Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-31
BENNETT MAY URGE
WATERWAY PLANS
Canadian Premier Expected
to Discuss st. Lawrence
Project With President.
BY LEMUEL F. PARTON.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
OTTAWA, Ontario, January Silt ~
understood here on good authority that
Premier Bennett will discuss with PreSi-
dent Hoover the long-pending plans for
the development of the st. Lawrence
waterway by the two governments.
AS Mr.. Bennett left here, former Pre-
mier w. L. Mackenzie King issued q
mildly critical statement, raising the
question of what would have been said
about him, accused of being too friendly
with Washington, had he left the coun-
try at a critical time to confer with the
American President.
Bennett Approved Project.
Premier Bennett. coming from the
wheat-growing province of Alberta,
pledged himself to the st. Lawrence de-
velopment in his election campaign.
Mackenzie King, drawing his support
from Quebec, where the advantages Of
the project were less obvious, had al
ways maintained a cautious attitude to-
ward the plan.
The Great Lakes region and the Mid
die West, seeking an outlet for grain,
may be considerably encouraged by the
trend of events here with regard to the
st. Lawrence. Also, Americas high tar
ifs and Canada's retaliatory tariffs have
given a sudden impetus to the building
Of American branch factories In Canada.
The st. Lawrence development would
yield about 1900, 900 horsepower in n.y.
dro-electrlc energy. The Province of
Ontario, already making the most of the
cheap power developed by its publicly
owned and operated system, is eager to
add to its power resources. Since the
American tariffs were raised, many
American branches of textile, clothing,
rubber and steel products factories have
been established in Southern Ontario.
Interest in the st. Lawrence has been
quickly stimulated.
In the past Canada has shown Itself
alert to the possibility of using its st.
Lawrence outlet for American wheat
as a means of bargaining over tariff
agreements. Premier Bennett, elected
as a "red-blooded Canadian" has long
insisted that tariffs we're not necessarily
jug-handle arrangement, and it is APP
parent that the ST. Lawrence plan, orig
mating as a MidweStern farm relief
proposal, is now becoming involved In
Eastern industrial interests.
Canada Wants Factories.
American industrialists have realized
the advantages of gaining preferential
tariffs in the British empire by estab-
fishing factories in Canada. Canada
wants the factories and the payrolls and
1t wants more power.
The plan, which would connect the
Great Lakes and clear the st Law
renee for ships of 25-foot draught from
Lake Superior to the Atlantic, would
cost somewhere between $500, 900 900
and 81 ,000, 900 900. Canada is complet-
ing the Weiland Canal, connecting Lake
Erie and Lake Ontario. Canadian pri-
vate capital Is completing the tremen-
douS BeauharnoiS power canal develop
ment above Montreal, handing over the
channel TO the government in return
for 100000 horsepower of hydro-elec-
trio energy. Canada already has dredged
the channel below Montreal The
United States, according to present
plans, will De asked to deepen the chan
nelS connecting Lake Superior and Lake
Huron and Lake Erie and to pay the
entire cost of development on 4e miles
OF the international rapids section,
where 100000 horsepower would be de-
veloped
1t is on this section that controversy
probably will center. American engi-
neers propose one-stage dam The
Canadians want a two-stage dam, in
sisting that the former would submerge
the towns IF Iroquoise and Morrisburg.
AT the latter town is the cemetery where
is buried Sir James Whitney, former
prime minister of Ontario. The Cana
dams say it must not be submerged.
Copyright. 1879