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onl MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. | * in favor of the inland route. We hardly need say to our read- ers that Maj. Symon's opinions in this matter are entitled to great. weight. He has made a special study of the problem of water transportation from the lakes to the seaboard for half a dozen years. His report to the chief of engineers in 1897 on this subject was a most able contribution to engineering litera- ture. He later served as a member of Gov. Roosevelt's canal advisory commission of 1899, which recommended the con- struction of a 1,000-ton barge canal, for which surveys were made in 1900. He was also a member of the board of advisory engineers, organized in connection with the barge canal sur- veys of 1900. Further than this, Maj. Symons, if we mistake not, is really the originator of the barge canal project. It was in his 1897 report that the large barge canal was first advocated as the most economical waterway from the lakes to the sea- board. The Roosevelt advisory commission two years later practically adopted this plan, only reducing the size of the vessels to be accommodated te 1,000 tons in place of the 1,500 tons originally proposed by Maj. Symons. "Certainly then, Maj. Symons' views on this subject are deserving of careful consideration, and we take pleasure in giv- ing space to them, notwithstanding the fact that they are dia- metrically opposed to the opinion which we expressed and still hold. In considering Maj. Symons' brief against the Ontario route, attention is attracted particularly by his conclusion, in which he declares with emphasis that a barge canal built by the Ontario route would be a failure. If this is the case, why was it not stated in the report of the state engineer upon the canal surveys? This report was prepared in consultation with a board of eminent engineers, of which Maj. Symons was a member. The respective advantages of the Ontario and inland routes were described in the report; but especial care was taken to re- frain from recommending one over the other. The plain infer- ence to be drawn from the report was that either route was available for the construction of a successful barge canal. If the Ontario route is so hopeless a proposition as Maj. Symons thinks, the engineer should have made a definite report against it. As they did not do so, it seems fair to conclude at least that a difference of opinion existed in the board as to the com- mercial advantages of the rival routes. "We call attention to this, not at all by way of criticism, but to illustrate what we believe to be the fact: that the ques- tion which route is the: preferable is one on which experts are by no- means agreed. Nor is this at all strange. We are tak- ing a look into the future--estimating what business conditions will obtain half a dozen years hence, and what type of water transportation will be most efficient .in a waterway now .non- existent, and the like of which has never been made. "To illustrate: Maj. Symons has frequently set forth in his various reports the proposition that for most economical carriage different types of vessels should be employed on the canal, the lake and the ocean. 'This is all true in the abstract, and yet the raising of transfer rates by elevator combinations at Buffalo or New York might make a type of vessel which could go from the upper lakes to European ports without breaking bulk the preferable vessel to use. Or, again, Maj. Symons has laid much emphasis on the great difference in the cost of a canal barge and a lake or ocean steamer. Yet at a time when ocean steamers or lake steamers are tied up for lack of other business, or when a great rush of traffic brings every available vessel into service, a canal, if one of sufficient size were available, might be used by great numbers of the larger vessels. "Tt is not our purpose to discuss seriatim the points raised by Maj. Symons. Instead: of discussing further these contro- verted questions, we want to present the matter from quite a different point of view: "The cost of the inland route favored by Maj. Symons is $70,323,000, and the cost of the Ontario route is a little less than $50,000,000. Manifestly the state ought not to spend this additional $20,000,000 if $50,000,000 will accomplish practically the same results. Whether it will or not, is a matter on which Opinions differ, and what we wish to suggest is, why not try the cheaper route first? "One particular reason why the less costly route ought to be tried first is that the larger the cost of the project adop- ted, the smaller is the chance that the voters of the state can be induced to favor it. If the friends of the barge canal pro- ject really desire its success they ought to deeply ponder this fact. Turning to the report on the barge canal surveys, we find that the state can build a waterway from the Hudson to Lake Ontario, at Oswego, to accommodate 1,000-ton barges, for $40,300,000, in round numbers. If the state would do this, then barges could load at Buffalo, pass over to Port Colborne, de- scend the Welland canal, and sail eastward to Oswego, and thence through the canal to the Hudson, and the whole trip would take no longer time than would be required for passage through the $70,000,000 inland route, which Maj. Symons favors. If desired the state could assume the payment of the Welland canal tolls in order to give this route an entirely fair trial. If it were found by this trial that the route was a suc- cess, the construction of the 1,000-ton barge canal from Erie to Ontario on the American side could then be proceeded with. "Let us suppose, however, that Maj. Symons is right in his opinion that vessels adapted to navigation both the canal and Lake Ontario cannot be made a commercial success; and that this is proved by actual experience when the canal to Lake On- tario is completed and opened to navigation. Parenthetically we may remark that it is doubtful if it can be proved in any other way tnan by actual test. If this situation developes so that the interior route is then found to be essential tothe success of the canal, the state can simply proceed to construct the line from Syracuse to Buffalo, and it would then have the canal which Maj. Symons advocates and would have spent nothing additional save the cost of building a 1,000-ton barge canal in place of the present Uswego canal (about $5,000,000, according to the engineer's estimates). 