Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1930-05-22
Bu HON. WILLIAM CARSS

Mr. CARSS Mr.. Chairman, there has
recently been discussed, both on this
floor and before the Rivers and Har-
bors Committee of the United States
Board of Army Engineers, a question
which is of deep concern to every
American citizen. ! refer to the Ques-
ton of ship channel from the Great
Lakes to the Atlantic ocean. This is a
matter which has been agitated for
many years and about which there
has been much divergence of opinion.
We of the midwest have been told
by the East, and particularly by New
York, whenever we have voiced a de-
mand for such a seaway, either that
it was not necessary or that it was
not practical. Now, Mr.. Chairman,
we witness the sight of the State of
necessary and practical. l quote
from a letter addressed by Governor
Smith of New York, to the New York
Senators and Representatives in Con-
gress, as follows:
am convinced that ship canal from
necessity to the commercial needs of our
country; that it will some day be built
is inevitable; that the promise of both
our major parties should be kept; that
the time to fulfill that promise is now;
that the route of the American canal
following the long-established line OF
traffic is the best one to build. and that
an American canal is the only one for
xu1i al no
Let me repeat and emphasize this
statement made by Governor Smith,
that it will some day be built is in
evitable." This, Mr.. Chairman, COM
pletely reverses the attitude hereto
fore assumed by New York, and we
of the Middle West now find New
York fighting On our side for what we
have always claimed was an economic
necessity. And what is perhaps fully
as much to the point, the governor of
New York declares that the time for
action is now.
That this attitude on the part of
Governor Smith is backed by the re-
sponsible political opinion in the
State of New York is indicated by the
fact that a resolution offered in the
state legislature at Albany proposes
to empower the State of New York to
sell to the United States any part or
parts of the barge canal necessary to
the completion of ship canal from
Lake Ontario to the Hudson river.
merely mention this action, Mr..
Chairman, to show that New York,
apparently at last and for the first
time in history, is committed to the
proposition that ship canal from the
Atlantic ocean to the Great lakes is
inevitable.
Having proceeded thus far on the
road toward admitting the needs OF
the Middle West, l am not surprised
to find that New York attaches con-
dition to this proposal for ship
channel and insists that it shall be
across her own territory and through
her own great harbor, the City of New
York; and in order to carry her point
when met by the opinion of the Army
engineers that such a canal across
the State of New York is economically
inadvisable on account of its high
cost, there is raised in that state by
politicians and in the press the bug
aboo of nationalism.
Coming down the street the other
morning | picked up a Washington
Herald, dated March %, 1926, carry
ing on its editorial page in a space
eight columns wide an article entitled
Would a British Canadian Waterway
be Cheaper
This, Mr.. Chairman, is an editorial
in one of a series of papers belonging
to the Hearst organization. is sup
posed to represent the view of that
great publisher and that great chain
of papers reaching from the Atlantic
to the Pacific and voicing the opinion
in this case specifically of those who
direct the political destiny of the
State of New York.
The editorial inquiries, and l shall
reply to it as l proceed:
Which would be the better invest.
ment for the American people; a British
Canadian ship canal or an "all-Ameri-
can" ship canal?
Let me say 10 the New Orh trlenuS
Of the so-called and falsely so-called
all-American ship canal. that this
first statement is misleading There
is and there will be no British-Amer-
lean waterway in the sense implied
by the editorial-the purpose of which
is to disparage the ST. Lawrence route
to the ocean and convince the reader
that only by building an expensive
canal across American territory, al
in New York. can we uphold our ma
tional dignity and ideals.
We can build. Mr.. Chairman, 6
route from the Great lakes to the sea
by either one of two ways. From
Lake Ontario TO the Atlantic ocean
by way of the st. Lawrence at a cos,
estimated by American and Canadian
Army engineers of $3.50 100000. This
is the total cost for navigation i'm
provement and incidental water-poweI