we are asked to disregard the successful record of the "Soo" Canal,
in the management of which only three accidents, of no very serious
importance, have occurred during more than fifty years.

In no other country in the world has there been more experience with
lock canals than in this. For nearly a hundred years the Erie Canal has
been one of our most successful of inland waterways, connecting the
ocean with the Great Lakes. The Erie Canal is 387 miles in length, has
72 locks, and is now being enlarged, to accommodate barges of a thousand
tons, at a cost of $101,000,000. We have the Ohio Canal, with 150 locks;
the Miami and Erie Canal, with 93 locks; the Pennsylvania Canal, with 71
locks; the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, with 73 locks; and numerous other
inland waterways of lesser importance. It is a question of degree and
not of kind, for the problem is the same in all essentials, and
confronts Congress as much in the proposed deep waterway connecting
tide-water with the Great Lakes, in which locks are proposed with a lift
of 40 feet or more, or very considerably in excess of the proposed lift
of the locks on the Isthmian Canal.

The proposed ship canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio River provides for 34
locks. The suggested canal from Lake Michigan to the Illinois and
Mississippi rivers provides for 37 locks, and, finally, the projected
ship canal from the St. Lawrence River to Lake Huron contemplates 22
locks. So that lock canals of exceptional magnitude are not only in
existence, but new canals of this type are contemplated in the United
States and Canada.

In other words, Congress is asked to regard with preference the judgment
and opinions of foreign engineers and to disregard the judgment and
opinions of American engineers. We are seriously asked to completely
disregard American opinion, as voiced by the Isthmian Commission,
responsible for the enterprise as a whole; as voiced by the Secretary of
War, responsible for the time being for the proper execution of the
work; as voiced by Chief Engineer Stevens, who stands foremost among
Americans in his profession; and finally, as voiced by all the engineers
now on the Isthmus, who have a practical knowledge of the actual
conditions, and who are as thoroughly familiar as any class of men with
the problems which confront us and with the conditions which will have
to be met. I for one, leaving out of consideration for the present
details which are subject to modification