GREAT INLAND
TRUNK RAILWAY
LINE IS PLANNED
TWO MAIN SYSTEMS SUGGESTED
TO CARE FOR INCREASING
HEAVY RAIL TRAFFIC
WASHINGTON, D. C., Nov. 20 (/P)—
In the last 25 years railroad traffic
in the United States has increased
from 114 billion ton miles to 338 bil
lion ton miles.
At one-half this rate of increase
in another 25 years transportation fa
cilities must he expanded to handle
at least 525 billion ton miles and pro
vide for 40.000.000 additional popula
tion. Our present railways will be
wholly inadequate to meet that bur
den, according to Secretary of Com
merce Hoover, who sees a solution of
the traffic congestion problem through
the development of water transporta
tion.
Two Big Systems
Mr. Hoover visalizes the water i
transport resources of the country as
two great systems similar to railroad
systems with trunk or main lines and
feeders—the Mississippi system and
the Great Lakes system. The former
includes 9000 miles of connected wa
terways of which about 3100 miles
are trunk lines and some 6000 miles
are laterals or feeders.
There is a main norm ana souin
trunk line 1500 miles in length ex
tending from New Orleans to Chicago
and there connecting with the Great
Lakes system and crossing this is a
great east and west trunk line of
1G00 miles, from above Pittsburgh
through Cairo. The feeders include
the upper Mississippi, the upper Mis
souri, the Arkansas, the Cumberland,
the Tennessee, the Monongaliela, the
Allegheny and other streams.
With the main lines developed to a
depth of nine feet and the laterals
correspondingly improved, the com
merce secretary points out that this
system will serve the vast heart of
American, agriculture, will place great
commercial and industrial cities with
upward of 7,000,000 people in the
cheapest of communication with each
other, and will contribute to the
cheaper transportation of agriculture
and bulk commodities over a great
interland of states. To do this, he
estimates will cost approximately
$100,000,000—$65,000,000 for the im
provement of the trunk lines and $35
000,000 for the work urgently needed
on the feeders.
Opening Meritable
Of the 31 miles of trunk lines, about
1100 remain to be finished—three great
links from Kansas City to St. Louis,
from Cairo to Chicago, and from Cin
cinnati to Cairo—while of the later
als 5200 miles have been completed
to various workable depths leaving
744 miles to be improved. The work
should be’ done Withfn the next de
cade. ■ .
Secretary Hoover points out that the
Great Lakes system is the greatest
system of inland water transporta
tion in the world today, with a vast
fleet of vessels whose traffic is over
23 percent of the ton miles of our
railroads. Connection with the At
lantic is made by the Erie and St.
Lawrence canals, the former with a
12-foot depth and the latter 14 feet,
which means that ocean-going ves
sels cannot be used and that imports
and exports via the Great Lakes must
be reloaded twice.
That the Great Lakes shall be open
ed to the sea and their ports take a
direct part in the ocean trade of the
world is absolutely inevitable,” said
Mr. Hoover. “It is demanded by
J 35,000,000 people in the tributary re
' gion and cannot be resisted.
“Our engineers have long since
demonstrated that 30-foot canals are
feasible from the lakes to the ocean.
There are two possible alternate
! routes—the St. Lawrenc and th Erie
J canal. Th St. Lawrence is an inter
national route. We can only engage
| it with the co-operation of Canada,
j Before any right conclusions can be
S reached as to which of these routes
i should be undertaken we must know
1 the attitude of Canada and we must
i determine all of the engineering and
economic factors.
Can Be Built
i “One thing we cio Know atreauy is
that a shipway can be built. And I
can say emphatically that the needs
of our farmers, our manufacturers,
and indeed the whole of the people
! in IS of our states adjacent to the
| Lakes today urgently require that we
provide an outlet for deep sea vessels
I from the Lakes to the ports of the
' world. And I may add that what ben
I efits 18 states benefits all the other
| states.”
In addition to providing cheaper
transportation and relieving the rail
roads of a share of the traffic burden
which is rapidly becoming more than
they can handle, the secretary of
commerce sees another great benefit to
come from the development of the
nation’s great water systms. He
points out . that industry in its efforts
to find locations where there is equal
ity of advantage-in transportation has
been forced to congregate unduly
around a few- great terminals and as
a result we are overgrowing our cit
ies. One of the great social problems
of the day is this overgrowth.
