The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-03-23
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES :

WE have Just witnessed an unedifying it,
w unfortunately, only too characteristic a
spectacle in Washington.
Progressive senators have urged American
employers to take a broad social point of view
with respect to labor, wages, prices, hours of
work and the like. They have exhorted these
lnduStrialiSts to consider the national interest
rather than their own immediate selfish advan-
tages. Other senators have led the battle to
repress crime and racketeering
At the same time most ironically some of
these self-same senators yielded to the most
obvious dictates of selfshness and local interest
in leading the fight against the Great-Lakes
st. Lawrence waterway.
Moreover. senators interested in SURPRISING
| conventional racketeers have headed up in
Washington the naturalization racket organ
lied by narrow minded local interests in At
lantic and gulf cities that imagine they will be
adversely affected by the deep-sea waterway to
the Great Lakes.
The railroads added their influence to the
opposition of the treaty which would permit
construction to begin. Speculative bankers and
private utility interests opposed the waterway
project because Of its power Implications
A little American history will reveal the i'm
propriety of this opposition to the Great Lakes
waterway project.
New York City owned it's commercial supren-
acy in considerable degree to the same artificial
special privilege which certain interests in New
York today charge against the Great Lakes
project 1t was the Erie canal, which enabled
New York City to become the great export har-
Dor for the products OF the midwest. What if
the other jealous states had been able to block
the Erie canal project after 1920?
THE railroads likewise, as Professor Haney
Il and others have shown, were originally put
on their feet through lavish governmental
favoritism in the form of hundreds of millions
of dollars worth of land and other valuable con-
sideratiOnS
If the railroads are today hard up and I'M
able to compete with water transportation, it is
also evident that they are the brink of gov
eminent ownership. Thereafter they can be
utilized for the kinds of services which they are
economically best prepared to render. 1t is not
sound economics to bolster up any kind of spe-
cial privilege which can not pay its own way.
What are the really apparent advantages of
the Great Lakes Waterway project?
In the first place, it would permit the ship
ment Of grain and other heavy products directly
from the west to Montreal and Europe, thus
avoiding the numerous loadings and reloadngs
which take place today when such products are
transferred from large lake boats to small river
boats and then back again to ocean-going
steamers.
In the second place, it would give an all
water route from the west to Europe, thus avoid
ing the excessive freight rates charged by the
railroads.
In the third place, it would eliminate the
paralyzlng congestion which now exists during
the height of the shipping season at terminals,
shipping centers and reloading points.
In the fourth place, it would make possible
the development of one of the largest public
electric power plants in the whole world
tom IRELAND, author of one of the best
Il books on the enterprise, estimates that the
annual savings on the grain crop alone would
total no less than S24000O0OO. In addition,
there would be comparable savings in the ship
ment of automobiles, packed meat and the like
to say nothing of the enormous reduction in the
electric light bills of the east.
The total cost of the deep seaway and the
proposed power plant to the United States would
be S272 500 OO0 If Mr.. Irelands figures are cor
rect, the savings in shipping costs for one year
would pay for the building of the canal and
power plant.
Even if his figures are grossly exaggerated,
certainly the savings in two years would build
the power plant, locks and canals, and open up
the Great Lakes to ocean going vessels
The total cost would not be half what has al
ready been shoveled into the CWA with no
physical results of discernible character
The senatorial vote on the canal was a test
of the vision and integrity of the opposing SEN
ators. 1t revealed how little the opponents of
the waterway bill are fitted to remove the beam
Of self-interest from the eyes of the American
industriaists When the ST. Lawrence treaty
was defeated in the senate, the latter, for the
time being, abrogated its moral leadership in
American reform. II will present sorry picture
hereafter when upbraidng our financial and in
dustral overlords 1t is to be hoped that this ILL
considered step will be retraced before the pres
ent session Of congress ends