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ESTABLISHED 1878. VOL. XXII, No. 51. CLEVELAND---DECEMBER 21, 1899---CHICAGO. $2.00 Per Year. 5c. Single Copy. LAKE CARRIERS’ ASSOCIATION. To consider and take action upon all general questions relating to the navigation and carrying business of the Great Lakes, maintain necessary shipping offices and in general to protect the common interests of Lake Car- riers, and improve the character of the service rendered to the public, PRESIDENT. FRANK J. FIRTH, Philadelphia. 1ST VICE-PRESIDENT. Capt. THos. WILSON, Cleveland. SECRETARY CHARLES H. KEEP, Buffalo. TREASURER. GEORGE P. McKay, Cleveland. COUNSEL HARVEY D. GOULDER, Cleveland, EXECUTIVE AND FINANCE COMMITTEE, James CoRRIGAN, Chairman, Cleveland. COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION. Gipson lL. DoucLas, Chairman, Buffalo, COMMITTEE ON AIDS TO NAVIGATION Cleveland. GEORGE P. McKay, Chairman, DAM AT NIAGARA INJURIOUS. Dr. Hal C. Wyman has just called attention to an import- ant phase of the question of regulation of lake levels by a dam placed at the head of Niagara river; namely, its effect on the public health, says the Sunday News-Tribune. Con- gressman Corliss has already introduced a billin the present session of Congress, for the building of this dam. Dr. Wy- man is thoroughly posted on the greography of the lake region and its geology as well. His father, the late Dr, Wy- man, was one of the very prominent physicians of Detroit, of the generation just past, so Dr. Hal C. Wyman speaks partly from his father’s experience, as well as from his own. He said : “T do not pretend to speak’ upon the hydraulics of this problem, whether a dam at the head of Niagara river would raise the level of Lake Erie, the Detroit river and Lake St. Clair, as stated or not. I will leave the discussion of such matters to the engineers. Let it be granted that the surface of Lake Erie will be raised from three to four feet, as claimed, and the Detroit river and Lake St. Clair propor- tionately. WhatI am interested in is the results that would follow to the public health. Until within 20 years this was avery malarial region. This was true of the whole lake region, but jparticularly about Lake St. Clair, the head of Lake Erie and along the shores of the Detroit river. “Tt was so bad that for most people it was a case of take quinine or die. There was a great deal of low, marshy ground, the soil saturated with water for a considerable por- tion of the year. These swamps were -the fruitful source of trouble. Our early history is full of evidence on this point. More soldiers died at Fort Meigs from malaria than fell at Santiago. The black swamp between Sandusky and Toledo was terribly severe and destructive upon Gen. Harrison’s army. “But for the past 20 years this has been a healthy region. Malaria has practically disappeared, and it has come about through the drainage of swamps and marshes. Channels have been cut through to the river and lake, bars removed from before the mouths of sluggish rivers below us, and the surface of the Detroit river has been lowered slightly by the improvements in the channels, until the swamp region has been pretty generally reclaimed. The character of the _ vegetation growing upon this soil has changed; the acquatic and semi-aquatic plants have been replaced by a very differ- ent growth, even trees and shrubs where once was nothing but reeds. “Now, what would be the result to this reclaimed soil of raising the levels as proposed? Three or four feet raise in the level of Lake Erie would maké all kinds of trouble all the way from Trenton around to the east shore of Sandusky bay, making the shore of the lake a yast swamp. There are places where a two or three or four foot rise would send the water for miles over low reclaimed lands, converting them back into marsh, breeding malaria. The Black swamp would be recreated. The Maumee valley would be again a great swamp and Toledo be rendered unhealthy. Take vhe raise-in the Detroit river. It is proposed to gain all of two or three feet over the shoals above and below the Lime Kilns. Sucha rise as that in the Detroit river would bring the swamps. home to Detroit. The whole upper end of Grosse Ile willbe converted into a swamp almost as far down as the steamboat landing. Wyandotte will be largely submerged. All the money spent in the reclaiming of land about Ecorse creek and the River Rouge will have been in vain, and the old swamps will again poison the air of our own city. The Riviere Canard, below Sandwich, will be an inlet for back water to convert some miles of low country there into saturated land. The character of the vegetation on these lands will be changed. Lands now high and dry will need to be drained, and the whole long process of getting the country on a healthful basis from malaria, must be gone over again. To prevent these consequences some millions must be spent in dykes or in drains. If the rise is actually ac- complished in the level of Lake St. Clair, there will be swamp lands developed along the shore above the village of Grosse Pointe, besides trouble at the Flats, and along many miles of the Canadian shore. ‘Then how about the Detroit sewers; it looks as though these would be submerged enough to make trouble for the city and prove a menace to public health. “Tt seems to me a Congressman had better father a bill for improving the architecture of the lake marine, so that a vessel can carry more ona less draft, instead of pushing a measure so