'This cannot be considered a loss either, for if the 1,000-ton barge canal can do all that is claimed for it, the small additional cost of the branch to Lake Onta- rio would be monev well expended. In fact, the canal plank adopted by the republican state convention last week calls for the improvement of both the Erie and the Oswego canals on the same lines. wet "To put the matter in another way: 'The state is asked to spend $70,000,000 to build a canal across it from east to west, and $30,000,000 of that sum is to be spent on the route from Syracuse westward, parallel and not far from Lake Ontario. Why not postpone building this part of the route until a trial can be made of the waterway which nature has provided? "And now we want to call attention to another alternative open to the state, and one which we believe is still more pref- erable to the $70,000,000 barge canal on the interior route, ad- vocated by Maj. Symons. Careful readine of his paper in an- other column will show that his objection to the Ontario route is that canal barges would have to navigate the lake. Now let us meet this objection bv giving the lake vessels access to Lake Ontario: make Oswego their terminus instead of Buffalo, and let the 1,000-ton canal barges take on their load there. "But, it will be said, is this practicable within reasonable limits of cost. It is perfectly practicable. No one need guess on this matter now, as was necessary a few years ago. At an expense of nearly half a million dollars the United States has made complete surveys and estimates for a waterway 21 ft. deep, sufficient to accommodate any vessel on the lakes, and probably three-fourths of the merchant shipping of the ocean, the water- way to extend from Lake Erie via Lake Ontario to tidewater at New York. The portion of this survev to which we would - now direct attention is that for a canal from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. Its estimated cost is $42,000,000 in round figures. As we saw above, the cost of a 1,000-ton barge canal from Lake Ontario to the Hudson is $40,000,000, making $82,000,000 for the whole work which we now propose. In other words, for only $12,000,000 more than the estimated cost of a barge canal by the interior route the state can not only secure the 1,000-ton barge canal from the lakes to tidewater, but it can give the en- tire lake fleet access to the norts of Lake Ontario. The benefits this would bestow on Ogdensburg, Oswego and the other ports on the south shore of Lake Ontario, and, indeed,' upon the entire northern part of the state of New York, are too obvious to call for proof. If the state can afford $70,000,000 for the in- land barge canal, it can well afford $12,000,000 more to have a Niagara ship canal besides. "And now we want to call attention to still another alter- native. We do not believe it is even necessary for New York to expend this $12,000,000 additional. to secure this great benefit. If she would offer to pay half the cost of a Niagara ship canal, there can be no doubt that congress would undertake to bear the remaining half, particularly if New York couple with it an agree- ment to build a 1,000-ton barge canal from Lake Ontario to tide- water. 'This would make the total expense to New York only $61,000,000--or $9,000,000 less than the cost of the inland canal route. We will even go farther and say that if New York will build the barge canal alone, congress would almost certainly vote the entire amount required to build the Niagara ship canal. "The fact is that the matter of cheap transportation to the seaboard is more important to the states of the northwest than it is to New York. Representatives from all these states would surely unite with New York, New Jersey and New England in favoring such an enterprise, and stich a combination includes much more than half the membership of the house of representa- tives. Here is the apportionment of representatives to the several states which would be sure to favor such a measure: New Work yc). oes a7, Michigan 2.2 2 New. Jersey 22-03... 10°. Minnesota... 9 Perinsylvatia <. cis. .t-< <0: 32 7, VOWS (200102 Ge II New England .:..3.-5--<. 20 Dakota. 6.) ee 4 OHIO Fs ae oe es 21 -- Indiana 2 ae 13 OM. 0s sere. 214 Tilinoig i sg, 6 25 Totol membership of Wiscotisin. 2.3. 47 II House. 6:3... 386 "But we need not stop here. If New York is willing to spend from $40,000,000 to $70,000,000 to build a canal 12 ft. deep across her territory, she ought to be willing to contribute an equal amount toward the constructicn of a canal 21 ft. deep from the lakes to the seaboard, passing all the way across her territory; and if she would do that, there is every reason to believe that congress would be willing to furnish the balance of the $200,- 000,000 estimated as necessary for this great work. : "We are well aware that there is a general impression abroad that a ship canal from the lakes to tidewater 1s an impos- sibility. It has even been said that if such a canal were built it would be used chiefly by barges, such as are proposed for use on the smaller waterway now proposed. This idea has grown largely out of the first plans for deep waterways from the lakes eastward, which proposed a channel deep enough to take the largest ocean vessels. Such projects were indeed chimerical. It is not prac-