INLAND WATERWAYS. Detailed de scriptions of the navigable streams, lakes, bays and canals of the United States are given else where in this Encyclopedia under WATERWAYS OF UNITED STATES. Most of these waterways have been utilized for a long time, and in fact, had greater use in years past than under present conditions of competition of rapid railway serv ice. However, the United States Congress in every session makes large appropriations in the River and Harbor Bill for waterway improve ments and there is great general interest in pro viding suitable ship canals to develop water traffic in various directions. One of the most prominent projects is that of a continuous in land water route along the Atlantic Coast from Massachusetts to the Gulf of Mexico. The lAthuitic Deeper Waterways Association' with large and influential membership has yearly con ventions (9th in 1916) to urge that the govern ment should make provision for this project The plan is to deepen canals now in existence and dig some new ones, about 131 miles in all at an estimated cost of There can be no question as to the importance of such a waterway to facilitate coastwise commerce and in time of war it might be a most useful avenue for the movement of supplies especially if off shore traffic should be menaced by an enemy.
The advantage of such an inland route is well shown by the cost of shipwrecks along the Atlantic Coast in the decade from 1900 to 1910; it is estimated that there were 4,700 wrecks in this time with loss of 2,200 lives and destruction of about $40,000,000 of property. The unfor tunate congestion of freight on railroads in 1916-18 has done much to revive interest in inland waterways and brought conviction that they are a necessary addition to our transporta tion facilities. Much of the desire for speedy transit of freight is unwarranted and wasteful of fuel and energy. Railways and waterways must work in accord. Suitable legislation can remove hurtful railroad competition so that capital can be safely invested in waterway pro jects with prospects of reasonable profits. Canada and New York State both present ex cellent object lessons of the great advantage of inland waterways for the development of local commerce. Europe with her many exten sive canal systems has long since demonstrated the utility of waterways. Low cost of trans portation is a most important factor in com petition along nearly all commercial lines and many industries are crippled by expense of long land hauls of supplies or products. The low cost of wheat transportation mainly by water from the great fields of western Canada to Europe gives Canada considerable advantage in this item alone.
The Inland Waterways Commission created by President Roosevelt on 14 March 1907, con sisted of Sen. Theo. E. Burton, Chairman, Sen. F. G. Newlands, Sen. Wm. Warner, Hon. John H. Bankhead, Gen. Alex. 'Mackenzie, W. J. McGee, F. H. Newell, Gifford Pinchot and H. Knox Smith. Its purpose was to prepare a report on a comprehensive plan for the im provement of the rivers of the United States to increase their usefulness as navigable water ways. The investigation of conditions for flood control and water power development were important features of the work. Various
reports were prepared and Congress was recommended to make provision for various im provements, some of which have been incor porated in subsequent river and harbor bills. It is estimated that there are on the mainland of United States about 25,000 miles of navigated rivers and this amount could be doubted by im provement. There are 2,500 miles of canals, many thousand miles of regularly navigated waters in lakes and bays, and more than 2,500 miles of sounds, bays and bayous. Some of these water bodies can be connected by canals to form inner passages paralleling the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
In the last few decades in the United States most inland waterways have not been economi cally successful excepting in giving access to certain ports. Long distance river and canal transportation under the blighting effect of railroad opposition has steadily declined, Most of the canals have passed into the control of railroad companies and • the rivers are closely paralleled by railroad lines. The general desire for fast freight service has had a powerful in fluence. Proper regulation of this competition and the deepening and other improvement of the waterways so that they can be utilized more economically 'will change this condition and they will become an important factor in cheap trans portation. Canada with a 21-foot waterway from ocean to Great Lakes has a notable com mercial advantage. The great railroad con gestion in 1917-18 could have been avoided or greatly diminished by waterways suitable to carry part of our great freight burden. It has been estimated (by Mulhall) that in Europe there are more than 77,000 miles of navigated waterways of which 13,293 miles are canals, the latter costing considerably more than $1,000, 000,000. South America has important inland waterways and for centuries China has had thousands of miles of canals which afford cheap transportation over a large part of the country. Floods are an adversary of river waterways, mainly in damage they cause to the channel but they can be controlled by reservoirs and re forestation. These latter features of develop ment also have great economic advantage in affording water power and adding to lumber resources. Another incidental improvement in some areas is the drainage and reclamation of swamp lands, affording increased acreage for farming and bettering health conditions.
Report of Inland Water ways Commission, 60 Congress, 1st Session, Document 325 ; Report of Commission on Water ways from Delaware Bay to Chesapeake Bay, 59th Congress, 2d Session; Senate Document 215, 1907; Report of Special Board of En gineers, New York Bay to Chesapeake Bay, 63d Congress, 1st Session ; House Document 196, Washington 1918; Report of 9th Convention of Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association, Phila delphia, 12-15 Sept. 1916, Philadelphia 1917; Quick, Herbert, 'American Inland (New York 1909) ; Hepburn, A. Barton, 'Arti ficial Waterways of the World' (New York 1914) ; Report of Army Engineers, Lakes-to the-Gulf deep water way, published in 1909; Johnson, Emory R., 'Ocean and Inland Water Transportation' (1911).