Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-03-22
BY HUGH S. JOHNSON

A PRINCIPAL characteristic
of our President in respect
of which his pride is amply
justified by the record is what
an observer might call per-
sistence, but what he calls his
Dutch stubbornness."
Whatever you call it, it GER
tainly is there. If you look back
over the story of what he set
out to do, and in which he was
temporarily frustrated, you will
find that the purpose remained
and that. through one or an
other avenue-sometimes after
years-the end was achieved.
He wanted to remake the Su-
preme Court. Congress stopped
him but death and advancing
age gave him more than he had
ever sought. He has already
appointed more justices than
anybody since Washington, and
there is possibility that be-
fore the tale is told he will have
appointed them all.
MIRA was as dear to his heart
~ as any policy. The Supreme
Court stopped him but in the
national labor relations law,
the Wages and Hours Act, the
bituminous coal law and the
Walsh-Healy Act he attained
piecemeal at least half his prin-
cipal purpose in NRA. If we go
to really about mobilization
of industry, as seems very likely.
he will get all the rest of his
vision in industrial organization
and control.
Perhaps the most uncanny of
his "bobbing up serenely" to get
what he wants in the end is the
so-called ST. Lawrence seaway.
1t was advanced first as a navi-
cation project to "bring the
great ocean-going vessels of the
commerce of the world to the
docks of Cleveland, Duluth, Chi
cagO and all lake ports" 1t al
most certainly would do no such
thing.
Practically all impartial en-
cheering studies have indicated
this conclusion and there have
been many of them over many
years. The waterway is closed
by ice 40 per cent of the time.
The low speeds required in
tight" waters and in locking
would so greatly slow the speed
of vessels that the journeys
would not be economical. Finally
the proposed depths available
would accommodate none but a
few ocean tramps and coastwise
vessels.
QUT the navigation" ballyhoo
~ was necessary for two rea-
sons. If it could be sold to the
middle west it was good for
political support. More important
still, as the Supreme Court de-
cisions then stood, the federal
government could not develop a
waterway for power alone. Its
powers were confined to naviga-
ton but if, in developing for
navigation. power was produced
as an incident. that was permits
sible.
So the emphasis was all on
n av i CATION - Notwithstanding
that, of the billion-odd dollars
estimated cost probably twice
that now only one-third of that
amount would be necessary
purely for power. Navigation
improvements of highly dubious
value would cost S614, 900, 900 of
the lower estimate, or perhaps
double that.
Finally boundary waters be-
tween the United States and
Canada had always been subjects
of treaties-to be confirmed by
two-thirds of the Senate. The
then navigation" argument
wasn't good enough and the
Presidents proposed treaty with
Canada for the ST. Lawrence
seaway was rejected.
NOV new elements have en-
~ tered. First it is clear that
under the Supreme Court, as
now constituted, the federal
government can develop a stream
for power-eSpecially if an ele-
ment of national defense" can
be imagined and now under war
pressures we are inclined to do
anything suggested for national
defense and do il without any
debate or back talk.
So Mr.. Roosevelt returns with
an agreement" for his sea
way rather than a treaty
which by some alchemy is not
supposed TO require Senate rati-
fication. The lopsided "naviga-
ton appropriation is still pre-
served and there is an entirely
new pressure of the emergent
necessity of national defense
which, since there can be no re-
suits before late 1945 or 1916,
sounds little queer.
1t is too bad this project can't
be debated. at least to make
clear whether it can't proceed at
one-third the cost and openly as
a power project only. which,
while probably not yet necessary,
eventually will be. When we are
apparently going TO need all the
labor and machinery we can get
s IN the defense program, why