Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1922-05-18
CHAMBER HEARS
POWERFUL PLEA AGAINST
ST. LAWRENCE RIVER PROJECT

~ ~ A14 y bt~A1V D
dustry opened the eyes of many of
our people to the possibilities Of the
Chamber of Commerce and did more
than any other thing to overcome the
indifference with which our efforts
had been met up to that time.
The ST. Lawrence Project Discussed
The speaker of the evening, Mr..
Merrill was introduced and he gave
a mastery presentation of the sub
ject, 1.-The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence
Tidewater Propect." He is a splen.
did speaker and kept the interest of
his audience at high pitch through
out his discourse.
In opening he gave a concise state
ment of Just what the project is-a
project to build locks and dredge
rivers to create a channel % feet
deep to make navigable the st. Law
renee river between Montreal and
Lake Ontario, distance of 1883
miles, which would effect an open
waterway from Duluth to the sea
the work to be done at an estimated
expense Of 1852, 100000. to be paid
for on $3.50 basis by the United
States and the Dominion of Canada.
consider the Great I.akes-St. Law
renee Tidewater project the most i'm
portant one. from the standpoint of
the cities situated upon the Atlantic
seaboard, of any that have been pre-
scented to u.s. said Mr. Merrill.
AS chairman of the State of Maine
| Foreign and Domestic Commerce
commission and member of the exc
cutive committee Of the New Eng
land Foreign and Domestic Com
| merce commission, have given this
matter careful study during the last
, is months and my conclusions are
no hasty but are the result of careful
research, investigation and thought.
The result of the carrying through
of this project and the building of
the proposed waterway would be
either one of two things-a success
or failure. 1 fell confident. as a re-
suit of my study, that the last would
be the case and that the results OBJ
tanned would not. in any sense. be
commensurate with the vast sums of
money expended. I feel that the
whole project is impractical and
would result in failure
The first reason Mr. Merrill gave
for his feeling that the project would
result in failure was because it would
be disable only from seven to eight
months year because Of the closing
to navigation of the st. Lawrence
river, on account TO ice. leaving four
or five months of idleness. With
all that implies in project Of this
magnitude, this, in itself, should cause
every business man to carefully con-
slider it before taking the step. Fog
and drifting ice in rivers and lake
channels is entirely different from fog
on the Atlantic Ocean, as any man
who understands the rudiments of
navigation well understands.
I believe it is physically impractical.
said Mr.. Merrill. Several important
commissions, which have included in
every case eminent engineers, have
very carefully investigated this same
waterway and their reports are on
file. The conclusions reached have
been the same in each case, namely.
that the proposition was not practical
and feasible. either from an engineer
ing or an economical point of view.
While it has been stated by many Of
the proponents of the measure that rs
per cent. to so per cent. of all mer-
chant marine would be able and would
use this waterway for the purpose in
tended n1n1C1V tho tro "a
cargo direct from lake ports to Eu-
rope, south American and other for
elgn ports, it is fact recognized by
all practical steamship men that this
is not the case and that no type of
snip at present constructed would be
able to usethis waterway regularly
and profitably, because of the Difficult
ties of operating large ships in the
restricted waterways and the depth
of water in the waterways. AS a mat
ter OF fact, very few, if any of the
ocean liners at present constructed
could usethis waterway and very few
ships of our American Merchant Mar
inc.
The time consumed in navigating
locks and hundreds Of miles of river
and lake channels is a very import
ant factor in deciding the terminus
of our great transatlantic liners such
las, the White Star Dominion, the
Cunard, Leyland. Thompson and other
lines.
Navigators Opposed
have personall..- discussed this St.
Lawrence Project many times with
steamship captains and with owners
and managers of many of our great
Transatlantic lines and in every case
/ they have stated very positively that
1t was absolutely out Of the question
to even consider their ships in con-
nection with the project-that they
could not use it if it was completed.
Practically all these ships draw more
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