Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-20
BY WILLIAM HARD.

1nlS next week HldTkS LIE
of what may be called the constructive
engineering period OF President Hoover's
administration.
On Wednesday, at Louisville, KY,
the President speaks at ceremonies in
celebration of the completion of the
present Ohio River navigation improve
ments. A 9-foot channel is now avail
able to water-borne commerce from
Pittsburgh down the Ohio TO Cairo. and
from Cairo down the Mississippi to
New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico
This is distance of some 1000 miles.
It means, from q certain standpoint,
the completion for the present of
some one-sixth of the $4,000 miles of
inland waterways thought capable in
this country of effective development
for navigation purposes.
The general hope and expectation
among the people of the Mississippi
Valley and Of the whole country, in
their various waterway associations, is
that the President at Louisville will
outline comprehensive, positive ma
tional waterway policy. 1t Is thought
that in a sense the country will thus
see the end of a certain sort of Cool
idge economy" If q waterway policy
Is to be vigorously and consistently
pursued by the Federal Government, the
result Is bound to- be certain con-
siderable annual increase in the Federal
rivers and harbors appropriations.
X + \
The President has frequently de-
clared that much money has been
really wasted by the Federal Govern
ment in working ut its rivers and har-
bors improvements piecemeal and with
out definite, coherent, continuous plan.
In other words, the President is known
to feel that larger annual appropria-
tons devoted to definite and conclu-
Sive achievements would be in fact, in
the end. more economical than hap
hazard and prolonged but constantly
interrupted expenditures.
IhlS argument is regarded here as
valid in all experienced quarters, but
1t implies lift in appropriations for q
certain Immediately approaching period
OF years. 1t accordingly may tend to
make the reduction of the income tax
levels more difIicult. The President
maintains. in effect, that the taxpayers
of the country will be more benefited
| in their pocketbookS by prospective
judicious waterway improvements than
by the taxation reduction which might
otherwise be slenderly possible.
The President accordingly Is intensely
interested in the spectacle of the in
| creasing appearance on the Ohio and on
the Mississippi or privately owned YES
sells, and lines of vessels, for the con-
veyance of heavy freight. There Is one
private firm which now operates some 1875
bargeS for general freight traffic on water
routes In the Ohio and in the Mississippi
between Pittsburgh and the Gulf. The
! President has repeatedly stated that he
does not believe that the Government
should enter into commercial COMPETE
ton with its citizens. 1t is presumed
here accordingly that as private firms
a ifNF To 20 l.
| systems on the waterways in the Mis-
sissippi Valley, there will be an ensu-
ing contraction of the operations of
the governmertally owned barge line
which now Is in business all along the
Mississippi from New Orleans to ST.
! Louis and from ct. Louis up to Mime
apolis and st. Paul.
~ X
One enormous obstacle, or possible
obstacle, stands in the way today of
the complete development of a MissiS-
sippi Valley inland waterway system
This obstacle is the suit now pending
In the United States Supreme Court,
! brought by the States of Wisconsin,
Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, PennsyI-
yania and New York, to restrain the
drainage authorities of the City of
Chicago from diverting water from Lake
Michigan in any such way as to re-
ouce the water level OF the Great Lakes
by even or 3 inches. These States
| seem TO demand that whatever water
Chicago may take from Lake Michigan
for any purpose it shall strive to return
| to the lake as fully as possible
II these States should be successful
IN their suit and II Chicago is not per-
mltted to divert some water from Lake
Michigan and send it down the Chicago
Drainage Canal into the Illinois River
and thus into the Mississippi, the con-
sequence will be that Chicago, the larg-
est and most important traffic center
IN the Mississippi Valley, will be cut
on from the prospective comprehen-
slVe Mississippi Valley inland waterway
system and thereupon that system will
be commercially seriously crippled.
y 4 ~
The President has in times past
emphatically expressed the view that
the Mississippi Valley inland waterway
system should include Chicago. The
ceremonies at which the President is
to speak IN Louisville next Wednesday
represent really great triumph of
Pittsburgh over Chicago. With the
completion Of the Ohios River improve
ments, cargoes of steel can be carried
cheaply by water from Pittsburgh
down into the Mississippi and thence
distributed into the great Southwest.
Meanwhile steel from Chicago must
still 60 by the more expensive method
of movement by rail.
The city of Chicago has spent more
than $500 900 trying to solve its sew
age problem. 1t Is now within sight OF
final solution, and its interest now ID
not so much In water for sewage dis