greater cost, very nearly brought about the complete destruction of the canals. For example, the costly and useful Erie Canal across the State of New York was transformed into an almost worthless ditch by the insidious influences of the railroads which paralleled it. Not until the opening of the Twentieth century was there a general revival of interest in waterway transportation and a general recognition of the value of the canals and rivers of the country, both as supplementary to, and as salutary restraints upon, the monopolistic tendencies of the railroads. The principal canals completed in and after 1860, their cost, and their mileage were: Albemarle and Chesapeake, 1860 $1,641,363 44 miles Shoals, 1889 Portage Lake and Lake Superior, 1873 Port Arthur, 1889. Sante Fé, 1880. Sault Ste. Marie, 1895. Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan, 1881 . St. Mary's Falls, 1896. 21 1899); William D. P. Bliss (ed.), Encyclopedia of Social Reform (New York, 1897); United States Industrial Commission, Trusts and Industrial Combinations, vol. ii. of the commission's reports (Washington, 1900); Revised Statutes of the several States; William Wilson Cook, The Corporation Problem (New York, 1891); Lionel Norman, Legal Restraints on Modern Industrial Combinations and Monopolies in the United States (St. Louis, 1899); J. J. Lalor (ed.), Cyclopedia of Political Science, Political Economy and of the Political History of the United States (3 vols., Chicago, 1881); Katherine Coman, Industrial History of the United States (New York, 1905). Another canal enterprise of vast importance was the Chicago Drainage Canal, intended chiefly to carry off the sewage of the city of Chicago, but available also for commercial purposes. It was begun in 1902 and completed several years later at a cost of $45,000,000. The main channel (29 miles long, 22 feet minimum depth, and 160 feet wide at the bottom) is the largest artificial channel in the world. In 1880 the canals and canalized rivers operated by the Federal government, State governments and corporations were 62 in number, with a mileage of 3,325 and a total construction cost of $183,952,302. In 1889 the number was 67, the mileage 3,383, and the cost $188,185,880; in 1906 it ran number, 64, mileage, 3,644, and cost, $233,208,863. Between 1880 and 1906 887 miles had been abandoned and there were additions of 1,296 miles, leaving a net increase of 409 miles and an increase in cost of $49,256,561, or nearly 27 per cent. in a quarter of a century. In 1906 the canals and canalized rivers in the different States were: New York and Illinois, 6 each; Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Louisiana, 5 each; Texas and Oregon, 4 each; Ohio, Michigan, South Carolina and West Virginia, 3 each; New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Alabama, 2 each; Maryland, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa and Arkansas, 1 each.* The history of the Erie Canal presents a striking illustration of the rise, decadence, and rejuvenation of canal facilities. From its completion in 1825 it was the source of almost untold commercial advantage to the West of the Great Lake region, to New York City, and to our foreign trade. After the middle of the century the influence of the railroads crossing central New York State almost succeeded in destroying it. Opposition to it was at times sufficiently strong to have the question of its entire abandonment seriously considered. Changes in the methods of modern transportation, demanding waterways adapted to large tonnage and using steam or electricity in place of the old-time horse-drawn canal boats, also lessened its usefulness. But general confidence in its commercial utility ultimately prevailed and in 1903, after years of public agitation, the people of the State, in a general election, approved a legislative enactment to expend $101,000,000 for its enlargement and improvement, together with improvements of the Oswego and Champlain canals. Up to 1904 the cost of the Erie's construction, enlargement and maintenance was $52,540,800, less than one-half the amount required after that date to make it a modern waterway. The Sault Ste. Marie ship canal, 63 miles in length and connecting Lakes Superior and Huron, is another of the great canals of the world, with an annual tonnage and freight movement VOL. X-33 far exceeding those of the Suez Canal. Although extra-territorial, the Panama Canal is a government enterprise which politically and economically is destined to have a profound effect upon the future of the United States. In its engineering magnitude, its cost, its ultimate commercial and industrial influences and its international bearings, no single work has ever been undertaken by the Nation that is at all comparable with it. A canal across the Isthmus of Panama to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans was thought of as far back as 1513, and from that time until the latter part of the Nineteenth century the project was considered again and again and several surveys were made. The canal was finally begun in 1881 by a French company under the direction of Ferdinand de Lesseps, constructing engineer of the Suez Canal. The enterprise was a colossal failure and, after millions of dollars had been lost in it, was finally abandoned. In 1904, after several years of engineering investigation, political controversy, diplomatic negotiations with Great Britain and the Republic of Colombia, and the revolutionary erection of Panama into an independent state, the United States purchased from the French Company what existed of the canal for $40,000,000 and paid Panama $10,000,000 for canal zone rights. Under the direction of the Isthmian Canal Commission, work was begun in 1905, according to plans which contemplated the completion of the structure by January 1, 1915. The canal will be 50 miles long from deep water to deep water, of a minimum depth of 41 feet, of surface widths from 300 to 1000 feet, of average bottom width of 649 feet, and have six locks. In the middle of the Nineteenth century the Great American Desert was accepted as an undisputed fact. Time demonstrated that it was less a desert than had been supposed, while modern methods of land improvement made clear the possible fertility and usefulness of territory seemingly most unpromising. Irrigation has been the principal means by which this land has been recovered for agricultural purposes, a