the Mississippi Valley, including Chicago, has shown such an awakening
to the possibilities and rearrangements that are following the cutting
of the Panama canal. * * * The awakening started with the talk of the
new canal."

Other papers throughout the country made similar expressions.

In 1915 the engineering firm of Ford, Bacon & Davis made a preliminary
survey of conditions and how development would be affected by the
canal. At about the same time the Illinois legislature voted to spend
$5,000,000 to construct a deep water canal, giving Chicago water
connection with the Mississippi River; and the New Orleans Item linked
the two projects when it said, January 16, 1916, "the Illinois-Lake
Michigan Canal and the New Orleans Industrial Canal are complementary
links in a new system of waterways connecting the upper Valley through
the Mississippi River and New Orleans with the Gulf and the Panama
Canal. This system again gives the differential to the Valley cities in
trade with the markets of the Orient, our own west coast, and South
America."

Commodore Ernest Lee Jahncke, president of the Association of Commerce,
issued a statement to the press January 16, 1916, declaring that the
prospect of the canal "brightened the whole business future of this
city and the Mississippi Valley"; the New Orleans Real Estate Board and
the Auction Exchange, in a joint meeting, urged its speedy building;
and Governor Luther E. Hall, in a formal statement to the press January
16, 1916, gave his endorsement to the construction of the canal "long
sought by many commercial interests of New Orleans," and said that work
would probably begin in "three months."

In August, 1916, the governor dismissed the Dock Board and appointed a
new one.

In the confusion attending the reorganization the canal project was
again dropped. The New Orleans American, on August 28, 1916, attempted
to revive it, but the effort fell flat, and the plan laid on ice until
1918.

America had in the meantime thrown its hat into the ring, and the cry
was going up for ships, more ships, and still more ships. National
patriotism succeeded where civic effort had failed. New Orleans brought
out its Industrial Canal project to help the country build the famous
"bridge of boats."

But this new phase of the plan was far from the canal that was finally
built. In fact, the accomplishment of this project has shown a
remarkable development with the passing years, reminding o