THE COMING SHOWDOWN IN CONGRESS
Aiken, Sen. Georger
St. Lawrence Waterway Battle Lines Are Forming For: The Coming Showdown In Congress By SEN. GEORGE AIKEN THE St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Development is the most important public work which can...
...The annual output of power from the Massena dam would be 13,200,000,000 kilowatt-hours, which is more than the total amount of power generated in 1944 by the Tennessee Valley Authority...
...He did so—and after "due consideration" advised the Chinese to abandon their claims on Luchu...
...The cost of developing this power would be approximately one mill per kilowatt-hour and it could be transmitted to any point within a 200-mile radius at a cost of not over two and a half mills per kilowatt-hour, including amortization and interest charges on the original cost...
...Lawrence development because we fear them...
...No development can do more to lower the cost'of living for all our people...
...Lawrence Seaway and Power Development to the United States is estimated by the Army Engineers to be $277,000,000...
...Last, but not least, is the formal opposition of Railroad Brotherhoods...
...Lawrence Seaway can only carry about 3 per cent of the anticipated increase in freight tonnage...
...Had this power been available at TVA rates, the cost would have been $312,434,262...
...Lawrence Seaway and Power Development is the most important public work which can be undertaken at the end of the war...
...The crowning victory of the vested interests opposing the St...
...They have the right to develop them for public benefit...
...Lawrence stop at nothing...
...The Brotherhoods Oppose The St...
...The 10 million additional tons of freight carried by the Seaway would, however, have a tremendous influence on the economic future of our country...
...Lawrence Seaway and Power Project, who must have known the truth of these statements of high government officials, but who for years had been reaping tremendous profits from the American public, were so powerful that they delayed action on the development by the Congress until we were actually in the war and it was then too late to start construction...
...The development is opposed by power companies which charge excessive rates and hope to continue to do so, the American Association of Railroads—although it is a well known fact that many member roads of this association do not share this opposition—certain chambers of commerce, eertain ports on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, which have been stirred to opposition through false propaganda to the effect that their business would be injured if the St...
...Since that time, all efforts made by the Federal Government and state governments to develop the greatest natural resource in the world has failed in the face of the powerful and ruthless opposition of corporate interests...
...But we decided to get them another way...
...They told us that we would be short of electric energy with which to produce the materials of the war...
...Will we be so cowardly that we will let the vested interests prevent the St...
...Scarcity vs...
...It would doubtless be largely new freight entering into international commerce...
...More Power Than TVA Twenty-three states have made appropriations in an effort to complete this development which would give central North America deep-water access to the sea and to the markets of the world...
...In 1921, the Frontier Corporation, organized by the Aluminum Company of America, the General Electric Company, and the du Pont Company, made an offer to the United States and Canada to construct fully the St...
...Furthermore, the great amount of low-cost electric energy generated on the St...
...It cost us pretty heavily, but it gave Admiral Halsey great pleasure to know we were "burning and drowning the bestial apes" in our bloody assault on the island we helped them win from the Chinese...
...the immediate financial cost to them was 5,400,000 yen—which was a fair sum in Japan at that time...
...Lawrence development goes through...
...Public opinion in America is rising fast...
...The railroads and other means of transportation will have to carry the rest...
...Within the next few months a determined and concerted effort will be made to secure the approval of the Congress to the agreement between the United States and Canada by which the St...
...If we win this fight, we will win others of similar nature and full employment in the post-war period will be assured...
...This loophole, however, was soon taken advantage of...
...Lawrence Seaway and present it without cost to the governments of the two countries if, in return, the Frontier Corporation would be allowed to develop the electric power of the St...
...Government, backed by an enlightened public opinion, would not consent to turn over the resources of the people to a small group of corporate interests and the offer was rejected...
...The men now in the service look to us to see that opportunity awaits them when they return home...
...We burned and blasted the Japanese out...
...The "dragon's teeth" of distrust and antagonism between the 2 Asiatic Powers had been sown...
...Yet, the enemies of the St...
...We will assist in establishing these developments in foreign lands by the use of American taxpayers' money, yet here under our very noses is a natural resource greater than any other natural resource existing anywhere on earth...
...The Japanese surrender offer reported by Frederick Kuh more than a month ago, including withdrawal "from islands other than those which, comprise Japan itself," presumably included Okinawa and the other Luchus...
...THE little islands were not worth fighting about, but the Chinese for some years refused to recognize the Japanese annexation...
...According to the Federal Power Commission, for the year 1943, New England and New York paid for electrical energy the staggering sum of $619,383,-500...
...Private interests have long sought to acquire these resources...