thing scarcely thought of before 1860. In some sections of the country local and State laws and customs had been applied to regulate the use of water for irrigation, mining and other purposes, but this was done in a comparatively small way and in widely separated localities. National attention was given to the subject after the close of the war, when the necessity of systematic plans to increase the productivity of poor land came more and more to be realized. In 1866 Congress passed a law recognizing the existing local laws and customs in regard to the matter, and under this encouragement water rights were established in several of the Western States. This policy of leaving to the States control of water projects was continued, without important modification, for more than a third of a century. It was in substance reaffirmed by the National Reclamation Act of 1902, but in this later period the Federal Government began gradually to exercise a large and increasing control over irrigation, the subject finally becoming one of the most important demanding National consideration and legislation. Prior to 1880 most of the irrigation was done by the coöperative efforts of those specially interested in their home localities. Many of these early enterprises were the outcome of the workings of the Desert Land Act of 1877 allowing settlers to take up 640 acres of land for irrigation and improvement, but very little of permanent value was accomplished thereby. In the years following 1880 commercial enterprise entered the field and investment companies were organized to carry on the work. Eventually most of the States felt impelled to exercise supervisory powers over these corporations to remedy abuses and impotency. A more decided step was taken by the Federal Government in 1892, when the National Irrigation Act was passed. This provided for government and private coöperation in the field of irrigation finance. Under its provisions receipts from the sale of public lands were advanced for irrigation works in those States where the land lay and was sold. A great deal was accomplished by this law in the years immediately following its enactment. In 1889 the land under irrigation — mostly in the Far Western States, but including rice fields in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texasaggregated 3,631,381 acres; in 1899, 7,778,904 acres; in 1902, 9,681,289 acres; in 1907, about 10,000,000 acres; and in 1909, about 13,036,700 acres. The total construction cost to 1899 was $71,226,074; to 1902, $92,731,594; to 1907, about $148,200,000. In 1909 the National Reclamation Service had 29 irrigation projects in process of construction. The work thus engaged in was planned for the ultimate irrigation of 2,700,000,000 acres. The total land in the country available for and needing irrigation was then estimated to be about 44,375,000,000 acres. The computed cost of irrigation works for this enormous territory was $110,290,000, to be spread over many years. Federal expenditure for the improvement of rivers and harbors began after 1810. To the close of the fiscal year 1908 there had been expended on this account over $511,000,000, of which about $53,000,000 had gone for a few unimportant projects then existent or for obsolete projects of earlier date long discontinued. Prior to 1880 appropriations for this purpose had been irregular and were generally regarded with disfavor. In 1846 President Polk, and in 1854 President Pierce, vetoed such bills upon constitutional grounds. After the Civil War, however, broader opinions concerning constitutional limitations began to prevail, and in 1870 an appropriation of $2,000,000 was made the largest up to that time, though small compared with subsequent appropriations. A decided impetus was given to the matter by the 1874 report of the Senate Select Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard. The Committee recommended that the United States undertake to improve the mouth of the Mississippi, to open a route by the Ohio and Kanawha rivers and a railway or canal to Virginia tidewater, and another by canal or railway from the Tennessee River to the Atlantic Ocean. None of these plans was adopted, but the report of the Committee greatly influenced the future in the conclusion that the constitutional power of Congress to regulate commerce includes the power to aid and facilitate it, thus conferring upon Congress the power to improve or create channels of commerce on land or by water. This broad interpretation of the Constitution effectually fixed the policy of the Government and probably forever determined its course of action in the matter. matter. From that time on, appropriations were more frequent and of more considerable size, and every Congress gave much attention to the subject. But the funds made available being still inadequate, the work was carried on in a manner not calculated to produce the best and the most economical results. Finally the River and Harbor bills became the subject of grave scandal, being loaded with appropriations for worthless projects involving the expenditure of money for purely political purposes, regardless of public needs. The scandal assumed such importance that the bill of 1902 specifically provided that thereafter all projects be referred to a technical board of review and favorably passed upon before being under taken. In 1908 the Government was engaged upon the improvement of harbors, rivers and other waterways to the total of over 500, including even a few that were practically insignificant. Some of these works had then been under way for many years and large sums of money had been expended upon them from their inception to the close of the year 1908. In the list were 17 harbors of refuge, upon which $14,312,000 had been expended; 24 harbors used for refuge and commerce, which cost the United States $24,083,772; 265 lake and coast commercial harbors and tidal rivers, with expenditures of $172,707,000; 76 rivers under improvement by regulation or by locks and dams, with expenditures of $204,718,500; 67 interior shallow streams under slight improvements, with expenditures of $7,200,000; 7 inland waterways and canals, with expenditures of $9,956,000; 12 cases of special work, auxiliary channels, etc., with expenditures of $11,264,432; 5 channels connecting the Great Lakes, with expenditures of $25,198,000. Among the greatest of these enterprises was the improvement of the |