SEN. LA FOLLETTE'S "PORKLESS" AMENDMENTS
Sen. La Follette s "Porkless" Amendments Adopted by the United States Senate before it passed the River and Harbor Appropriations Bill BEFORE the River and Harbor Appropriations Bill Avas passed...
...There has been a constant struggle between the War Department and the State of Illinois to prevent the taking of water through the drainage canal in excess of the amount that navigation requires for the purpose of flushing the Illinois river for the sewage of Chicago...
...These "porkless" provisions are: Looking Toward Ocean-Going Commerce on The Great Lakes FIRST, Directing the Secretary of War "to investigate the character and draft of vessels which would be accommodated by the Wetland Canal when enlarged by the Dominion of Canada, and what improvements would be necessary upon the Great Lakes and harbors thereof, to secure the benefit of such ocean commerce as may pass through such "Wetland Canal...
...No, Mr...
...This it has done on the plea of "sanitary" and "navigation" needs...
...Reverses can't his valiant spirit tame...
...Is it right that we should impose, as the report of the engineers say it will impose, a loss of at least a million dollars a year upon the carrying capacity of the vessels that ply the Great Lakes if we permit the increase in the flowage from the Lakes which is demanded by the city of Chicago for what they call sanitary purposes...
...The city of Milwaukee, at a very large expense, running to something like $15,000,000 is providing a great intercepting sewage system and a sewage disposal plant...
...If we blindly commit this Government to an approval of the legislation adopted by the Illinois General Assembly we shall be called upon in the future to furnish a quantity of water sufficient to insure a return upon the millions that the state of Illinois proposes to invest under that act for waterpower purposes...
...T am certain from all the investigation that has been made that the taking of more than 250,000 cubic feet of water per minute from the Lakes (which Illinois is now authorized to take) will result in such a low-eping of the Lake levels as will cost those who are operating vessels upon the lakes something like a million five hundred thousand dollars a year, through compelling them to load lighter in order to get into the harbors and alongside the piers and docks...
...For want of rime I cannot call his name, But no doubt you have heard about his fame, And, though 1 may be holding up a screen, I'll bet a dollar you know who I mean...
...The state of Illinois cannot consistently create a local advantage at the cost and to the menace of the commerce of the Great Lakes...
...And Senator La Follette read to the Senate a letter from - Secretary "William George Bruce of the Merchants and Manufacturers Association of Milwaukee which summed up the case as follows: "The disposal of sewage at Chicago can well be effected with the original grant of water, namely 250,000 cubic feet per minute, and that the excess, illegally taken and constituting 350,000 cubic feet per minute, is used to operate the waterpowers at Lockport, 111...
...but it is, first and last, a Waterpower proposition...
...Because of its great commerce and because of the pressing need of this improvement, I offer this amendment with great confidence that it will hot only commend itself to the Senate but to the conference committee...
...The other cities on the Great Lakes are not calling upon the General Government to aid in the solution of their sewage disposal problems...
...That is what it is...
...But what I protest against, Mr, President, is that this innocent-looking proposition in this bill in a few lines commits Congress to an endorsement of an act of the legislature, the provisions of which not one Member of this body, I venture to say, outside of the senators from Illinois know, and it will commit Congress to furnishing water to supply the great scheme of development which it is proposed that we shall authorize and endorse in this legislation...
...It is simply astounding...
...President, if all of the harbors upon the Great Lakes arc to share in the benefits of the enlargement of this canal, if we are to be able to load and unload ocean-going vessels in the harbors of the Great Lakes, it is absolutely necessary for us to investigate existing conditions and to determine what vessels may dock at the ports of the Great Lakes...
...I should like to ask the Senator from Wisconsin if the act of the legislature of Illinois referred to in this proposed amendment covers the other projects, such a§ sanitation and waterpower ? "Mr...
...When he is up you know it by their frown, And their ambition is to put him down...
...President, if all that has been done and all that has been expended, upwards of $800,000,000 in the improvement of the harbors and waterways of this country, is to be given anything like a meaning that shall be a benefit to the people of the country, then we should not stop at the expenditure of whatever is ne'etes-sary to bring ocean-going vessels to the harbors of this great chain of lakes, this great inland sea that reaches out almost half way across the continent...
...It will involve this government in serious complications with Great Britain, because of treaty provisions which exist with Great Britain, respecting the use of the waters of the Great Lakes...
