Evening star., 1926-02-02
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

numb bered 16G while the last three
years have averaged in excess Of l,510
per year. Yet that region is famous a.
the bread basket Of the world
+
This shifting Of food productIo;.
from the Midwest to the Atlarti,
Coast will tend further 10 embarraSs
the greatest packing industry in the
world, that Of Chicago. since II taRe~
away the by-prUduCts of flour mills
used for feeding and further dis
courages stock raising upon the pra.
riaa. All this may seem to enhance
the interests of the East, though a
the expense OF the West. But the
story Is not yet told beyond the ma
row sectional part, and ii is that Sc
tionalism which Secretary Hoover
protests, for what hurts a section iD
its exports hurts the whole country.
X x
The American grain raiser is III
competition. not with the farmer OF
Virginia and New York; his competi
tor is the farmer of Argentina and
Of all other grain-producing regions.
The price of his exports IS fixed in the
market Of the world through world
competition, The farmer Of Argentina
lives within l00 miles OF the ocean.
The American wheat raiser lives 1,50u
miles from the ocean.
1t costs the Argentine farmer 22.E
cents u bushel TO carry his grain from
farm to Liverpool. In 1918 il cos'
the farmer OF Montana 31.S cents :,
bushel 10 deliver his export surplus
to Liverpool. II now costs him AS
cents a bushel His nearer competi
tor in Alberta, Canada. sent his grain
to Liverpool in 1918 for 27 cents q
buShel: today il costs him 32.3 cents
The lesser rise in Canada than in the
United States is due 10 the Canadian
government ownership and control OF
the railroads While the United
states Treasury problem is what TO
10 with the surplus and what taxes
10 reduce, Canada, with its govern
ment-owned railroads and lower
freight rates, faces a deficit OF $50.
oOu.oO0 year.
:; ::
Mr.. Hoover points To our increase
of traffic in the last % years-from
ia billion ton-miles to 33S billion ton
mlleS-and he predicts that within the
next 20 years we shall handle double
the present volume. To meet that we
must more than double present facili-
ties, either upon land or water II
that increase be in railroads. the eN-
penSe would be enormous: besides, il
cities. If it be upon water, the whole
waterfront will be available for ter1ni-
mails. Land routes would cost three
times what water improvement will
cost. Yet. there will always be Ger
tain classes of traffic which will go by
rail rather than water, and the i'm
proVement of waterways does not
mean depreciation of present rail facil-
tiles 1t means only that further ex-
~ ch
waterway Improvement as more eco
nomlcal for the great bulk of traffic.
Army engineers have demonstrated
that 30-foot canals are feasible from
the Great Lakes to the Atlantic
either by the st. Lawrence or by the
New York Barge Canal. The Barge
Canal, if deepened to 20 or 80 feet.
would cost $500, 900, 900 to $500 ,0O0, 900.
Mr.. Hoover asks for $100 600 900 ito
be spread over five years. for the
completion of both the St Lawrence
and the Chicago Mississippi projects.
That Improvement would permit all
but the greatest ocean liners to dock
at any port of the Great lakes In
the calendar year 1929, there were
S,526 ships passed through the Pan
anna Canal. All of these except 1857
could reach Duluth, Chicago and ali
other lake ports If the st Lawrence
Canal be deepened to IS feet. It is
hoped to restore the great river traf-
fic to its pre-war Importance, when
it amounted to several times all our
coastal commerce, even though the
channels had not been dredged as
now proposed. The Great Lakes
commerce always has been greater
than our coastal commerce.
X X X
There are several projects which
have been talked of in connection
with the maintenance of the water
level of the Lakes. Canada complains
that the Chicago Drainage Canal is
taking more water than is legal, and
is thereby damaging Canadian inter
estS. Some one proposed to create a
lake between Hudson Bay and Lake
Superior. as great as Lake Huron,
which would flow into Lake Superior
and so keep up the level. That
scheme Is denounced as chimerical
Another plan, which would dam the
Albany River and back 1t into Lake
Nipigon and thence to Superior, IS
pronounced practical. 1t is contended
that instead of robbing the Great
Lakes to feed the Mississippi River.
the river should be damned TO hold
back it's flow and maintain the level
desired for navigation. All that is
a detail for engineers to decide, but
the dominating question is how to
create greater water transportation.
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