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Show CANALS OF THE FUTURE. they Will Be Irge Enough For the Handling Han-dling of a Heavy Business. The history of the struggle between oanals of small dimensions and of railroads rail-roads has been the same in all countries. The fight raged bitterly for a nnmber of years, the canals acting on the defea sive, although they had as allies tha .tates under whose patronage they were built and operated. The result has been the same in all cases the unconditional surrender of the canals to the railroads. This, however, is not so much the fault of the system as of their management. The railroads have great advantages over canals. They are better able to ibridge distances both by reason of superior supe-rior speed and of facilities for overcoming overcom-ing elevations, spanning streams, free from danger of destructive floods, and piercing through the highest mountains, but their great success is mainly due tc the fact that they have kept pace with the progress of the world. Waterways built from the beginning of the e.gnteenth century to the first quarter of the nineteenth century were regarded ample to meet the requirements of trade at the time they were constructed, construct-ed, aud there was in many instances a progressive improvement in their dimensions dimen-sions and appurtenances. But while tha industrial, agricultural and commercial developments of the world have advanced ad-vanced to proportions not dreamed of a century ago canals have remained stationary. sta-tionary. They are now obsolete and can no longer fulfill the requirements of cheap transportation in competition with railroads. The canals of the future must have the dimensions and the facilities facili-ties tot rpid transport to adapt them to the new conditions of commerce. They must not be barge or boat canals, but ample waterways for the free passage of such ships as are now engaged in carrying carry-ing the world's trade Of such cauala we have now some important types in successful operation, and others in process proc-ess of construction or in completion. Cnautanqrn. |