New Britain herald., 1922-08-09
ACETATE FOR NEW
 WATERWAY TO GULF
Steel Interests Ready to Lend Aid
 to New Project

Pittsburgh, Pa, Aug. s.-stimuated by important steel interests in the
 Pittsburgh and Wheeling districts and
 by agricultural and commercial fac
 tovs in the middlewest, the move
 ment for waterway to the Gulf of
 Mexico is attracting the attention of
 city governments and civic organiza-
 tions along the Ohio and Mississippi
 rivers.
 Steel companies are showing their
 practical interest by shipping as much as possible of their products in barges to southern points; farmers are urging
 the creation of trunk line river sys- tenn, and city councils are passing resolutions urging their congressional representation to support any govern ment movement the project may have. Already the councils of Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Louisville, Parkersburg and Cairo have taken action, while resolu- tions are pending before the councils of Wheeling, Cincinnati, Evansville,
 Memphis. Kansas City, St. Paul and
 Minneapolis. Chambers of Commerce in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh. Parkersburg /, Louisville, Evansville. Memphis and New Orleans have passed similar res- olutions.
 The project is based on plans pre- pared by the corps of engineers of the United States army calling for the Icompletion of the Ohio river slack water system which is an open river below Evansville; deepining the chan mel of the Mississippi 10 six feet be- tween Minneapolis and St. Louis; dredging an eight foot channel In the Mississippi between St. Louis and Cairo to New Orleans, and the open ing of the Missouri to navigation be- tween St. Louis and Kansas City These plans when carried out, the army engineers say, would give a D. 900 mile water highway between Pittsburgh and New Orleans and one of equal length between Minneapolis and New Orleans.
 Projects for a canal between Lake Erie and the Ohio river are now being urged from Pittsburgh, Cin- cinnati and other points. Congress has already made some provision for surveys for these waterways and
 
 decision as to the best route and commencement of the work
 Coordinate with these river naviga- ton proposals are projects for stor- ing flood waters to be released in periods of dry weather, thus afford ing protection from flood damages and assuring stream navigation in times of low water. In part, for this purpose, Pennsylvania has permitted the United States government to en- ter and purchase cut-over timber lands at the headwaters of the AL legheny river, one of the principal feeders of the Ohio. The territory thus set aside is to be known as the Allegheny National Forest, and will be supervised and managed exactly as forest reserves in the far west. | One million acres have been allotted | to this reservation, of which about | 100000 are now being taken over by the federal government.
 Hydro electric power projects in | the Allegheny and Blue Ridge moun- tains Of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky, are also under way which 1t is anticipated by men eX- perienced in river navigation and flood control, will do their part to- ward decreasing flood risks and as- surfing full time navigability of the rivers. One of these projects is sit uated on the Clarion river, a tribu- tary of the Allegheny, in Pennsyl- l Nania and is already under construc- ton. It proposes to impound all the water Of the river in the season of full barks and after using it for generating power, permit it to flow out in dry weather at given rate per day, which, 1t is stated, will ma terially benefit water transportation down the Allegheny and Ohio rivers
 During the past year the Ohio | river has seen the sudden develop ment of a heavy tonnage of steel pro- ducts transported from Pittsburgh | and Wheeling in steel barges. to points along the Mississippi and | Ohio for local use and for tran shipment by rail into westerP and | southwestern states. The Jones and | Laughlin Steel company has been | regularly sending out tow of barges once month, each transport ing many thousands of tons of it's products at considerable economies in transportation costs. Other large producers of steel have been making use of the Ohio and Mississippi in likemanner.
 Incident to the general scheme are proposals from Ohio river points and from Chicago and other Illinois cities for connections to be made between the Great Lakes and the river sys- tenn Of the Mississippi basin. Such connections, it is stated, would give this country a system of waterways