AMERICAN CANALS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 332, 26 January 1909, Page 4

AMERICAN CANALS.

UICiAXTU' SCHEME DETAILS OF THE GIIEAT WATER. WAY. EAILUKE OF TUE RAILWAYS. The water transportation question has become une of tile must, important questions of the day in the United States, because the 'railway service of that country has practically broken down. While the railway development of the United States has astonished the world, and while the States have to-day more than half the railway mileage of the world, yet that machinery has proved inadequate to meet the demands of the production of the country. OEUMAXY'S EXAMPLE. Years ago the railways were competing with the waterways, and practically drove them out of business. Ijut the ell'orts of the railways to monopolise the carriage of cheap natural products, cartied in other countries by water, lias resulted in congestion of trallir. and :> virtual breaking down of the entire transportation system; anil it is deemed that immediate steps shall be taken lo supplement (lie railway system of waterway transportation. l-lvcry-wliere else in the world, it is argued, water transportation is an important factor in both domestic and foreign commerce. llciiuany lias perhaps the most important system of transportation in the world.' Her rivers have In.-a arliiicialised by a system of canal, rail, and ocean transportation, which combined give, that country a transportation machinery unequalled anywhere in the development of domestic and foreign commerce. Great Britain is waking up to the subject, and a lioyal Commission is inquiring into canals and inland navigation. COUIiLLATUD ACTIVITIES. Ju the United Slates they are not going to do the thing by halves. In the consideration of the inland waferways are included the related questions of forest preservation and restoration, the irrigation of arid lauds, the reclamation of swamp lands, bank protection, clarilicalion of streams, and kindred matters. The Engineer Corps of the Army, tile Reclamation Service, the Forestry' Service, and the Jiurcau of Soils have all been called ill to assist in the consideration of the waterways problem. Forests conserve and distribute moisture, while denudation leads to destructive Hoods. Irrigation is both a regulating and a feeding agent in its relation to rivers. Soil waste means not only loss of the soil value, but Unbuilding up of river obstructions. Closely related to the prevention of soil waste is the matter of clarilieation of streams; for every grain of sand in these rivers is a tool of destruction when directed against the river's banks, while clear water cuts the banks but little. The Yellowstone, as its name radicates, is pouring into the Missouri immense volumes of sand, and the .Missouri is pouring into the .Mississippi vast quantities of alluvial deposits, every grain of which is both a tool for the destruction of the banks and an obstruction to navigation when deposited in shoals and sandbars. BOSTON, VIA THE GULF. TO GRI-lAT LAKHS, j Projects spoken of are the connection by canal of the Ohio and Lake Erie, of the .Mississippi and Lake .Michigan, and so on. It is proposed to connect the entire Mississippi valley, the tiulf Coast, and the Atlantic Coast with each other by a system of sheltered waterways along the (inlf and the Atlantic Coasts, consisting of bay, sounds, and river.s to be connected wilh each other by canals, such as the contemplated canal across Florida connecting the (liilf with the Atlantic Coast, the canal coiracctiug Carolina Sounds with Chesapeake liav, the canal connecting Chesapeake Hay wiili the Delaware Itiver. the canal connecting Delaware ltivcr with the Raritan. and tin. canal across Cap,' Cod, tlius/giviug a sheltered wacrway from the mouth of the Mississippi to Maine, .upon which it would be possible that boats of standard draft could pass from Boston down the Atlantic Coast, across Florida to the Gulf Coast, and up the .Mississippi Itiver to the Great Lakes. It i- proposed to establish an initial fund of 50 million dollars, and to giv the t'resident power lo issue bonds, as required, for another "id million dollars. It is possible, therefore, that (lie ligures in the cablegram should be dollars, not sterling.