The Industrial Canal and Inner Harbor of New Orleans Part 6

"Just as the purpose of the improvements of these channels was to bridge the distance from deep water to deep water" says Arthur McGuirk, special counsel of the Dock Board, in a report of February 23, 1921, to the Board, "so is the purpose of the Navigation Ca.n.a.l to bridge the distance from the deep water of the river to the proposed deep water channel of the lake."

In the annual report of the chief of engineers, U.S.A., for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1919, are listed the following waterways improvements and ca.n.a.l developments being made by the Government:

"Operating and care of ca.n.a.ls, $3,596,566.20.

"Cape Cod ca.n.a.l, purchase authorized, river and harbors act, August 8, 1917, cost not exceeding $10,000,000, and enlargement $5,000,000.

"Jamaica Bay channel, 500 feet width, 10 feet depth, to be further increased to 1,500 feet width entrance channel and 1,000 feet interior channel, maximum depth of 30 feet, length of channel 12 miles. Approved estimate of cost to United States not to exceed $7,430,000. River and harbors act of June 25, 1910. House doc.u.ment No. 1488, 60th Congress.

"Ambrose channel, New York harbor, appropriation new work and maintenance, $4,924,530.88, year ending June 30, 1919.

"Bay Ridge and Red Hook channels, $4,471,100.

"Locks and dams on Coosa River, Alabama-Georgia, $1,700,918.21.

"Channel connecting Mobile Bay and Mississippi Sound, act of June 13, 1902, original project, for construction and maintenance total cost $7,809,812.42.

"Black Warrior river, 17 locks, Mobile to Sanders' Ferry, 443 miles.

Total to date, $10,101,295.54. Indefinite appropriation.

"Sabine Pa.s.s, act of June 19, 1906 and prior, channels, turning basins and jetties, March 2, 1907, and previously, total appropriations, $1,875,506.78.

"Trinity River, Galveston, north, 37 miles locks and dams. Act of June 13, 1902, house doc.u.ment 409, 56th congress. Estimate cost complete ca.n.a.lization of river, revised 1916, in addition to amounts expended prior to rivers and harbors act of July, 1916, in round numbers $13,500,000. Estimated annual cost of maintenance, $280,000.

"Houston to Galveston ship ca.n.a.l, act of July 25, 1912, and July 27, 1916. Cost, $3,850,000. Annual maintenance, $325,000.

"Rock Island Rapids (Ill.) and LeClaire ca.n.a.l, rock excavations, etc., act of March 2, 1907, dams, 3 locks, etc., to June 30, $31,180,085.62 and $130,158.03 for 1 year maintenance.

"Keokuk, Iowa (formerly Des Moines Rapids ca.n.a.l), old project (act of June 23, 1866), $4,574,950.00.

"Muscle Shoals Ca.n.a.l (Tennessee River), 36.6 miles, depth 5 feet, $4,743,484.50. Exclusive of cost of nitrate plant.

"Locks and dams on Ohio River, act of March 3, 1879, to act of March 2, 1907, including purchase of Louisville and Portland ca.n.a.l, $17,657,273.78.

"Estimated cost of new work, widening Louisville and Portland ca.n.a.l and changes in dams, $63,731,488. Annual maintenance covering only lock forces and cost of repairs and renewals, $810,000. Act of June 25, 1920, house doc.u.ment 492, 65th congress, first session. Also act of March 4, 1915, house doc.u.ment 1695, 64th congress, second session.

"Ship channel connecting waters of great lakes, including St. Mary's river (Sault Sainte Marie locks), St. Clair and Detroit rivers, locks and dams, total appropriations to June 30, 1919, $26,020,369.68.

Estimate new work, $24,085.

"St. Clair river, connecting Lakes St. Clair and Erie, shoalest part was 12-1/2 to 15 feet. Improved at expense of $13,252,254.00. Estimated cost of completion, $2,720,000.