...Lawrence would result in the production of more freight than the capacity of the Seaway to handle...
...In American factories today we are designing the most modern equipment for public power developments in almost every country on earth...
...Lawrence Seaway available for use in this war...
...Lawrence Seaway and Power Project is earnestly supported by all major farm organizations, by over 700 labor organizations, which have already gone on record as favoring it, and by states, cities, and civic bodies all over the United States...
...Lawrence Seaway would be a waste of money because no one would use it...
...Peking paid an indemnity to the Luchuans who had suffered from the Formosan tribesmen, and also purchased from the Japanese the bridges and buildings they had constructed in Formosa.'The Japanese evacuated Formosa, after losing some hundreds of lives through tropical fever...
...The development of our great natural resources is the most important thing we can do to assure them of that opportunity...
...In 1941 the President of the United States, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, the Chairman of the Maritime Commission, and virtually every high government official pleaded with the Congress, even while the clouds of war were gathering, to authorize this development so that its resources would be ready for the defense of America...
...Putting it another way, the entire cost of the seaway to the United States Government would amount to less than the cost of waging world war for a single day...
...No public works in all North America can do more to insure employment for returning servicemen...
...Since Woodrow Wilson, every President has favored this development...
...It is a fight which we must carry on until victory is won...
...The Peking Government had agreed as a matter of convenience to make its payment to the aggrieved Luchuans through the nearby Japanese—without considering that this involved any change in the existing "suzerainty...
...The Luchu king and heir were taken to Tokyo and formally deprived of their authority...
...The St...
...From conversation with railroad employes, I learn that they have been shamelessly misinformed...
...Lawrence Seaway would be limited to 10 million tons of additional American freight, whereas the Department of Commerce estimates that there will be an increase of 300 million tons of freight annually for the decade of 1950 over the decade of 1930...
...These officials told us that we would be short of shipping, which could be constructed on the Great Lakes, but which could not be moved to the ocean through existing waterways...
...The opponents of the St...
...The total cost of the entire St...
...Plenty The products of the Great Lakes cities which would pass through the Seaway would be manufactured products destined for foreign ports and agricultural products of the Mid-West destined for consumers on our Eastern Seaboard...
...It will rise faster as the war nears its end and the need for employment becomes more apparent...
...The same merciless opposition that held national security so cheap in comparison with profits will fight the postwar development of the St...
...Besides providing a deep waterway for ocean-going ships, the St...
...Okinawa: Rise And Fall Of An Empire By HARRY PAXTON HOWARD (Continued from Page 8) China and Japan, and his mediation was accepted...
...The lowered cost of transporting agricultural products to the Eastern Seaboard would mean cheaper living costs for consumers...
...Lawrence Seaway and Power Development would generate 2,200,000 horsepower of the cheapest electrical energy in North America...
...The resources of this miirhty river still belong to the people...
...In 1879, this time with British encouragement, Tokyo officially announced the annexation of the islands...
...Will we be so blind that we cannot see the need for developing it without delay...
...Herbert Hoover fought valiantly for it, and Franklin D. Roosevelt has constantly supported it both as Governor of New York and President of the United States...
...Northeastern United States now pays the highest rates for electric energy of any important area of the country...
...They have been told that the St...
...No one can tell how many thousand lives of American boys have been lost and how many additional billion dollars of taxpayers' money have been spent through failure to have the St...
...The amount of the cost to be allocated to the power development is $93,375,000, while the difference of $183,625,000 is to be charged against the navigation development...
...Lawrence project has so far been the opposition of the Railroad Brotherhoods to the development...
...The increased export trade made possible by the Seaway would mean more work for American labor...
...When former President U. S. Grant visited the Far East, he was approached by the Chinese Government with a request to consider the controversy over Luchu...
...Calvin Coolidge recommended it as a good investment rather than a public expenditure...
...Therefore, the St...
...Lawrence development will be effected...
...Lawrence Seaway would have unlimited capacity, that it would take a good share of the business away from the railroads (although the same interests that tell these lies to the railroad men have no hesitancy in telling other groups that the St...
...Except for a short stretch of about 48 miles, ocean-going steamers could now load and unload their cargoes at Duluth, Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, or any other Great Lakes ports...
...The railroad employes are not told that the capacity of the St...
...Lawrence through every underhanded method they can devise...
...Lawrence fight is another battle in the war between the apostles of scarcity and high prices and the advocates of plenty and low prices...
...The difference between the amount paid by New York and New England at present rates and the amount which would be paid under TVA rates would amount to more than enough to pay the entire cost of the project every year...
...Lawrence River...
Vol. 9 • June 1945 • No. 25
