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Ohio River Traffic Increases Three-Fold in Seven Years Speakers at the Thirty-Second Annual Convention of the Ohio Val- ley Improvement Association Stress Need of Modern Terminals of the canalization of the Ohio river by a 9-foot channel from Pittsburgh to Cairo, Ill., within the year 1929, delegates to the thirty- second annual convention of the Ohio Valley Improvement association turned the Paducah, Ky., meeting on Oct. 11 and 12 into a congratulatory affair. Yet they kept a sharp eye turned to the completion and commercial utiliza- tion of the $100,000,000 government project. Hence the delegates listened intently to the repeated injunction of authoritative speakers to fix the at- tention of their own municipal au- thorities upon the solution of the prob- lem of proper terminals to care for the oncoming flow of the promised commerce at towns all along the en- tire 1000-mile stretch of improved waterways to the Mississippi river. Pier tte ee forward to completion Congratulating the association upon its accomplishments so far in the im- proved Ohio river to Louisville, Sec- retary of War Davis in a message to the Paducah convention pointed out that from 1919 to 1924, the “total commerce on the Ohio increased from 5,000,000 to 11,000,000 tons, while in 1925 it was 16,000,000 tons and it promises to reach 18,000,000 tons in 1926.” And this, too, although the river still is in an uncompleted state. But he warned his hearers they must prepare to provide quickly the proper terminal facilities “without which the waterway alone is like a railroad with- out rolling stock, transfer yards, sta- tions or handling or storage facilities.” Promote Building of Terminals Acting upon this hint, the two-day convention turned itself largely into a missionary society for the spread of the gospel of adequate river terminals, either with or without municipal help. The examples set by the Rail-River Transfer Co. at Cincinnati, and the Kelly Transportation Co. of Charles- ton, W. Va., in building up-to-date terminals with the newest mechanical freight handling equipment, were pointed to repeatedly by the various The author, J. F. Froggett, representing MARINE REVIEW, attended the convention which met in Paducah, Ky., Oct. 11-12. BY J. F. FROGGETT speakers, and with just pride at the enterprise thus early shown by Ohio river improvement advocates. Major General Edgar Jadwin, chief of the United States army engineers, spoke hopefully of the progress being made in completion of Ohio river im- provements by 1929. He said in 1925 a total of 50,000,000 tons of all kinds of freight were carried on the water- ways of the Mississippi river valley, of which 16,000,000 tons, or an in- crease of 50 per cent, were carried on the Ohio river alone. Mississippi river traffic even in the palmy days of Mark Twain carried nothing like the present volume being transported on the Mississippi, 13,000,000 tons last year, or excluding 5,000,000 tons of oil, leaving 8,000,000 tons, against 2,000,000 tons in the “golden days’”’ of long ago. Citizens of Minneapolis and St. Paul have just raised $670,000 with which to build adequate facilities for using the upper Mississippi river when the 9-foot stage is finished with- in a few years between St. Louis and Cairo, Ill. “In fact,’ declared Gen- eral Jadwin, “the inland waterways projects look so good at this time I am wondering if it all is not too good to be true.” President Oscar F. Barrett, of Cin- cinnati, in his annual report pointed out that the end of the original pur- pose of the organization is almost in sight, the completed canalization of the Ohio river. He urged the dele- gates to begin now to prepare for the grand opening of*the completed river in 1929 when the President of the United States will be asked to take part in the celebration of the formal ending of the third of a century strug- gle to gain this great improvement. On Tuesday afternoon the delegates boarded the U. S. engineers’ towboat MIAMI at Paducah and spent the af- ternoon inspecting the river work now in course of completion down as far as Metropolis, Ill. There they saw an electric crane and magnet transferring pig iron produced at Florence, Ala., that came down the Tennessee river to the Ohio in a barge to [Illinois Central railroad cars on the bank, just as they have been doing for some 67 years and exerting a strong influence upon the pig iron markets in Chi- cago, St. Louis, Detroit and Cleve- land. Of the total of 50 locks and dams in the original plans for the canaliza- tion of the Ohio river, all but 8 have been completed and are working. Re- ports on the progress of the work by Col. C. W. Kutz, division U. S. engi- neer in charge of Ohio river improve- ments, Cincinnati; and Lt. Col. G. R. Spaulding, district engineer in charge of the Louisville district, made the fol- lowing fine showing of progress: Dam No. 45 at Addison, Ky., 95 per cent completed; No. 46 at Owensburg, Ky., 62 per cent completed; No. 47 at Newburg, Ind., 63 per cent; No. 49 at Uniontown, Ky., 66 per cent; No. 50 at Ford’s Ferry, Ky., 45 per cent; No. 51 at Golconda, Ill., 27 per cent; No. 52 at Brookport, Ill., 45 per cent; and No. 53 at foot of Grand Chain, 35 per cent. Election of officers resulted in the re-election of the following: Presi- dent, Oscar F. Barrett, Cincinnati; secretary W. C. Culkins, Cincinnati; and treasurer George Puchta, Cincin- nati; members of the executive finance committee Edwin C. Gibbs, chairman, Cincinnati; W. C. Culkins, George F. Dieterle, Maurice Friberg, R. P. Gill- ham, A. K. Nippert, Julian A. Pollak, George Puchta and James A. Reilly, all of Cincinnati; and James T. Hat- field, Covington, Ky. A long list of vice presidents was chosen in which the important towns and cities all along the river were represented. Launch Electric Ferries The diesel electric ferryboats CHARLES W. CULKIN and GOVERNOR Moore were launched Oct. 21 at the plant of the builder, the American Brown Boveri Electric Corp. at Cam- den, N. J. These two boats are the first of six diesel-electric ferries which are under construction at Camden, for the Diesel Electric Ferries Inc. who will operate a ferry service across the Hudson river, New York City, in con- junction with the Erie railroad.