Evening star., 1923-01-07
RIVER AND HARBOR WORK
AIDS MERCHANT MARINE
Flood Control Plans Are Also Neces-
sary Legislation, Says Edward
Nelson Dingley.

! the route to New Orleans The. in
dustrial development of this section
demanded a nine-foot channel. This
| project, when completed will cost
$60.ooo,ooo, and Pittsburgh interests
| ask for il.
! During the past two years inland
river navigation has assumed a great
/ er Importance, especially in view OF
the present condition of rail trans
f., portation.
| Congress passed the flood control
act of 1917. not only as an aid 10
| navigation, but protection to prop
erty. This law provided for the ex
| penditure of s45,00o,000 on the Mis-
river, California. Money is appro-
priated from time to time. and will
/ be exhausted with this Congress. Ar
i effort is now being made to re-enact
| this law and appropriate $10o,0oO,o0o
/ for Hood purposes.
/ The law provides for the construc-
| tion of levies the levied district fur
nishing so per cent of the sum appro
priated by Congress and furnish til"
right of way (ground), and defend
Obviously it is highly important
| that this vast area be protected
| against the floods. 1t is impossible
to estimate with any degree Of ac-
| curacy the amount Of damage done BY
the Mississippi foods of recent years.
| but it reaches many hundreds of mill
| lion dollars. The flood of last year
was one of the most severe, yet the
damage was less because OF the
levies. The damage is not so much
in the loss of crops as in the expense
of emergency measures.
With the growth in draft of ocean
going vessels it has been necessary
to deepen most of our harbors TO
make them available. Only two har-
bors in the country. San Francisco
and Seattle, have channels which are
deep and wide enough to accommo-
! date the largest merchant ships with
out dredging.
Harbor Approaches DeepeBed.
The main channel and approaches
in New York harbor have been deep
ened from twenty-three to forty feet
at a cost of $4,000, 900. One channel
cost $7.000.000. but the commerce
through them averages $4,000. 600 tons
annually. Philadelphia. on the Della
ware river. has been deepened from
seventeen to thirty feet, and traffic
there averages 20.00o,000 tons annu-
ally. An American merchant marine
without adequate harbors would be
useless.
There is a general impression that
money for rivers and harbors is frit-
ted away, and the public has the
notion that a river and harbor bill
a
is the impression no longer. The first
examination of a project is made by
the engineers of the War Department
the preliminary survey made if the
project is meritorious, and Congress
authorizes il.
AS time goes on and domestic com
merce increases, our trunk rivers will
assume a vastly more important place
than is given them now. The
navigable water courses may solve
some of our transportation problems.
While American merchandise sent
out of the country TO foreign coun
tries, averages four or five billion
dollars in normal times. the value Of
merchandise exchanged among our
own people is more than sixty or
seventy billion dollars. The trans
portation of this vast volume OF
domestic merchandise is a rail, river
and lake problem-the last two Of
increasing Importance. If we are 70
take care of our increasing export
commerce, if we are to have d gov
ernment aided and protected mer-
chant marine. IL is essential that our
harbors and channels be deepened.
b broadened and improved.
All this makes river and harbor
Gsll and flood control bill of vast.
Importance.