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TTUUWwvVGv8V yvUWvGUOKkKbviiiTTTiT iT itiTTTiTttttttTtTtntTiTtTtTtTtntTtttTitttintKtTntittiiniiKNiniiNiiie = : ‘ a. = A Review of the Month on Coasts and Lakes—Useful Pointers | for the Men Who Get the Business s = LK THE New York barge canal nears completion the important part it seems destined to play as a connecting link between other great waterway systems becomes very A apparent. A study of the relationship the barge canal bears to the wide area of surrounding territory forms an interesting subject for considera- tion. During 100 years of canal-building, New York has led the union in this particular form of internal improve- ment. Single-handed and alone the state has undertaken and_ carried through its great task. That other states have been benefited by these waterways cannot be questioned and that the area of this beneficence has covered a large part of the whole country must likewise be conceded. Of necessity this must have been so, and in the future, as in the past, the same condition must remain, since the state cannot serve itself in fullest measure without including others in - this service. In making its latest improvement— the building of the barge canal—New York is also primarily doing some- thing for its own benefit. But, as we have seen, this beneficial service must of necessity extend beyond its own borders. A few examples of the extent and nature of this beneficence, which becomes mutual between New York and its sister states, may be enlightening. An Object Lesson at Panama One result of the opening of the Panama canal has been to bring pointedly to the minds of shippers the difference in rates between rail and water-borne transportation. In the lumber trade this difference has been seen very clearly. The forests ' of the East have become so _ nearly exhausted that for some time the east has had to draw much of its supply from the Pacific coast states. ~ As soon as the Panama canal was opened this traffic began to turn, western lumber coming by boat to Atlantic or Gulf ports and then being re- shipped by water or rail to the in- terior of the whole eastern half of the country. And this has come about because the saving in cost has been a considerable sum on every thousand feet. A study as to how the New York barge canal will extend the limits to which Pacific coast lumber may profit- ably be’ shipped by, the water route brings out some interesting facts. If we consider that the lumber which has come by boat from the Pacific coast to. New York city continues to move by water, reversing its gen- eral course and going back west through the barge canal and on through the Great Lakes as far as they extend, and then, if we compare the cost of transportation by this route with the cost to ship the same lumber overland by rail to the same points at the western extremities of the Lakes, we find a _ balance in favor of the water route, although the distance traveled is several times that by land. Now, if we use this balance to move this water-borne cargo still farther to ‘the west, using railroads, of course, we shall reach a. point where the cost of transporting this cargo will exactly equal the cost of the cargo coming overland by rail. Drawing a line through several points obtained in like manner, we_ shall obtain a boundary which we may call the “line of equal costs”. The inter- esting fact about this line is that it is away to the west of the Mississippi river, scores, and in some cases, hun- dreds of miles. The area thus benefit- ed by the bargo canal includes most of the northeastern quarter of the United States, embracing the territory east of this line of equal costs and north of the Ohio river. This area would extend farther south were it not for the fact that the cargo ap- proaches the country from the south, and so the Mississippi river and south- ern, railroads from the coast become competing factors. As New York was the pioneer in the early days of canal-building, so now it has again taken the lead along the. way which others seem about to follow. Numerous canal schemes have 430 been agitated since the barge canal was begun and some of them have passed from the stage of agitation into that of preliminary surveys. Of these there are four in the region of the Great Lakes which are worthy of notice. If built, they will be in effect. extensions of New York’s barge canal and their efficiency will depend in large measure upon the barge canal, since it forms the outlet between them and the sea. Four Proposed Canals These four proposed canals are, first, the Lake Erie and .Ohio River canal, which would join the Ohio river at Pittsburgh with Lake Erie, ,and for which complete surveys and estimates have been made by the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania; sec- ond, the Lake Erie and Lake Mich- igan canal, surveyed by the United States engineers and joining the heads of Lakes Erie and Michigan by a line only one-third the length of the pres- -ent natural route, thus bringing Chi- cago, Milwaukee and Grand Rapids that much nearer ‘to the eastern states and the ocean; third, the proposed improvement of existing canals in IIli- nois, which extend between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi river; fourth, a canal from the head of Lake Superior to the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The engineers who have made the plans for these canals either have been drawn from the barge canal corps or have studied New York’s canal and adopted its ruling features and dimensions. It seems scarcely necessary to call attention to the importance of these proposed canals—what it means, for example, to place Pittsburgh with its steel industries and the great twin cities with their grain and flour in- terests on a vast Lakes-to-Atlantic waterway system—nor to point out the vital position and the extended influence of the barge canal in this mighty chain of improvements. Nor would the canals just men- tioned constitute the entire system of internal waterways contemplated for