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Show A DREAM COME TRUE. Among the men of imperishable fame in the field of invention, one standing deservedly near the top is Robert Fulton, who passed from earth in February, 1815, virtually penniless, and whose body lies in the old Trinity churchyard. New York, where his grave is almost forgotten. Robert Fulton, as everybody knows, or ought to know, built the first successful steamboat, the Clermont, which in August, Au-gust, 1S07, a hundred years ago, was launched and made her successful passage from New York to Albany. The stories that have come down to us of this first voyage, how the natives and the sailos along the Hudson were frightened and incredulous, and how they marveled at the new wonder, all seem very amusing in the light which a century of development de-velopment gives us. But then it was new. While there are records of more or less successful success-ful steamboats before Fulton's time, going back to the middle of the sixteenth century, when a Spaniard Span-iard is reported to have navigated a vessel by steam around Barcelona, it was not until the sidewheeler Clermont had made the trip to Albany that the practicability of steam navigation was assured. Of course, the idea was not new to Fulton or to his generation, but his achievement will stand forever as marking an era in the world's advancement. Although Fulton's fame rests with fhe achievement achieve-ment of the Clermont, he was the designer and builder of a number of other steamboats which were used on the Hudson, the East and the Delaware rivers. He also built the first steamboat which navigated the Mississippi, and one which plied between be-tween New York and New Haven. Steam navigation was his great achievement, but with it he saw the wonderful possibilities lying in the development of the inland waterways of the continent. He was among the earliest, if not actually ac-tually the first, to advocate digging the Erie canal to connect the waters of Lake Erie with the Hudson river. It was in this connection that he dreamed a dream which has since come true. In the records of a commission appointed by the New York legislature legis-lature to investigate the feasibility of the Erie canal ca-nal project is a letter from Fulton to the president of the commission containing these significant words : "Had it pleased the Author of the Universe to have drawn Hudson's river from- Lake Erie, a calm and gentle stream of ten feet of water, the reflecting reflect-ing mind would contemplate with gratitude the Divine Di-vine munificence; and he who feels that 160 miles of navigation on Hudson's river would be a blessing to this state, would compare the successful range of extended benefits, and draw exact estimates of national na-tional wealth from 160 miles of easy communication to the western extremity of Lake Superior. For if Hudson's river, collecting freight from its surrounding sur-rounding country, and an interior not more distant than Cayuga or Ontario, now bears on its waters nearly 400,000 tons per annum, where shall the mind be arrested; on what number of tons shall it dwell, when coming from the population of the next twenty years, and the countries which surround Lake Superior, Michigan, Huron and the canal of 300 miles through a fertile territory? Compared with the trade now on Hudson's river, it cannot be less than a million of tons each year." This was nearly a hundred years ago. Today, instead of nearly "a million of tons each year," the Erie canal alone carries two million tons, the Soo canal and locks forty million tons, while it is estimated the Detroit river and the St. Clair canal carry upward of fifty million tons and the total tonnage of the Great Lakes approximates a hundred hun-dred million tons each year. Since the development of the navigation of the Great Lakes, canal building has been virtually at a standstill. There are a few minor canals throughout through-out Ohio, Indiana and New York, ami the Chicago drainage canal, but practically nothing has boon done to make waterways capable of carrying heavy freight. And some of those already built have had to fight condemnation proceedings and criticism that they were an antiquated and nearly useless method of carrying freight, and they probably owe their existence today to the fact that their water- furnish power for innumerable mills and factories along their course. In this connection President James J. Hill of th" Great Northern railroad recently pointed out th need of a system of canals to relieve the railroads of increasing business which they cannot handle He says that while the business of the railroads increases in-creases about 12 per cent a year, the facilities f r handling it increase but 2 per cent. To relieve this increasing burden on the railroads Mr. Hill suggests a deepened channel for the chief rivers and canalizing of waterways which do not naturally have sufficient water for navigation. European nation-, notably Germany, are extending their canals ca-nals with the definite purpose of relieving railroad congestion. And so Robert Fulton's dream has come true, ur.d more than true'. The Great Lakes and the Mississippi Mis-sissippi have made many commercial possibilities which our country could never have enjoyed without with-out them. In the future development of our natural waterways and in the building of great canals lie the solution of the problem of freight transportation. transporta-tion. How much of this the country owes to Robert Rob-ert Fulton and his dream, none can say. From 107 to 1007 a broad expanse filled with wonderful wonder-ful achievement. Could we look a hundred years into futurity wo would see equally wonderful works, but back of it all there must be the genius to break away from cu-tomary modes of doing things. In steam navigation and the advocacy of inland waterways water-ways Robert Fulton then as now must be recognized as the one who made possible the present development, develop-ment, and the one to whom honor is forever due. |