Through the improvement of water
ways, he says, it will be possible to
distribute industry and population bet
ter, because the waterway tends to
place many towns and cities upon an
equality in transportation.
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Power Plant Construction
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3000 feet 1 1-2 double extra strong steel pipe in lengths
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PORTLOCK, ALASKA
MUSCLE SHOALS
UNIT READY TO
OPERATE, MONTH
NITRATE PLANT NO. 1, ,BUILT
FOR, MANUFACTURE OF
AMONIA NITRATE
WOULD COST $10,500,000
May Be Purchased from Uncle Sam
By Private Interests.
SHEFFIELD, Ala., Nov. 20. (£>)—
Nitrate Plant No. 2, a unit of the
government’s Muscle Shoals prop
erty, is in stand-by condition ready
to be operated on 30 days’ notice.
This plant, which cost approximate
ly $75,000,000, has so stood since
the Armistice was signed. Army en
gineers said the plant was in per
fect condition, ready to function as
was originally intended. The ordi
nance department said it will pro
duce nitrogen in a practical way.
l ne unit IS amuug me must unyui
tant of its character in the United
States. Heavy losses to shipping
early in the World War caused by
German submarine threatened to re
duce the tonnage available for the
transportation of nitrate from Chile
and make it unsafe for the United
States to deperfd upon imported ni
trate. To meet this condition, con
struction of this plant began in
January, 1918, and it was in opera
tion in October of that year. It
has a capacity of 110,000 tons of am
monium nitrate per year. •
The principal raw material re
quired for the manufacture of ammo
nium nitrate by the cyanide process
of nitrogen fixation are limestone
and coke. Th daily consumption of
'these materials when operating at
full capacity is 1200 tons of lime
stone and 300 tons of coke. An am
ple supply of limestone of pure qual
ify is obtained from the government
quarry at Waco, 30 miles south of
'Sheffield. The coke is easily ob
tained in the district. The process
requires a large amount of electric
power—approximately 80,000 kilowatts
when operating at full capacity. The
need for -this powrer evolved the
Wilson Dam idea which grew into
a definite plan to harness the Ten
nessee river.
But that required time. Until the
dam could be constructed the gov
ernment built a 60,000 kilowatt steam
generating plant adjacent /to the ni
trate buildings to secure power quick
ly. This was augmented by 30,000
kilowatts furnished by the Gorgas
plant of the Alabama Power com
pany, then under control of the gov
ernment. This 60,000 kilowatt steam
plant, which is a part of the nitrate
plant property, was said by engineers |
ito be the most complete on the con- j
tinent. It was this plant, now under
lease to the Alabama Power Compa
ny, which supplies quantities of pow
er to several southern States during
a protracted drought this year, the
energy being transmitted through an
interconnected system embracing
principal hydro-electric prdoucers of
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several states.
The plant is situated near the the
center of a reservation embracing 2,
306 acres. The unit was constructed
under the supervision jpf the ordi
nance department by the Air Nitrates
Corporation. The plant was operat
ed at one-tenth and later at one
flfth capacity for a period of several
months for tesit purposes. About 1,
700 tons of ammonium nitrate were
produced. Unlike the majority of
Uiunition plants constructed during
the war, this plant is of permanent
type and was designed, army engi
neers said, with a view to its util
isation for the manufacture of fer
tilizer in time of peace as well as
munitions in case of war.
Nitrate Plant No. 1, built for the
manufacture of Ammonium nitrate
by the synthetic process of nitrogen
fixation, was said by engineers to
have been not wholly successful.
The war department decided at the
end of the war to not ask congress
for the large amount of money ne
cessary to make it wholly success
ful and recommended that it be sal
7
vaged. This unit, however, is alst
being kept in stand-by condition, no
disposition ever having bee made of
it. It cost approximately $10,500,000.
Mrs. Eccles, mother of Miss Ruth,
popular Seward school teacher, will
be among leaving Seward passengers
on the steamer Yukon Saturday.
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