Evening Star Newspaper, April 25, 1930, Page 30

B-14 DEMPSEY OUTLINES WATERWAY PLANS Fofum Speaker Says Pending Bill Would Link Atlantic, Guif and Great Lakes. ‘The tion's future in waterways de- velopment, as contemplated by the | pen rivers and harbors bill, which would authorize a total expenditure of | $110,000,000 on projects designed pri- | marily to tmprove the condition of & riculture through the lowering of tra: | portation costs, was outlined in a radio | address last evening by Representative 8. Wallace Dempsey of New York. | Mr. Dempsey. who is chairman of the House rivers and harbors’ committee, | spoke in the National Radio Forum, ar- ranged by The Evening Star and spon- sored by the Columbia Broadcasting System. His address was broadcast lo- eally from Station WMAL. Citing economists as authority for the | statement that the United States has | suffered impairment of distribution fa- | cilities along with an increased effi- | eiency in production, Mr. Dempsey said | that some authorities go so far as to | say that some articles costing 20 cents to manufacture reach the consumer at | & cost of a dollar. | Bill Provides Unified System. “The means by which the greatest | savings can be made in distribution is through reduced transportation costs, and waterways afford the cheapest of all means of transportation,” he said. ‘The pending bill, said Mr. Dempsey, would afford a connection between t. Qreat Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf. nce these two connec- tions were made,” he said, “and the Atlantic intracoastal waterway was complete, we would have, through the two oceans, the Great Lakes and useful connections of them with the Atlantic and the Gulf, a complete and unified system of waterways through which commerce will move without unloading or reloading, at a minimum cost, for the benefit of both the producer and the consumer.” Mr. Dempsey asserted that the taking over of the Erie and Oswego Canals in New York State by the Federal Govern- ment would not mean “the death” of the proposed St. Lawrence waterway. ‘The text of Mr. Dempsey's address follows in full: Method Is Outlined. The improvement of the rivers and harbors of the country is done by the Federal Government. The method of securing an improvement is this: United States Army eers are stationed at all of the important waterway cen- ters throughout the United States. ‘They first make a survey or investiga- gnwunent which is asked. ‘This report then sent successively to the division enflm, who has 'a wide area, and from to the. board of engineers, consisting of seven mem- bers, who meet fu Washington, and from to the chief engineer. If the he committee and through annual appropriations. Confusion Caused. Much confusion has been caused by ed, end the misunderstandings on the subject. ‘The intention in each authorisation bill is to cover all of the improvements which are necessary to give to the waterways which the Government has already improved their maximum of efficiency through thorough modern- ization and to adopt such new projects as will both reduce transportation costs locally and add to the usefulness of the w:te‘:w-y systems of the country as a whole. It was recently said by that great economist, Babson, that we had reached & degree of efficiency in manufacturing unequaled in the history of the world, but that we had gone back in distribu- tion; that an article costing 20 cents reached the consumer at a cost of $1. Of course such a distribution cost is excessive and should be reduced in the interest both of the producer and of the consumer. The means by which | the greatest savings can be made in| distribution is through reduced trans- portation costs and waterways afford the cheapest of all means of transpor- tation. These facts have long been recognized by the farmers, who believe | that the improvement of our waterways is one of the-surest ways?to enable them to regain a place among the prosperous classes in our Nation. To insure cheaper transportation for grain, meat and other farm products and for ufactured articles is the prim: REPRESENTATIVE WALLACE DEMPSEY. purpose of rivers and harbors im- provement. Such is the purpose underlying the presentation and the effort to secure the adoption of all of the improve- ments in the present rivers and harbors 1. Few Projects Stand Out. While the projects covered by the bill embrace all of the improvements to our waterways deemed necesary by the engi- neers at the present moment, and while all of them are worthy, and while each of them will play an important part in our waterway transporation system, some few of them stand out as being of remarkable usefulness in uniting our waterways into a complete system which will serve the commerce of every | section of our country as well as our commerce with foreign nations. ‘We have had the Panama Canal con- proximately 30,000,000 tons, as against the estimate of 11,000,000 tons, and has proved of enormous value to the coun- try as a whole. The greatest commerce in the Great Lakes and at the low any transportation in all time. started years ago to improve an intra- coastal waterway on the Atlantic from New York to Florida. The fault and Special Saturday Sale Superior Quality Baku & Ballibuntl HATS i INE hats of this quality have never been of- fered