Ohio History Journal

Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.           27

 

with after the first half of the year 1818, the state grant remaining on

the statute book a dead letter, and the whole matter receiving adjudica-

tion by the decision of Chief Justice Marshall in 1824, in the well

known case of Gibbons vs. Ogden. Even before the trials of April,

1817, boats had been springing up everywhere. By 1819, there were over

sixty in western waters, and from this period the west, with the changes

wrought by the introduction of the steamboat, may be said to have

entered upon her second stage of existence. The day of the licensed

company was over-and the period of free competition among steam-

boats inaugurated. What this meant in hastening internal improvement,

in stimulating domestic manufacture, in welding the west into an

economic unit, is another chapter in the history of the steamboat.

 

Monday evening was given over to a Waterways Meeting

under the auspices of the Historical Society of Western Penn-

sylvania, impromptu addresses being delivered by Mayor Magee

and Governor Tener. The main address of the evening was by

Col. John L. Vance.

 

 

OHIO RIVER IMPROVEMENT, AND LAKE ERIE AND

OHIO RIVER SHIP CANAL.

 

By JOHN L. VANCE.

 

Every step in the progress of the improvement of the Ohio River

has received the approval of the Congress and the recommendation

of the Engineers of the United States Army after careful surveys and

examinations of the river from its source to its mouth.

A special Board appointed under direct authority of Congress,

followed by the Board of Review--both boards composed of experi-

enced officers of recognized ability-made reports recommending the

improvement of the river by locks and movable dams to provide nine

feet of water.

In closing its official report, the Special Board said: "In view

of the enormous interests to be benefited by continuous navigation on

the Ohio River, and the great development which may be expected

from such increased facilities, the Board is of the opinion that the

Ohio River should be improved by means of locks and movable dams

to provide a depth of nine feet from Pittsburgh to Cairo."

And the Board of Review reported:

* * * "For these reasons the Board is of the opinion that the

improvement of the Ohio River by locks and movable dams so as to

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28         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

secure a depth of nine feet as recommended in the report of the Special

Board is worthy of being undertaken by the United States.

"In making this recommendation the Board realizes that it is

suggesting a plan for river improvement on a scale not hitherto at-

tempted in this country; but *     *   on account of the large com-

mercial development of its shores and its connection with the lower

Mississippi, now maintained in a navigable condition, the Ohio River

is, in the opinion of the Board, the one river of all others most likely

to justify the work."

These reports received the strong endorsement of the Chief of

Engineers of the Army and the Secretary of War in transmitting

them to Congress.

Fifty-four locks and movable dams are required to provide nine

feet of water at all seasons of the year from Pittsburgh to Cairo-

nearly 1,000 miles.

Twenty-three of these locks and dams are completed or in process

of construction, leaving thirty-one to be provided for by appropriations

by Congress.

Sixty per cent of the sites for the 54 locks and dams have been

secured; all the sites have been practically fixed; the money has been

appropriated to complete the purchase of all, and the Government

is moving as rapidly as possible to obtain titles thereto.

In the report accompanying the river and harbor bill presented

to the House of Representatives on the 11th of February, 1910, the

Committee on Rivers and Harbors stated: "The improvement of the

Ohio River is of great importance, and has been specially recommended

by the President of the United States. The Committee has thought

it proper to provide that this important work should be prosecuted at

a rate which will insure its completion within a period of twelve years."

The tremendous importance of the improvement of the Ohio-

to which direct expression was given by the Committee - was emphasized

by President Taft, in a carefully prepared address delivered at Cincin-

nati on the 21st of September of last year, in which he uttered these

emphatic words: "I earnestly hope that the time may come in the not

distant future when the plan for completing this Ohio River improve-

ment shall be changed so as to make the time six years for completion

instead of twelve."

Those who know something of the importance of the Ohio Valley

and that which will follow the completion of the work now in progress

for the improvement of the river, will join with our honored Chief

Magistrate in the hope he expressed.

How many know the resources of the six states bordering the

Ohio and directly tributary to it?

This valley is, to-day, the greatest manufacturing center of the

country. From Pittsburgh to Cairo, on either bank and on both banks,

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.          29

 

the traveler on one of the many steamers traversing the Ohio finds

himself never beyond the sound of the hammer or the forge, nor be-

yond the sight of the smoke issuing from the monster stacks of im-

mense manufacturing establishments.

At the head of the Ohio is situated this marvelous city of Pitts-

burgh-to-day the greatest manufacturing center of the world-with

a tonnage of 150,000,000 tons last year, greater by far than the com-

bined tonnage produced or originated by Philadelphia and Baltimore

and Boston and Greater New York.

For miles above Pittsburgh, along the improved Monongahela,

it is one succession of manufacturing plants-the marvel of the whole

world in extent, in number of employes, in value of product and

capital. And as it is there, so it is along the Ohio, below, and the

passenger on an Ohio river steamer is lost in amazement over the stu-

pendous products of the Valley.

In this Valley we have the coal that supplies our own demands

and the southern markets and the steamships that leave the ports 2,000

miles below; and the products of her factories reach the entire world.

And more: Our Valley, in advantages and possibilities, is the

richest on earth. In climate, in location, in soil, in iron, in salt, in

steel, glass, and pottery products; in gas, in timber, in stone, in water-

power, and in manufacturing industries in general; in enterprise, edu-

cation and intelligence, it has no superior.

As an agricultural valley we challenge the United States, as we

challenge the world.

