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Report to the Chicago Harbor Commission on Obstacles to Chicago's Water Ship- THE Marine REVIEW ping Development. Among the many interesting and va- ried opinions concerning Chicago's ship- ping problem few present more infor- mation than does the report of George C. Sikes to the Chicago harbor commis- sion on "Obstacles to Chicago's Water Shipping Development." | Mr. Sikes says in part: "The wonder is, not that the volume of shipping business in the Chicago har- bor, as distinguished from the Calumet harbor, has fallen off, but rather that it has not declined more. The persistence of traffic under the discouraging condi- tions that exist indicates a desire on the part of shippers to make use of water transportation. This desire is further indicated by the tendency of mercantile concerns to seek locations on the river, and by the recent develop- . ment of facilities for lighterage service in the Chicago harbor. "The general attitude of the Chicago authorities and public toward water transportation has been one of indiffer- ence. Shipping has been allowed to look out for itself, for the most part. Obstacles to development have been permitted to exist long after their ruin- ous effect had become evident. The tunnels were an injury to navigation for years before they were removed. Center pier bridges still exist as bar- riers to water commerce. Most of those already taken out to give way to bridges of the bascule type were removed by the sanitary district board as an incident in the work of securing the necessary flow of water. Such river widening and deepening as has* taken place or is planned aside from that done by the federal government, has likewise been carried out by the sanitary district as an incident to the main purpose of that body, which is sanitation. The sanitary district is without lawful authority to spend money for the purpose of promot- ing navigation, and the city government has expended almost nothing in recent years in furtherance of this object. The city is indeed building a very few new bridges. It has brought about, after many years of agitation, the lowering by the street car companies of the La- Salle; Washington and Van Buren street tunnels, "which "were very serious obsta- cles to navigation and responsible for driving much water business away from Chicago. The sanitary disttict'has sub- stituted bascule for center pier bridges at twelve points, as follows: State, Dear- born, Randolph, Harrison, Taylor, Eight- eenth, Canal, Twenty-second, Main and Loomis streets, Ashland avenue, and Chi- cago Terminal Transfer railroad bridge. It is also planning to take out the center pier structure at Twelfth street. It has projected and partially executed a plan for making the south branch of the Chi- cago river 200 ft. wide from Lake street to the point at Robey street where it connects with the sanitary district chan- nel. The federal government has built turning basins and is now engaged in deepening parts of the river not com- : prehended within the scope of the sani- tary district's work. "The aforementioned improvements, however, in no sense. suffice to meet Chi- cago's need for better water terminal facilities. While there is some agitation for betterment on the part of citizens' organizations, the creation of the harbor commission: is the first serious recogni- tion of the need for an official program for comprehensive water terminal im- provement...* *. * THE PRESENT AN OPPORTUNE TIME. "The 'present seems an especially op- portune time for the inauguration of a successful movement for securing ade-. quate water terminal facilities for Chi- cago. The procedure is to outline a com- prehensive harbor policy that shall pro- vide for future as well as present needs, and take account of other related public improvements that are up for considera- tion. The people at large must then be familiarized with the main features of the program and led to understand that the problem is one having important pub- lic aspects; that it is not primarily a matter affecting a few private interests." The remainder of the report deals suc- cessively with such phases of the situa- tion as the passenger boat business, bridge hours, the lake freight, business, waterways and terminals, suggestions for improvement, railroad control over lake transportation, and lack of vessel own- ership in Chicago, each of which is shown to have an important bearing on the im- provement problem. THE PASSENGER BOAT BUSINESS. The passenger boat business is first chosen by Mr. Sikes, not becatise it is more important than the lake freight business, but because it can be made to Cals demonstrate graphically how little en. couragement the city gives lake traffic © in general. Lack of dock space, ineff- cient and inconvenient street car con- nections, necessity for huge towing bills, and the restrictions imposed by "bridge hours"'--during which periods no - vessels may pass--are all given deserved attention, and the conclusion seems to be that the passenger boat men would be in favor of the construction of piers on. the lake front north of the mouth of the river, for the use of the passen- ger. steamboat lines. This project is given attention at some length later in the report. BRIDGE HOURS. In dealing with this phase of Chicago river navigation the report says: "The bridge hours area great nuisance to the navigation interests, both passen- ger and freight. The city ordinance for- bids the swinging of bridges for two hours in the morning 'and two: hours in the evening. The morning hours for closed bridges are from 6:30 to 8:30; the evening hours from 5 to 7. During these hours boats have to lie by, wher- ever they may be. J "It may be a sound principle that people should have the right of way over freight and that the bridges should be closed to freight boats during rush hours in order to facilitate the move- ment of human beings over the bridges on their way to and from their homes. But it would seem that a passenger on a boat has as good a right to the com- mon highway at any time as the citizen crossing a bridge on foot or in a street The navigable channel is as much a part of the common highway as the street or bridge. There would seem to be no sound reason why 3,000 or 4,000 passengers on a boat should be kept away from. their dock landing for possi- bly two hours because turning a bridge for two or three minutes would cause delay for that period of time to per- haps a smaller number of persons than the boat carries. During the past sum- mer a Graham & Morton boat loaded with passengers reached the Rush street bridge just after 5 o'clock. She was obliged' to wait in the harbor with her impatient passengers ntil 7 o'clock, when - turning one. bridge for a very few min- utes would have allowed her to land. "The passenger boats coming into the