...The public interest involved in this waterway is not alone that of the people of the state of Illinois, or of those who reside along the banks of this river or who may be engaged in manufacturing upon the river...
...it.— Ah...
...and again enlarged in 1900...
...I have been voting, Mr...
...It is a distributing point for a vast territory to the West...
...Great Britain—which country, as I understand, has succeeded to the control of the Wel-land Canal, considers the enlargement of this canal so as to carry ocean-going vessels, to be a good business investment...
...Insofar as the improvement of navigation of the Illinois River is concerned, the withdrawal of one thousand cubic feet of water per second would be sufficient to provide all the water necessary for navigation purposes resulting from the improvement in cuiestion "But, Mr...
...Surely the United States should improve the harbors which will be accessible to vessels passing through thd Wetland Canal to a depth sufficient to accommodate such vessels...
...Upon this amendment Senator La Follette said, in part: "The Wclland Canal was constructed in 1833...
...La Follette s "Porkless" Amendments Adopted by the United States Senate before it passed the River and Harbor Appropriations Bill BEFORE the River and Harbor Appropriations Bill Avas passed by the United States Senate, May 29, Senator La Follette was successful in securing the adoption of three amendments that are of national, rather than of local, interest...
...It involves the withdrawing of the water from the Great Lakes for what are called sanitary purposes in connection with the Chicago Drainage Canal, and it involves the withdrawing of larger amounts of water, from the Great Lakes for tvaterpower purposes...
...The Department of' War and its engineers who have experience in this business recommend precisely the amendment which I have offered...
...The ship canal project is fostered more largely for the purpose of insuring the continued illegal diversion of water, or, rather, to secure a legal sanction of the same, than to provide a commercial utility...
...cial proposition as a waterpower scheme remains to be developed...
...How much more will be necessary in order to make this waterway a coramer...
...Mr...
...The canal on the bottom will be 200 feet wide...
...If Congress approves the scheme for which the act of the Illinois General Assembly . provides * * * it will involve the withdrawal from Lake Michigan of a vast amount of water, far beyond the navigation requirements of the proposed waterway, and far beyond the requirements for flushing of the river for sanitary purposes* It will involve the withdrawal of the water from the Great Lakes FOR WATERPOWER PURPOSES in the interests of this particular state...
...The Duluth-Superior harbor is one of the great harbors of the world, The tonnage received and shipped at the Supe-rior-Duluth harbor is greater than that at any other ¦ inland harbor of this country or of the world...
...It is, as everyone knows, wholly upon Canadian territory...
...The principal object of the state of Illinois in undertaking this improvement is not to create a navigable waterway but is to create a great waterpower upon a navigable stream...
...There has been expended on that harbor a very large sum of money, but it has been justified BY THE NATIONAL CHARACTER OF THE COMMERCE...
...Of course, it throws over all of it the usual suggestion that it is in the interest of navigation but, mark you, and I should like to have Senators keep this in mind, the boards that have investigated this from time, to time in the last six years, say that only 1,000 cubic feet per second are necessary...
...A Steadfast Leader Done Into Rime by FREDERIC W. RAPER THERE is a giant living in Wisconsin, Whoso name is neither Smith nor Jones nor Johnson...
...It is now being reconstructed or enlarged, and will be completed in 1819 to a depth and width to admit of ocean-going vessels passing through it...
...It was enlarged in 1871...
...In other words, the real purpose behind the cry of sanitation and ship canal is the continued steal of a colossal flow of lake waters for power purposes...
...Improving One of the Greatest Harbors in the World SECOND, Appropriating $180,000 for tlu present year and not to exceed an additiona $180,000 for deepening and widening the Du luth-Superior harbor so as to enable the vessels that enter that great port, either by the Superior enrance or the Duluth entrance, to make their turn and anchor safely...
...We hold that the Great Lakes are a God-given blessing conferred upon a nation, that their use is dedicated to the cause of navigation, and that their waters cannot be used for domestic or sanitation purposes in any unreasonable degree, and that there is no warrant in law or morals that could sanction their use for power purposes...
...It connects Lake Ontario with Lake Erie...
...Mr...