at such a low price . . . even at the end of the season. Francine is very fortunate in securing a limited quantity which we place on sale Saturday .. .usual $10, $12.50 values. Black ... natural and all Spring colors. Of course, we have your headsize! I | | the error in our improvements have | been that the record-breaking tonnage of the Great Lakes has had no servic able connection either with the Atlan- | tic or with the Gulf. Once these. two connections were made, and the Atlan- tic intracoastal waterway was complete, we would have through the two oceans, the Great Lakes, and useful connections of them with the Atlantic and the Gulf, {a complete and unifled system of wa- terways through which commerce wi move without unloading or reloading, at , | a minimum cost, for the benefit of both | | the producer and the consumer. This bill accomplishes such a unification of our waterways for which we have all so0 long planned and worked. | A project for the completion of the improvement_of the Illinois River is included in the bill. It will furnish the | connection between the Mississippi sys- | tem, with its 9.000 miles of improved | waterways, and the Great Lakes, the | connection point being the metropolis of the interior of the country, Chicago. Economical Transportation Link. The engineers have recommended and | the committee has acted favorably upon | the proposition to ask the State of New York to transfer the Erie and Oswego Canals to the Federal Government. These canals will, as will be shown lat |the other outstanding 7 that afford the economical transportation link needed between the Great Lakes and the sea. Then the last project needed to complete the Atlantic Deeper ‘Waterways between Cape Fear River, North Carolina, and Jacksonville, Fla., is also included in the bill. These three projects together - supply the missing links and make our waterway system a connected whole. The benefits to the Great Lakes from the two connections with the Gulf, by the Illinols and with . the Atlantic by the Erie and Oswego Canals, will be incalculable in supplying tonnage from the East and the Sonth and in affording transportation from the Great Lakes territory. eastwardly | and southerly over these two connect- ing links to the Middle and South At- lantic States, New England, South America and Mexico. ‘We purpose to review in some detail the advantages to the country Oswego Canals, but before doing that it will be interesting to mention a few of improvements made possible through this, which it is honestly believed is as good & rivers and harbors bill (if not the best) that | has ever been reported. Three other great projects stand out conspicuously in this bill: First, the Missouri River. reaching a vast territory and running through the richest farm- ing land in the world, has an authori- | zation for the expenditure of $15,000,- 000 in the next three years; next, the Upper Mississippi, ‘Which does not re- celve the benefit of Great Lakes com- merce, receives special consideration on count by the ‘enlargement of the Hastings Lock and Dam and the au- thorization of two other locks, as a splendid and long start in the process of obtaining _a 9-foot channel. and, thirdly, the Tennessee River, with its enormous power and splendid naviga- tion facilities, on the survey of which we have expended a million dollars, will, under this bill, a| i whole of the adoption of the Erie and | the long stretch of 83 miles from its e | Besides all this, we undertake the | bumanttarian task of preventing floods |in the State of Florida. The dreadful destruction of life and the large prop- erty loss accompanying the recent floods aroused the sympathy of the en- tire country, and the adoption of a | project which will prevent the recur- Tence of such a catastrophe will meet the sympathy and approval of the peo- ple of every part of the United States. Among the other great works under- taken are the further improvement of that great artery of commerce, the Del- aware River, at an expense of approxi- mately $4,000,000; the widening and deepening of the channel in Baltimore Harbor, where commerce has grown by leaps and bounds and is certain to de- velop even more rapidly in the future: the ' giving additional depth to the James River, where an industrial cen- ter of large proportions is being rapidly developed; the improvement of = the Brazos Island Harbor in Texas, the port of the Rio Grande Valley, where the production of citrus fruits and vegeta- bles of the highest quality is going on at an astounding rate, resulting in the changing, within a few gears, of a mes- Guite. desert, into a th¥kly populated district, with cities, villages, good roads and every modern convenichce: the de- velopment of the Youghiogheny and Al- | legheny Rivers in Pennsylvania, thus bringing to the use of our people the enormous bodies of coal located on their banks; the improvement of the Kana- wha River, which will bring into use the only smokeless coal in the world, 18.000,000,000 tons in quantity: the Green and Barren Rivers in Kentucky, thus bringing to market at low trans- portation cost the stores of coal and of Rsphalt adjacent to these streams, be- Sides a very large number of only less notable, but no means less worthy projects. However, the project which is excit- be improved for!