dangerous to public health as the dam at Niagara.” DS DEEP WATERWAY COMMISSION. The United States Board of Engineers, designated by the President to make surveys and examinations of deep water- ways and routes thereof between the Great Lakes and At- lantic tidewaters, has submitted a preliminary report, which recommends the regulation of the Lake Erie level by con- trolling the discharge through the Niagara river by a system of fixed weirs, built near the head of the Niagara river, and a series of sluices, to be operated in connection with the weirs, so as to control the discharge of the lake, and reduce the variation of its level to a small amount. : RS RES EE EES POSTAL SHIPMENTS TO RUSSIA. United States Consul Monaghan, at Chemnitz, Germany, transmits the following instructions relative to postal ship- ments to Russia: When a letter is found in a package sent by post, note of same will be made and signed by the customs official in charge. ‘This note will contain the name of the place whence the letter comes, whither it is to go, when sent, and for whom, and from whom. The letter 1s to be taken out and sent with the above mentioned note to the postal authorities at the place whence the package came, A package containing a letter is to be sent forward to the addressee, under general regulations. The letter will also be delivered upon the party with whom it is addressed pay- inga fine. In casesuch payment is refused, the letter is to be forwarded to the general postoffice. In cases where packages from foreign parts contain letters or notes or circulars in open envelopes, even though they have the character of correspondence, such enclosures will not be re- moved. The package with its enclosures, will be delivered to the parties to whom it is addressed. CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES. Naval Affairs.—Messrs, Charles A. Boutelle, Maine; Geo. E. Foss, linois; Alston G. Dayton, West Virginia; Henry C. Loudensinger, New Jersey; R. B. Hawley, Texas; Thos. S. Butler, Pennsylvania; Melville Bull, Rhode Island; Syd- ney E. Mudd, Maryland; James E- Watson, Indiana; Victor H. Metcalf, California; Amos J. Cummings, New York; Adolph Meyer, Louisiana; Farrish Carter Tate, Georgia; John F. Rixey, Virginia; W. W. Kitchin, North Carolina; W. D. Vandiver, Missouri; and Charles K. Wheeler, Ken- tucky. Merchant Marine and Fisheries.—Messrs. Charles H. Grosvenor, Ohio; Albert J. Hopkins, Illinois; James H. Young, Pennsylvania; Archibald Lybrand, Ohio; William S. Greene, Massachusetts; E.S. Minor, Wisconsin; Fred C. Stevens, Minnesota; W. 1. Jones, Washington; J. W. Ford- ney, Michigan; Frank C. Wachter, Maryland; John F. Fitz- gerald, Massachusetts; Marion De Vries, California; Thos. Spight, Mississippi; William D. Daly, New Jersey; J. E. Ramsdell, Louisiana; William Astor Chanler, New York; and John H. Small, North Carolina. Interstate and Foreign Commerce.—Messrs. William P. Hepburn, Iowa; Loren Fletcher, Minnesota; James S. Sher- man, New York; Irving P. Wanger, Pennsylvania; Charles F. Joy, Missouri; John B. Corliss, Michigan; James F. Stewart, New Jersey; John A. Burham, California: R. B. Hawley, Texas; James R. Mann, Illinois; William C. Loy- ering, Massachusetts; William McAleer, Pennsylvania; Robert C. Davey, Louisiana; William C. Adamson, Georgia: Robert W. Davis, Florida; Nicholas Muller, New York; and D. W. Shackleford, Missouri. Rivers and Harbors.—Messrs. Theodore E. Burton, Ohio; Walter Reeves, Illinois; Blackburn B. Dovener, West Vir- ginia; Roswell P. Bishop, Michigan; Ernest F. Acheson, Pennsylvania; Page,Morris, Minnesota; De Alva S. Alex- — ander, New York; Thomas H. Tongue, Oregon; G. P. Law- rence, Massachusetts; J. H. Davidson, Wisconsin; Thomas C. Catchings, Mississippi; Rufus E. Lester, Georgia; John H. Bankhead, Alabama; Philip D. McCulloch, Arkansas; Albert S. Berry, Kentucky; Stephen N. Sparkman, Florida; and Thomas H. Ball, Texas. _—_———. we SO CANAL CONDITIONS The Buffalo Commercial gives statistics to show that the number of canal boats clearing from Buffalo has fallen off materially in the past few years, which means that when a canal boat of the present style of construction becomes worn out and useless it is not replaced, and that as a conse- quence of lack of boats, shipments by canal have been much less this season then they would otherwise have been, add- ing anent canal conditions in general: ‘‘No new boats will be built until new and better conditions of canal navigation are assured. ‘The present type of canal boat, with a capacity of 8,000 bushels of wheat, cannot compete in any large sense with the railroads, or with prospective Canadian water routes, It can be demonstrated that with certain practicable aud justifiable lock and canal enlargenients the Erie canal route can cover and hold avery large share of the Western grain traffic but there will be small use for old-time canal boats under the new conditions. Naturally, no one has been putting good money into back-number craft for the last two or three years. -The old tonnage is depreciating rapidly and will gradually disappear. If the State of New York is equal to the occasion and brings ifs great water route abreast of modern requirements, there will be no lack of modern barges ready to take advantage of the opportunities offered. Meanwhile, pending the settlement of this vital question and the completion of the necessary changes in the locks and canal bed, many old boats will go out on commission and canal clearances will continue to decline.”’