"Niagara river, $15,785,713.07.

"Los Angeles and Long Beach harbor, $4,492,809.80.

"Seattle, Lake Washington ship ca.n.a.l, in city of Seattle, from Puget Sound to lake; original project, act of August 18, 1894. Double lock and fixed dam. Length about 8 miles. Total appropriation to date, $3,345,500.00."

These are only some of the larger projects. Of course there are a great number of such works, all over the country, constructed and maintained by the United States, sometimes alone, and again by co-operation with local authorities.

New Orleans was founded because of the strategic value of the location, both from a commercial and a military standpoint. The power that holds New Orleans commands the Mississippi Valley--a fact which the British recognized in 1812 when they tried to capture it. Likewise, when Farragut captured New Orleans, he broke the backbone of the Confederacy.

Mr. McGuirk, in the report to which reference has already been made, discusses the military importance of the Industrial Ca.n.a.l as follows:

"A ship ca.n.a.l, connecting the river and the lake at New Orleans will be a Panama or a Kiel ca.n.a.l, in miniature, and double in effectiveness the naval forces defending the valley, as they may be moved to and fro in the ca.n.a.l from the river to the lake. On this line of defense heavy artillery on mobile mounts can be utilized, in addition to heavy ships of the line. That is to say, just as light-draft monitors, and even floats carrying high-powered rifles were used effectively on the Belgian coast; on the Piave river in Italy, and on the Tigris in Mesopotamia, so may they be used in the defense of the valley, on any ca.n.a.l connecting the Mississippi river and Lake Pontchartrain. Changes are constantly occurring in the details of work of defense due to development of armament, munitions and transport. The never-ending development of range and caliber has a.s.sumed vast importance, particularly with reference to the effect on the protection of cities from bombardment. Naval guns are now capable of hurling projectiles to distances of over 50,000 yards, 28 to 30 miles. For the protection of the valley we should have at New Orleans armament mounted on floating platforms which will hold the enemy beyond the point where his sh.e.l.ls may not reach their objective, and in this operation the ca.n.a.l, affording means of rapid transport, will render invaluable and essential service."

A country's ports are its watergates. Their local importance is comparatively small. They are important or not according to whether they are on trade routes, and easily accessible. An infinitesimal part of the trade that flows through New Orleans originates or terminates there. The back country gets the bulk of the business. The development of the harbor is for the service of the interior. It is essentially national.

From every point of view, therefore, it is the duty of the national government to take over the Navigation Ca.n.a.l and release the monies of the state so they may be devoted to the improvement of the waterway with wharves and other works in aid of the nation's commerce.

[Ill.u.s.tration: S. S. NEW ORLEANS First Ship Launched by Doullut & Williams Shipbuilding Co.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: S. S. GAUCHY First Ship Launched on Ca.n.a.l]

ECONOMIC ASPECT OF Ca.n.a.l.

Tied to the Mississippi Valley by nearly 14,000 miles of navigable waterways, and the largest port on the gulf coast and the most centrally situated with respect to the Latin-American and Oriental trade, New Orleans is naturally a market of deposit. The development of the river service, in which the government set the pace in 1918, is restoring the north and south flow of commerce, after a generation of forced haul east and west, along the lines of greatest resistance; and New Orleans has become the nation's second port. Its import and export business in 1920 amounted to a billion dollars.

Ninety per cent of the nation's wealth is produced in the Valley, of which New Orleans is the maritime capital. It is the source of supply of wheat, corn, sugar, lumber, meat, iron, coal, cotton oil, agricultural implements, and many other products. It is a market for the products of Latin-America and the Orient.

