Henderson daily dispatch., 1941-03-25
Waterway
Faces Fight
CONTINUED From Page One)

Continued From Page One)
ing, a magnificent thing TO have, as
a permanent deep waterway.
More than half the time, disputes
the transportation association. It'll be
no such thing, except to skate on;
from November until May it'll be
frozen over. And it'll cost consider
ably above a billion, which is a lot
TO pay for a skating rink.
You fellows forget, reason pro
ponents. when you say that Britams
emergency may be past by l947, that
Uncle Sans got 10 have a tWg-ocean
navy from now on. Well, we have
yards at Cleveland, Lorain, Chicago,
Superior, Buffalo, River Rouge, Ash
tabula. Toledo and ManitoWoc that,
with Il bit Of enlargement. can turn
out war craft adj lib. But We'll have
to get them to salt water, and how
are We going t do it without an
improved St. Lawrence waterway?
Opposition's Stand
Better build them right on our salt
water coasts, reioin opponents.
That's where they oV~erlastingly
viii be subject TO being bombed by
plane. insist proponents. Ca our lake
shores our plants wont DC 50 easy
for p tential enemy bombers to get
at. In short, this waterway develop
ment is vital to oum national defense,
American railroads naturally are
not friendly to the waterway. If
there's transportation TO be done,
they van to do il, not 20 have it
travel by water.
Ports like New York don't like
the idea. either. Their preference is
t. have our exports funneIed cut
through their harbors.
Neither is Bnftalo enthusiastic.
BulGalo's been in the habit Of hing
the. bulk OF stuff piled "ff mere,
upon arrival from up the ~ IS, and
loaded onto freight cars, making it
an important trans-shipment point.
Maybe Buffalo, upon due consldcra-
ton. might be TeconciIed to the ne
ton of being transformed into a huge
>hipbuilding center (mUCh larger
than it is noW), but itisn't rec0ncilod
yet.
Possibly such lake ports as Du-
luth and Milwaukee don't particular
ly care.
tIllttSD ; uneasy, lllOtSli' LIS
afraid that doV.p-the-St. Lawrence
suction would adversely affect the
water level in that harbor ana maybe
dry up its canal to the Mississippi.
Then there's the power angle.
Water Power
Big produced power cOmpan-
les shy away lrow the prospect OF
having a vast reservoir Of water
power TUNED loose in competition
with them, and that's what President
Roosevelt says he has in MIND rs a
by-product Of the waterways trans
portatiOn utility. Perhaps it would
be a fine thing firm their present
customers standpoint, but the com
panies are UNDERSTANDABLE skeery Of
it.
The president is pretty ~resolute,
but SOS the opposition.
The latter was strong enough to
beat the plan in 1884, but it's been
revised since then.
In 1884 it was submitted as a
United States-Canadian treaty. An
international treaty has to be con
tirmed by a tWo-thirds senate vote
and this one, while it got a majority
(46-42) didn't get the necessary two
thirds.
This time it's in the form Of an
ordinary congressional bill, which
can be passed by a simple majority
of both houses.
1t doesn't matter that it's a mere
bill; not a treaty. It's a foregone
conclusion that, if it passes, Can
ada's legislature promptly will pass
a corresponding one. That'l make
the transaction as effective as a
treaty would. 1t may be an evasion,
but it will turn the trick.
The "antis' viii roar like sixty,
though.