...It is a very innocent-appearing amendment, but its adoption will commit Congress to a scheme that ultimately and logically will be made the basis of the withdrawal of vast quantities of water front the Great Lakes, which will so interfere with the commerce of those lakes that it will entail upon the federal government the expenditure of enormous slims of money to erect compensating works and to dredge the harbors and the entrances to the harbors over the entire Great Lakes region so as to meet the needs of commerce by restoring a proper depth of water...
...it, is the' assembling point for a vast territory that ships to the East and to the great ports of the world...
...His cause may win, his cause may lose, but never Does he desert it nor allegiance sever, But follows it, whatever may befall it...
...Said Senator La Follette : "This amendment, of course, is in no sense local in its character...
...Nor does he care what other people call...
...for the purpose of navigation...
...it does not deal with sanitation at all, except by referring to the fact that there is an improve-men there for sanitary purposes...
...IT IS IN NO SENSE LOCAL IN ITS CHARACTER...
...It is a worthy amendment...
...Said Senator La Follette...
...But I want the Senate to remember that by the very terms of the act of the Illinois legislature which it is proposed here to ratify, it provides FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A WATERPOWER...
...For years Illinois has been withdrawing from Lake Michigan more Mater than it has been given permission to divert by the United States government...
...President^ against aniendments that were local, and which seemed to me not properly a part of any national scheme of commerce and not properly a subject of appropriation...
...Sterling...
...it is an amendment of importance to all the people who live between the Atlantic and the Pacific in the great northern belt of states...
...Defeating the Illinois Waterpower Scheme THIRD, defeating the scheme by which the state of Ililnois, and powerful manufacturing interests within that state, are seeking to eievelop profitable waterpowers at the expense of the commerce of the Great Lakes...
...The present available depth in the various harbors of the Great Lakes, as I understand, is from 20 to 22 feet, and we shall be shut out from the benefits that will come from the enlargement of the Wclland Canal unless we begin to make provision for changing the depth of water in our Great Lakes harbors...
...THE SOCIAL CENTER of New York's population has moved 600 feet in the last two years, which shows that the 400 possesses a degree of progressivism not heretofore suspected.—Boston Transcript...
...It is so peculiarly situated that this waterway has an influence upon and may affect the Avell-being and the business of peoples situated along the whole chain of Great Lakes...
...Now, I should like to have the Senate keep in mind these three propositions: So far as navigation is concerned, 1,000 cubic feet per second is all that this improvement ever will require, according to the judgment of the engineers who have investigated it from time to time...
...But, Mr...
...10,000 cubic feet is desired by the city of Chicago for the purpose of taking care of its sewage...
...Elections come and go, but he still stands Where every one may sec his naked hands...
...Now it comes boldly asking for a greater and still greater diversion of water—in order to develop valuable waterpowers...
...The locks are to be 800 feet in usable length by 80 feet in width in the clear...
...But, up or down, he always is the same...
...The city of Cleveland is solving this problem in a similar way...
...President...
...It means, ultimately, the deepening of the entrance to the harbors, of those harbors, and of the basins necessary to the best use of those harbors, to a depth that will accommodate oceangoing traffic...
...No section or locality has the right to use the gifts of Nature at the expense and to the detriment of the larger unit...
...Ultimately, I have no doubt this work will require a very considerable expenditure of money...
...Senator Sherman of Illinois, by misleading tactics, had caused to be inserted in the bill a .provision committing Congress and the federal government to the Illinois scheme...
...President, this proposition involves much more than that...
...However, the improvements are to be so constructed that the sills of the locks will have a depth of 30 feet...
...This scheme is contained in an act of the Illinois legislature authorizing that state to construct a deep waterway or canal and "to provide for the development and utilization of waterpower that may be generated from the water flowing through said waterway...
...When he is down eorruptionists rejoice And all denounce him icith a single voice...
...Thirty-three million tons is the measure of commerce received at that great inland port, the farthermost point to the west of this great chain of lakes that is, I believe, to be connected in the near future with the ocean transportation of the world...
...There's my rime for Robert M. La Follette...
...I think it follows very logically that Ave ought to make this investigation that the people of this country may avail themselves of the great benefit that will result from the enlargement of this canal...
...President, it may be that it will afford the city of Chicago a cheaper means of disposing of its sewage to drain the Great Lakes to flush the Chicago River, but we cannot do that except at the expense of the commerce of this country...
...This Canal is being enlarged so that it will have a depth of 25 feet...
...Mr...
Vol. 8 • June 1916 • No. 6