|ing the most discussion is that for the ' | taking over by the United States of the Erie and Oswego Canals, in New York. It is of first importance to see who are supporting and, if any, who are opposing the acquisition of the canals. Among the supporters we find the Mississippi Valley Association, the Missouri River Association and the Lake Carriers’ Association. These three associations cover practically the en- | tire Middle West. ~These associations urge that the Federal control and the | modernization of these two barge canals, | giving them a channel depth of 13 or 14 | feét and 20-foot bridge clearances, will | afford reasonable and economical trans- | portation for the grain and the other | products of the Middle West. They say | that the canals are in existence and wiil | be operated anyway and that it is only | common sense to make them as eco- | nomical and practical agencies as can | be done at a reasonable cost. ¢ Would Increase Carrying Capacity. The canals now have a depth of 10 | feet 6 inches, on which 1,200-ton car- | goes can be carried. With a 13-foot | depth and adequate bridge clearances, |2,000-ton cargoes can be carried. Thus, | the carrying capacity of a barge will | be increased 70 per cent and the cost | decreased 40 per cent, the benefits of | which will be shared both by the pro- ducer and the consumer. The Detroit shippers say that from | actual experience they can testify that | automobiles can be " distributed from | Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, through such a canal, through New York, New England and the South Atlantic States and, by transfer to ocean vessels, to our foreign trade, at a lower cost than by any other existing transportation agency. The oil from Texas and California, the sulphur from Texas and the lumber from the Pacific Coast can all be brought, in full vessel loads and un- | loading " only at destination, to all of | the Great Lakes territory and distrib- |uted at a reasonable, and even low, cost. ‘The shippers as a body unite in say- ing that once the improvements de- scribed are- assured for the canals, a fleet of modern steel barges be bullt adequate to carry tonnage on the canal to its capacity of 16,000,000 to 20,000,000 tons, and that the com- merce will increase to capacity in the very near future. Fears Declared Groundless, Now, who oppose the taking over of these two canals? A very small num- ber of extremists who indulge the wholly groundless apprehension that the federalization of the two canals means the delay, and some of them even say the death, of the St. Lawrence waterway. Of course, it is a most ex- treme position to say that the United States should not give itself the bene- fit of a wholly practical, highly useful connection between the Great Lakes and the sea, which can be modernized at a very low cost, because some few people believe that it will interfere with some other waterway which would serve some of the same purposes. We do not say, when we adopt the Erie and Oswego Canals, that we will not in the future, much less never, obtain any other connection between the lakes and the sea. On the contrary, the Mid- west farmer, as evidenced by the sup- port of the Mississippi Valley and the Missouri River _Associations, realizes that three-fourths of our wheat and other farm products are consumed in the territory tributary to the Erie Canal, which will afford transporta- tion for 60.000,000, or one-half of our people, and that it is three times as important to have cheap distribution of grain and other farm products among our own people as it is abroad. And the farmer will say that there is no reason why we cannot have the cheap- est water transportation possible for distribution among our own people, where we consume three-bourths of our farm products and to Europe. In conclusion, this bill has been under consideration and discussion for half a year. It is very generally understood EXPLAINS PURPOSE OF PAN-AMERICANISM |Dr. Rowe Tells Radio Audience Aim Is for Good Will and ' Mutual Confidence. Good will and mutual confidence be- tween the United States and the Latin American countries is the chief purpose | of Pan-Americanism, Dr. Leo S. Rowe, director general of the Pan-Americar Union, said last night in a radio address in which he outlined the progress of the movement and discussed it as a factor in the maintenance of world peace. Speaking over the National Broer | casting System under auspices of 1 | Women’s International League for Pe ~ and Freedom, Dr. Rowe emphasized th | Pan-Americanism does not involve plan of political alliances between Republics of America. “Its basic philosophy,” he said. “re < the thought that by fostering a spi of co-operation between the natio this continent there will be deveiuy. an atmosphere of good will and mutus confidence in which all inter-America differences, no matter what their chai- acter, will readily lend themselves to solution by means of the orderly prce esses of mediation, conciliation anc » arbitration.” 3 |and it has already received wide ap- | prov: ind this will increase as knowl- edge of its wise provisions, far-reach | ing in reducing transportation costs, be - {come, as they will be, generally under - | steod by our people. 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