It is not alone beyond the Mississippi that agriculture has her

seat and her empire. It is not alone in the great Northwest nor the

productive Southwest nor the fertile South. The six Ohio River States,

where the forge and the mill are never idle, where smoke obscures

the sky, and on whose rivers the steamers ply their busy trade-these

States challenge all sections of the country in their agricultural products.

In one year alone the value of the farm products of these States reached

a total of approximately five billion dollars--more than the combined

value of any other six or twelve States in the Union.

What, indeed, would the development of these six States be, with

the Ohio River open the year 'round and navigable the year 'round,

to pour their treasures into the lap of the markets of the world!

But still more: The six Ohio River States pay into the Treasury

of the United States more than one full half of the entire internal

revenue collected in the whole nation. But we have the wealth, and

we have the money, and are not complaining.

The entire wealth of the country is estimated in round numbers

at one hundred billion dollars, and it is with genuine pride that the

six Ohio River States find themselves credited with 30 billion dollars,

or nearly one-third of the total wealth of the whole country, with all

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30         Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

the other states and territories required in the making up of the

remaining two-thirds.

But enough of figures, however interesting they may be, as well

as conclusive evidence of the supreme importance of the Ohio Valley

and the Ohio River.

This river is not the only water way in which the six states of our

inland empire are interested. They want to connect the Ohio and

Mississippi and the Hudson by a continuous navigable water way.

And this may be done by the construction of the Lake Erie and Ohio

River Ship canal--a proposed canal of 103 miles in length. Thus

would be secured 2,700 miles of unbroken navigable channel, from

New Orleans to New York, of which 2,000 miles from New Orleans

to Pittsburgh, will be nine feet in depth, and 700 miles, from Pittsburgh

to New York, will be 12 feet in depth. This is the shortest route by

300 miles than the only other possible route between the Gulf and the

Hudson, and can be realized at an outlay that is imperatively de-

manded when the existing tonnage to be served and the economy intro-

duced are considered.

The building of the connecting water-link between the Ohio and

Lake Erie will give unbroken navigation between 24 states in the Union,

and serve directly the territory where now exists the densest tonnage

movement in the world, and have the ability to introduce economy in

transportation by it in the ratio of not less than 5 to 1 over railway

movement.

This project is in control of Pittsburgh, and her progressive busi-

ness interests will carry it to speedy and successful completion.

* * * * *

The rivers of our continent are the natural arteries through which

the trade of the country is intended to pass; and it is the duty of the

Government to improve these free public highways in every way pos-

sible, because all classes of citizens will thereby be benefited.

The Ohio is preeminently a national water way. As it flows be-

tween its banks on its course to the Gulf, it does not tell of Pennsyl-

vania, or Ohio, or West Virginia, or Kentucky, or Indiana, or Illinois.

While it adds to the wealth and grandeur of these great common-

wealths, above and surpassing all else it tells the story of a nation

united; of a country that all of us love, a country with one Constitution

and one flag, a country of peace and at peace with all the world, a

country with one aim and one destiny, a country united, one and indi-

visible now and forever.

 

Those who have labored many years for the permanent improve-

ment of the Ohio were not building alone for the present generation,

but for those who come after they are gone. In this work have been

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Ohio Valley Hist. Ass'n, Fifth Annual Meeting.           31

 

engaged strong and able men at all points along the river. Pittsburgh,

ever at the front in enterprise, has contributed her full share.

It is our good fortune to have homes in this Valley, dear to many

of us as our birthplace, and to all of us by fond memories and cherished

associations. We, who love the Valley and the River, here pay tribute

to all who have labored for, and through their labors have advanced.

the improvement of the greatest channel of commerce in the world.

They have been governed by no selfish purpose, but by a noble, un

selfish desire to benefit our homes, to make more prosperous our Val-

ley, to leave to their children and to generations yet unborn a heritage

rich in commerce, their valley teeming with intelligence and populous

with contented men and women-with more schools, more churches,

more of all that makes life desirable and that adds to the sum of

human happiness.

 

Another speaker of the evening was the nearest descendant

of Robert Fulton, Rev. C. Seymour Bullock, of Fall River, who

spoke as follows:

Mr. Chairman: His Excellency, the Governor, Your Honor, the

Mayor; Ladies and Gentlemen: I am happy in bringing to you, unof-

ficially, the greetings of a New England city that has just secured for

itself a State appropriation of one million dollars to improve its al-

ready magnificent harbor.

More and more are we coming to realize that the future of our

country depends upon the conservation of its natural resources and

the development and utilization of its waterways as avenues of trans-

portation. The total bankage of the rivers of Europe is but 34,000

miles while the river banks of streams east of the Rocky Mountains,

that are 100 miles long and navigable, will total more than 80,000 miles.

On our Great Lakes in one year we carried freight with a total ton-

nage sufficient to tax the carrying capacity of a train of cars of or-

dinary size that would completely belt the globe. If the engine of that

train were to pull out from Boston it would pass thru San Francisco,

cover the Chinese Empire and Turkestan and Persia, bridge the Med-

iterranean and the Atlantic and speed on again almost to Salt Lake

City with its train of loaded cars before the caboose left Boston. Mr.

Chairman, that is something of a freight train!

With no such system of inland seas the European countries are

fast outstripping us in the race for commerce. France and Germany

have developed or are developing systems of internal water communi-

cation on a basis of one mile of waterway to each twenty-five miles of

territory. Already France has 3,021 miles of canals in operation, while

Germany, aside from the Kaiser Wilhelm, has 15,011 miles of canals

and 1,500 miles of canalized rivers.

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