Word: seaway
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Roosevelt dream, the Seaway is not a Roosevelt idea. Joint U.S.-Canadian palavers to deepen the St. Lawrence began in 1895. Presidents Harding, Coolidge and Hoover plumped for the Seaway with zero results. President Roosevelt, defeated when in 1934 he sent the Senate a Seaway Treaty (which needed a two-thirds vote), this time sent it to Congress as an "agreement" (needing only majority vote) and tagged it, like everything else in 1941, a measure for national defense...
Geographically, the Seaway is the biggest of all New Deal enterprises. In the 2,351 miles between the grain elevators and ore docks of Duluth and the broad mouth of the St. Lawrence, the inland waters drop 602 feet, roar over rapids, dodge many an island. The Seaway project would make these waters a marine highway at least 27 feet deep, so that ocean vessels could sail from Lake ports to the whole maritime world. This would require at least 18 big locks, many canals, much dredging. Estimated cost, including facilities already built: $379,252,000-about the cost...
Thus, total planned cost of power-seaway project is $579,000,000. Of this, Canada is to pay $277,000,000 (including credit of $133,000,000 for completed Welland Canal around Niagara Falls); the U.S. $302,000,000 (including credit of $17,000,000). Canada's cautious Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King wangled a good deal: her part of the work need not be completed before 1949; if war costs are too high, she can take even longer. Thus, if the U.S. wants the project now, she must foot all the bills, at least temporarily...
Navigation. For seven years the Seaway has been a storm center. From New York to Chicago, from Boston to New Orleans, victims real and imaginary have yelled against it. At last week's hearing, Frank S. Davis, of Boston's Maritime Association, pictured Boston's ships and docks deserted and rusting while rubber and wood pulp went through the Seaway...
Railroad men blasted the Seaway from every side. Their main fear: loss of profitable petroleum, coal and automobile traffic (on the assumption that a new transport medium will divert more traffic than it will generate). Last week an 85-year-old pro-Seaway lobbyist (for Minnesota) named J. Adam Bede, who was a Congressman in 1903-09, remarked: "Aw, I've heard all this before. ... I remember when the railroad people testified that the transcontinental rails would turn to rust if we built the Panama Canal." But like the Panama Canal, the Seaway would cut transportation costs. Proponents have...