The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1930-02-12
History Turning Back a Century

J $500 Lawn q NVllIUIy
4 In one respect the nation Is turning the calendar BAG
a century in the name of progress. That respect is wa
terway improvement in the form Of canalization.
The hectic demand for canals. for deeper channels
linking up rivers, launching barge lines and instsllin
dams as aid to navigation in the guisc sometimes Q
HOOD control are but an echo Of the programs of tn
1905 and the lo4Os. Those were days Of feverisl, pub
lie improvements. The country rang with the deman,
for them, statesmen made regulations by their attitud
toward the various projects. Largely these public i'm
p~rovements took the form Of waterway programs, tn,
building Of canals, as the Erie in New York and the Port.
age in Pennsylvania.
Rivers and canals thus played a large part in thu
early development of the country. They were all i'm.
portant in the pre-railroad era. and their use continued
even after the railroads were built: then. one by one
they gave way, people began to travel and ship their
goods by train and the canal boat and river steamer fell
into disusc.
An exciting and colorful era In our history died with
them. The railroads, that killed traffic on inland wa
terways, killed that era and ushered In q new one. And
although there are signs that the waterways are going
to come into their own once more, the old era will not
come back with them.
All Of this Is brought to mind by the announcement
that business men Of Ohio and Pennsylvania are putting
on a campaign to have a $l00.O00,000 canal dug connect
ing the Ohio river with Lake Erie.
Manufacturers Of the Pittsburgh Mahoning valley dis
trict are said to have guaranteed at least $4,000, 900 tons
of freight a year for this waterway. They declare that
the "Ruhr valley of America would be benefited enor-
mously by such an undertaking and demand early gov
eminent action.
Sooner or later, this canal probably will be dug, and
Lake Erie and the Ohio will be connected once more
Is only a couple Of decades or so since the original
Ohio and Erie canal was abandoned: but no matter how |
busy this new canal becomes. the old era, the picturesque
old era Of canal barge and river boat. will not come
back. The wheel has swung full cycle. but its second
will not be like the first.
There is a glamour about those old days. The river |
steamers, immortalized by Mark Twain and described
by hundreds of lesser writer's. were gaudy, ma !
|estic, imposing, and-for all their much advertised |
leiSurely. The people who travelled on them
willing to spend a week going and coming. And
he canal boats, drifting lazly down their brown chan
crammed full of farm produce and manufactured
foods. were even more leisurely. People were busy. In
hose days. but they weren't in very much of q hurry.
Those days won't come back. The new canal, like the
will be marked by tug boats and steel barges,
,urrying as fast as they can. We are committed to speed
md 1t IS no use trying to escape. Those Of US who would
Ike to see life paced in the slow tempo Of the old days
get q melancholy interest out Of the news of this
lew Ohio-Erie canal-but that is all we'll get.