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278 shown in the following news dispatch relative to the methods being followed by some Illinois "statesmen" in the appointment of an engineer for the Deep Waterway Board. is quoted from the June 21 issue of the Chicago Tribune: "Isham Randolph may be appoint- ed instead of Lyman E. Cooley, to the board of engineers which is to study the feasibility of the deep wa- terway project so far as it pertains to the Desplaines and Illinois rivers. President Taft has his natne under consideration. "Senators. Cullom. and Stone of Missouri, and Representatives Lundin, Madden, and Lowden called on the president this morning and urged the appointment of Cooley, who was slated originally for a position on the engineers board by Senator Lorimer. Mr. Cooley was the engi- neer who appeared before the sen- ate and house committees urging the appropriations for the Lorimer deep waterway plan. He was retained for this purpose by waterway interests represented by Senator Lorimer. "As a result of the efforts of Lori- mer and his friends, the river and harbor bill carried a provision appro- priating $1,000,000 work on Desplaines and Illinois riv- for preliminary ers in connection with the waterway project, and directing an investiga- tion of its feasibility by two .army engineers and one civil engineer from private life. This provision was so framed as to permit the appointment of Cooley. "It is understood that the presi- dent wants to appoint to this board engineers whose minds are unbiased Mr. Cool- arguments on the waterway project. ey demonstrated, in his before the congressional committees, that his conviction of the feasibility of the Lorimer plan already is deep rooted. "Tf the appointment of Cooley is refused by the president, the Lorimer following will object strenuously to Randolph, on the ground that he is Deneen 9-ft. water- way and opposed to the Lorimer 14-ft. project." committed to the The dispatch. Graff, - THE MarRINE REVIEW With all due respect we may state that neither Gov. Deneen nor Sen- ator Lorimer are competent to pass on the internal waterways problems of the State of Illinois, and their at- titude in this matter is simply block- ing the progress of real development the benefit of navigation and commerce and and sensible citizens away from the in dis- for turning responsible internal waterways movement gust. Deneen for political reasons may favor a 9-ft. channel | on the Desplaines and _ Illinois rivers and Lorimer for similar reasons a 14ft. channel, and neither of these conten- tions is based on an unbiased expert study of the commercial and engi- neering features of the situation. Just the propa- used mainly for politicians, waterways so long as ganda is political capital by the community may expect no bene- ficial results. The whole business is parallel to the wildcat railroad proj- ects indulged in by many western states 50 years ago, and the fate of those proj- ects is too well known to need comment. The attempt of the [Illinois politi- cians to get a partisan engineer ap- pointed to their western board is of irresponsible course only evidence that politics. is the consideration. It is refreshing. to that President to appoint an unbiased uppermost note Taft wants board of engineers. It appears that the president has a better apprecia- tion of the needs of the people of Illinois than have the governor and senator of that sovereign state. The waterways problems of the mid- dle west are problems of vast im- portance and have intimate bearing on the welfare of the Mississippi Val- to be hoped that their not be tev 1b, 1s will left to poli- in the question other than selfish ones. solutions ticians who have no interests CONGRESSMAN LOUD AND THE NAVAL WASTE. The Hon. George A. Loud, member of congress from the tenth district of Michigan, is one of the most. solid men in the house of representatives. Let that be put to his credit. He is deeply interested in the cause of the July, 1910 merchant marine and is moreover deeply interested in the navy. That is most natural, as he is a member of the committee on naval affairs. It is therefore natural that he should have been somewhat disturbed over the revelations made in the Naval Waste series of articles recently pub- lished in THe Marine Review. The - pity of it is, however, that instead of analyzing the revelations made in that series and passing upon them in a calm and judicial manner as becomes a member of a legislative body, he sweeps them aside as sO many mis- statements of facts. that he should do so. misstatements of fact in the series. It is surprising There are no As is well known, this series was published in pamphlet form and it is this pamphlet which has aroused Mr. boud = ire: in a4 letter he states that he has given the pamphlet careful con- sideration. It appears to us that he has really given it careless considera- tion. To begin with, he says that no such amount as $7,000,000 has ever been used The Naval Waste never said that it had. It sim- ply stated that $7,000,000 was asked for the construction of four colliers. for: four colliers. The Department estimates will bear wp the correctness of that statement. Mr. Loud admits that the colliers Vestal and Prometheus could have been built in private yards for $1,200,000 each or less, but adds that the extra cost involved was due to the "perhaps needless extra speed of 16 knots per hour and the cabins and accommoda- tions for transport ° service." These two colliers cost $3,136,492. There is no provision whatever in their con- struction for transport service, as Mr. Loud intimates. Their excessive cost is due partly to navy yard construc- tion, but chiefly, let us be candid, to fool design. Nothing more foolish in the way of a coal carrier was ever constructed. Fourteen knots is too fast for any bulk freighter; 16 knots is simply silly. There was not a col- lier in the squad that served the fleet in its trip around the world that could even make 12 knots continuously. The Vestal and Prometheus, if loaded to full capacity, say at Hampton Roads,