The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1927-01-28
New York Offers as
a Substitute


In an earlier chapter the reasons
why New York seeks to keep control
of the outgoing and incoming COM
merce of the Middle-West were men
toned. Perhaps they should be re-
stated.
That commerce furnishes to Buff
falo and to New York, and to those
who do the carrying between, a vast
and steady amount of business that
has been and is profitable in the eX-
IRENE and that at the same time gives
to the port of New York financial
control over the industries of the
Middle-West. From the earliest days
of the agitation for the bringing Of
the Atlantic to the heart of the con-
tinent, New York has uttered her
protest, sneering and i%ncredulOus at
first, growing more and more Wig
Orous as time has gone by. She has
declared that it was unnecessary, that
the st. Lawrence ship channel route
is impractical, that the barge canal
across the state of New York and the
railroads connecting the Great Lakes
were sufficient for all present and
future needs.
Suddenly she shifts her position.
The powerful interests of Buffalo
and New York and of the New York
administration located at Albany,
now declare a connection between the
Great Lakes and the ocean a neces-
sity that must and will be built. They
declare, however, that it must be by
way of New York. Governor Smith
of that state makes an eloquent ges-
ture to the Middle-West and offers
the New York barge canal to the
United States-a canal which has cost
more than S24O, 900, 900 for construc-
ton and maintenance, and that is a
monumental failure. The essential
point to consider at the moment is
the fact that New York has entirely
changed front within the past IL
months and now clamors for that
which she denied emphatically, prior
to that time, the Middle West needed
at all.
Congressman Dempsey of that
state, both in congress and in public
addresses has advocated what he calls
and what New York is pleased to call.
the "All- American" ship canal route.
Mr.. Dempsey's canal would leave
Lake Ontario near Oswego, and
would enter the Hudson river near
Albany. 1t would follow, over .
good part of its course, the present
New York barge canal, which II
1925, with a capacity of 20,000,00C
tons, carried 100000 tons of com
merce as against 100000 tons NOV
ing through the st. Lawrence canals
in the same period of time.
Congressman Dempsey's cana
would have from 20 to so locks, an,
159 miles of restricted navigation
That is a channel so narrow tina
ocean ships could not safely procee,
under their own steam, but woul
have to be led by tug boats. Acros
this 159-mile ship canal, there ar
more than so bridge crossings tina
could not be eliminated-more tha'
one bridge for every two miles, an
it is through such a channel, so ham
pered by bridges, so restricted i
width, so impossible to navigate e.
cept at a snail's pace, that Congress:
mar Dempsey and the government {
the state of New York, the bushes
interests of Buffalo, and the stat
of New York propose that the gre;
and growing stream of mid-wester
outbound and inbound commerce sha
move. This is the "All-Americar
substitute! This is the ship can
which Congressman Dempsey al
Governor Smith offer to the Unit,
States provided the people will pa
the cost of building.
And what is the cost? The Unit,
States army engineers have ma,
II or 10 reports on the possibiliti
of a ship channel between Lake o
tariO and the Hudson River. Eve.