Illinois would be within one day
truck distance OF the naylgaole
waters of the state.
about 3 per cent of the area ana
80 per cent Of the population OF HI
nois. according to this compilation
live within a zone not more than forty
miles away from navigable waters.
The use of trucks on the farms Is
growing at a phenomenal rate. ana
with one days travel products could
be shipped from the farm to the sea
board without touching a rail.
"E. 7. Harris of the Illinois Manu-
facturers' association estimates that
the saving each year in freight rates
to the industrial and agricultural
producers would more than pay thel
cost of the Locllport-La Sale project
millions have been spent at bothI
ends of Il transportation arterJ 3ut
nothing in the middle
cat the Lake Michigan end is the
drainage canal one of the finest snip
canals in the world 1t originally
cost S27,440.000 and more than SlO,-
600, 900 has been spent by the district
on the Chicago river. This from
Lake Michigan to Lockport, H., there
now is what amounts to an inland
harbor some thirty-siX miles long,
Speakers at the meeting Monday
night recalled that one argument that
Z helped put the sanitary district OIL
trough years ago was the fact that II
would compose part of lake to gun
transportation system.
Down at the other end millions OF
dollars have been spent by the
United States in improving the
Mississippi Ohio and Illinois rivers
Years ago it built the Hennepin canal
at cost of $7.5O0,000 to link up the
Mississippi and Illinois rivers Thus,
as far up as La Sale. is great
watercourse system with minimum
depth Of seven feet.
"But between Lockport and La
Sale is a sixty-four mile break Barge
commerce can move down from Chl-
cago as far as I4ockport. 1t can trCFe
ND from New Orleans as far as La
Sale. The systems miss contact by
sixty four miles. Back in 1908 the
voters put through the constitutional
amendment authorizing S2O,000OOO Of
bonds to construct the missing link.
In the 1909 legislative session the pro
ject ran slapbang into political con
d ilict.
politics handed it Dempsey wal
lop that put it into a deep slumber
from which it began to Waken few
years ago and now it is being urgent
~ pushed by organizations in more
than seventy-five cities. in the Illinois