An artist pictures how one of the two United States locks will look. Called the Eisenhower For this lock alone, some 3,000,000 cubic yards of
lock, it will be able to lift or lower 10,000-ton grain, ore, and coal carriers 49 feet. material were excavated, just a handful of the total.
BY JACK RYAN
Dim ft ODc!lircriii?"Dsa
in the Northeast, but tomorrow the St. Lawrence Seaway will open a new world to 58 million Americans.
to 58 million people in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois,
Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New
York. Eight other states, as far west as Montana and
as far south as Missouri, also will share the benefits.
But among all the hosannas some catcalls persist.
For 25 years the St. Lawrence project was blocked
by American interests who believed it could become
the costliest white elephant of our time.
True, they say, the Seaway will mean more jobs
for some industries; many coal miners, for example,
may return to the pits to supply Europe with cheaply
transported coal. But will the same ports used to
export coal become a dumping ground for cheap
South American farm products and European
machinery?
Whatever the answer, the Seaway will soon be
with us, and to Canada must go the praise or blame.
Desperately in need of greater access to the Atlantic,
our northern neighbor, in effect, told us, "Either join
us in building the Seaway and benefit by a new trade
route, or we'll do it ourselves."
Congress, bowing to the inevitable, okayed our part
in opening the St. Lawrence to bigger ships. Our
share in Seaway construction will cost more than
$100 million borrowed from the United States Treas
ury but the loan is self-liquidating. Seaway boosters
assure taxpayers that they will get their money back
in about 50 years from tolls to be paid by vessels
using the waterway.
, In replying to die-hard critics, Seaway advocates
weigh down their dreams of a new prosperity with
some concrete facts.
Lewis G. Castle, administrator of the St. Lawrence
Seaway Development Corporation, maintains that the
needs of America's skyrocketing' population three
million persons added each year is reason enough
for building extra shipping facilities. And by 1975,
he adds, American workers will be turning out 50
percent more products than now; additional transpor
tation is imperative to carry the vast new cargo to
buyers here and abroad.
The Seaway will not be a perilous drain on estab
lished ports and railroads, Castle predicts. For the
most part, it will handle business created by our
. future economy and stimulated by a new, efficient
transportation route.
Without the Seaway, America's dynamic growth
might even boomerang. Eventually we will produce
more than we consume; that means mass layoffs and
an inevitable depression. But the St. Lawrence project
will open a cheap outlet to overseas markets which
can buy much of our farm and factory surplus.
Mid-continent industrial centers, -for example,
should reach wider markets through the St. Law
rence. The Chicago Association of Commerce and
Industry believes an all-water route from the Mid
west to Europe will mean that such products as farm
implements, small machinery, tractors, bulldozers,
etc., will be shipped at savings from 20 to 43 percent.
The reduced costs should increase the demand for
American exports and eventually boost traffic in the
IV" ot all arguments for the Seaway are stated in
general terms. The steel industry, for example,
can be specific about its needs. Ore deposits of the
inland United States are being exhausted; the great
steel plants along the Great Lakes must find new
sources of raw material.
Newfoundland offers excellent prospects, and if the
St. Lawrence were not developed for large ore car
riers, many steel mills might have to move closer to
those fields. This costly shift would send tremors
through almost every household in the country. But
such moves are unlikely now; the St. Lawrence will
bring Newfoundland almost to the front door of Gary
and Cleveland. '
Boom or bust, there is no argument about the Sea
way ranking among the giant engineering endeavors
of the day. Laboring 20 hours a day, through Winter
rain and Summer heat, workers with earth-moving
V V . ikJ T brina th
Lawrence Seaway route will
ocean to eight states.
ST. LAWRENCE RIVER
A close-up of the bottleneck area and current construction. Ontario
LONG SAULT SPILLWAY DAM
IROQUOIS LOCK '
wnm ana runcnnuuc
85 CORNWALL
IROQUOIS I
i CONTROL DAM
IROQUOIS BRIDGE GRASS RIVER and
, . EISENHOWER LOCKS (U.S.)
, - " . NEW YORK
improved Seaway to 52 million tons from the current
10 million tons.
Imports will increase, too, but Seaway experts
argue that inland ports will no more become "dump
ing grounds" than any ocean port, since the same
federal tariffs will apply.
MASSENA
V
SOUTH CHANNEL BRIDGE
machines 10-stories high have completed more than
one-third of the job. Seven new locks, 27 feet deep
and 768 feet long, already are eclipsing the 22 old
canals, only 14 feet deep.
While the dramatic work is in loosening the New
York-Canada bottleneck, the Seaway impact reaches
Family Weekly, April 14, 1957 9