With the co-ordination of river, rail and maritime facilities, and sufficient s.p.a.ce for development, it is inevitable that New Orleans should become a mighty manufacturing district. Such enterprises as c.o.ke ovens, coal by-product plants, flour mills, iron furnaces, industrial chemical works, iron and steel rolling mills, shipbuilding and repair plants, automobile factories and a.s.sembling plants, soap works, packing plants, lumber yards, building material plants and yards, warehouses of all kinds, etc., would be encouraged to establish here if given the proper facilities, and the Industrial Ca.n.a.l is the answer to this need, for under the laws of Louisiana private industries can not acquire or lease property on the river front. Even before the completion of the Ca.n.a.l, the dream has been partly realized--with the establishment of two large shipyards on the Ca.n.a.l, which otherwise would have gone somewhere else, and the building of the army supply base on the same waterway, largely due to the enterprise of the port.

As Colonel E. J. Dent, U.S. district engineer, said before the members'

council of the a.s.sociation of Commerce, February 17, 1921, the Industrial Ca.n.a.l will be the means of removing the handicaps on New Orleans' foreign trade. "I hold no brief for the Industrial Ca.n.a.l," he continued, "but speaking as one who has no interest in it but who has studied the question deeply, I will say that five years from now, if you develop the Industrial Ca.n.a.l as it should be developed, you will be wondering how on earth you ever got along without it."

Before the const.i.tutional convention of Louisiana, on April 4, 1921, he elaborated this thought as follows:

"The Industrial Ca.n.a.l will furnish to New Orleans her greatest need. It should be possible to build docks there where the entire cargo for a ship may be a.s.sembled. Under present conditions in the river it is often necessary for a ship to go to three or four docks to get a complete cargo.

"Last year there pa.s.sed through the port of New Orleans 11,000,000 tons of freight valued at $1,100,000,000. This required 1,000 loaded freight cars a day pa.s.sing over the docks, fifteen solid trainloads of freight each day. The inbound freight was about 5,000,000 tons and the outbound about 6,000,000. This is extraordinarily well balanced for any port in the United States. This would mean about 5,000 steamers of an average capacity of 2,000 tons.

"The proper place to a.s.semble a cargo is on the docks. Last year the Dock Board allowed but seven days for a.s.sembling the cargo for a ship--only seven days for a.s.sembling 250 carloads of stuff. Then last year the Dock Board would not a.s.sign a ship a berth until it was within the jetties. These are some of the difficulties.

"What New Orleans needs is 50 to 100 per cent more facilities for her port. Last summer the port of New Orleans was congested, but she held her own because other ports were congested. But that may not occur again. If you want to hold your own you must improve your facilities."

Wharves can be built a great deal cheaper on the fixed-level ca.n.a.l, with its stable banks. And that is the only place specialized industries can secure water frontage.

Sooner or later the government will adopt the free port system, by which other countries have pushed their foreign trade to such heights.

Free ports have nothing to do with the tariff question. They are simply zones established in which imports may be stored, re-packed, manufactured and then exported without the payment of duties in the first place, duties for the refund of which the present law makes provision, but only after vexatious delays and expensive red tape.

Precautions are taken to prevent smuggling. In the preliminary investigations and recommendations made by the Department of Commerce, New York, San Francisco and New Orleans have been designated as the first free ports that should be established. With the ample s.p.a.ce it offers for expansion, the Industrial Ca.n.a.l is the logical location for the free zone.

Counting the $15,000,000 contract of the Doullut & Williams Shipyard, the $5,000,000 contract of the Foundation Company Shipyard, the $13,000,000 army supply base, the Industrial Ca.n.a.l has already brought $33,000,000 of development to New Orleans, 60 per cent more than the cost of the undertaking. More than half of this was for wages and material purchased in New Orleans. The state has gained hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes. About half the money spent on the Industrial Ca.n.a.l was wages; and helped to increase the population, force business to a new height, raise the value of real estate, and make New Orleans the financial stronghold of the South.

What indirect bearing on bringing scores of other industries to New Orleans, which did not require a location on the waterway, the building of the Industrial Ca.n.a.l has had, there is no way of ascertaining.