DEVELOPING AMERICAN RIVERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 11 March 1908, Page 79

DEVELOPING AMERICAN RIVERS.

FROM CHICAGO TO THE OCEAN. A year or so ago President Roosevelt, whose imagination has been fired by a project of developing the main river systems of America as national highways, appointed a national commission to study and outline a comprehensive scheme of. river development. Later he made a trip down the Mississipi to its mouth, speaking at various points in favour of tha plans for the improvement of "the father of waters," as Lincoln always called thati great central stream. Heretofore money has been spent free.y by the Federal Government on the improvement of river navigation, but not in accordance with a permanent and settled! policj. Now it seems probable that a definite policy of developing first the great rivers — chief of which are the Mississippi and the Columbia, — and then the tributaries will be adopted. A bill has-been introduced in the Senate by Senator Newlands, author of the National Irrigation Act, directed towards this end. The bill provides for the expenditure of £10,000,000 annually. Senator Xcwlands said in his speech that he expected that sum to bo expended on river development every year for at leist the next 10 years. The big project upon which national ~- attention is now concentrating is nothing less than the establishment of a deep waterway from the great lakes to the Gulf of Mexico — from Chicago to the mouth of the Mississippi — via the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, a distance of 1625 miles. The plan is to establish a navigable waterway from Lake Michigan to the Gulf ol Mexico capable of accommodating vessels drawing 14ft. Such an undertaking is at least of equal magnitude with that of the construction of the Panama Canal. Tha cost of the two projects, it is estimated, will be about the same. The initial stretch of the great water highway has been constructed. This initial stretch is a drainage canal from the shores of Lake Michigan to Lake Joliet, approximately 36 miles in length, and so deep that vessels drawing 20ft of water can be safely navigated through it. The canal was built by the city of Chicago, primarily for the purnose of carrying away sewage, and thus preventing tha pollution of the Lake Miehigajn -water enpply, but the idea of making it also a commercial waterway was kept in mind*. It cost Chicago £10,000,000, and was about 10 years in the building. Part of the 36 miles is along the Chicago River, but the excavated channel is 2S miles long. The next step in the lakes to Gulf waterway is from Lake Joliet along the- Illinoit River to the junction of that river with' the Mississippi. It is 367 miles from Chicago to the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. In the first 54> miles below Lake Joliet engineers statai that a 14ft watercourse can be maintained

by means of three locks. Below that again, to the mouth of the Illinois, hydraulic dredging, averaging 7ft, will be necessary. This will necessitate the excavation of 100 million feet of soft earth, at an estimated cost of £1,400,000. From ■the mouth of the Illinois to St. Louis, on $he Mississippi, is 39 mile 6. It is the establishment of a 14ft channel from St. Louis to the Gulf that will proside the engineering feats of greatest magnitude. What this will cost engineers do not profess to know very accurately. fiurmi£es range from £40,000,000 to £80,000,000. Below St. Louis for many males the slope averages only 7ft per mile. B)y the utilisation of the entire body of ;*ater flowing through the Chicago Canal, •xA by the construction of extensive reserToirs on the Upper Mississippi, it is estimated that a 14ft minimum channel during the period of low water would be made, •ad a waterway of 18ft to 20ft under normal conditions. With ocean-going vessels steaming up to Chicago, the development of the interior States of America would Be immensely assisted. During the last 10 years the internal commerce of the United States has increased more than 100 per cent., while the railroad transportation facilities nave increased only 25 per cent. It is admitted by railway leaders like Harriman and Hill that the transcontinental lines are being worked to their fullest capacity, and yet it is declared that hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of materials now go to waste ir> t&e orrea' middle west

because of the inability of the railways to transport them. The very great need for furnishing water facilities where possible ie therefore apparent. Statistics show that the carriage of freight by water costs less than one-sixth that of carriage by rail. It is recognised that to be complete in time to relieve the congestion of the railways, the lakes to Gulf waterway must be begun at once. As an incident to the improvement of navigation conditions, it is proposed that the dams be utilised to produoe hundreds of thousands of horse-power, and in this connection it is pointed out that the annual value of the unused water power of the United States probably exceeds the entire annual value of the products of all the mines.