III. Some Suggestions on Sewage 'Disposal.

"Cleanliness Is next to Godliness."—John Wesley.

The earnest agitation for public improvements in Clevelandreaches a crisis, the outcome of which will decide whether for aquarter of a century or more to come we are to continue to live inan overgrown village, or to go forward and stand in the front lineof advancing municipalities.

DO NOT POLLUTE LAKE ERIE WITH THE SEWAGEOF CLEVELAND.

Certain influential persons, however, seem determined to plungethe taxpayers headlong into another costly blunder, viz: the ex-penditure of a vast amount of money in the attempt to fasten uponCleveland the continued disposal of her sewerage into our watersupply.

This is unscientific, criminal, and has the emphatic disapprovalof the world's foremost cities, Paris, Berlin, Chicago, Boston, andscores of others.

THREE BAD BLUNDERS; DO NOT ADD A FOURTH.

For a moment look at some recent blunders which daily mockthe passers-by on our Public Square, that we may give the moreearnest heed lest the city fall into the greatest blunder of its his-tory.

First.—The location of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monumentdown in the dust and soot of business. How much better the sur-roundings of this costly monument would have been in clean andleafy Wade Park; or would it not have been even a wiser expendi-ture of the quarter of a million dollars to have constructed aclassic Memorial City Hall and emblazoned on its four interiorwalls in letters of gold the names of Cuyahoga's ten thousand pa-triots ?

Second.—The late expenditure of three hundred thousand dol-lars in remodeling the government building, forcing the constant

SOME SUGGESTIONS ON SEWAGE DISPOSAL.19

use of gas lights even on the brightest days, and compelling thepeople of a big city to find entrance and exit at a single doorway,as in pioneer days.

Third.—Cuyahoga county's money in large amounts is beingfrittered away by frequent changes and temporary additions to theold county buildings. Why not act in the wise manner of theCommissioners of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, who acceptedMr. Richardson's advice and constructed a masterpiece' of archi-tecture in granite that will stand for ages, a monument of utilityand of rare beauty?

THE CITY DISCHARGES FIFTY MILLION GALLONS OFSEWAGE DAILY INTO LAKE ERIE.

We admit that to find fault requires little of head or heart; buteven less ability is needed to see the utter folly of expecting sweetwaters for drinking and other purposes if, after expending millionsfor the flushing tunnel (eighteen feet in diameter and three and ahalf miles long), and for the intercepting sewers (ten miles long),the city continues, within contaminating distance of its water in-take, to discharge fifty million gallons, or more, of vile sewageevery twenty-four hours. The extravagant flushing tunnel and theintercepting sewers advised by the city's commission of five expertengineers will neither safely dispose of the sewage nor furnish uspure water.

What, then, is the permanent remedy? The answer is a com-mon sense one, viz: keep all the garbage and sewage, not chem-ically treated, out of the river and the lake.

The city recently has decided to keep the garbage out of theriver &nd lake. Isn't it equally wise to keep the sewage out of thelake? What need, then, of a huge and extensive flushing tunnel ?

The recent vast purchases of silver by the United States Govern-ment has resulted in the enormous loss of $145,000,000, and, alas!it was too late when Congress decided to stop buying the burden-some white metal.

In a similar manner this city has continued unwisely to invest ina wrong plan of sewerage—the single system combining the stormwater and sewage—and sooner or later the city must sacrifice muchof the large amount already invested in its antiquated seweragesystem. It is now proposed to add at least many millions more to

I

20 SOME SUGGESTIONS ON SEWAGE DISPOSAL.

this bad investment, which would be the height of folly; besides,it would perpetuate in our midst fearful diseases, with occasionalepidemics.

PARIS VOTES TO KEEP SEWAGE OUT OF THE SEINE.

Paris, the world's typical city on many lines of reform, votes tokeep the sewage out of the River Seine, though most of its watersupply is taken from the pure streams among the hills.

Paris is also considering a proposition to bring water from dis-tant Lake Geneva, in Switzerland.

After several years of experimental treatment of its sewage byintermittent filtration upon a large tract of land, Paris has decidedto purchase ample acreage upon which to purify all of its sew-age. The estimated cost of this new work is §6,000,000.

INTELLIGENT BERLIN AND OTHER GERMAN CITIES.

In the seventies intelligent Berlin acted in this important matterof sanitary sewage disposal. The River Spree that flows through theheart of the capital was as filthy as the Cuyahoga or ChicagoRivers ; but to-day, with nearly two millions of people resident inBerlin and suburbs, the Spree is as clean as in primitive days.Berlin's sewage is conveyed by gravity to a pumping station, andthere lifted from seventy to one hundred feet to the city's sewagefarms. A portion of these farms is leased at §16 per year peracre. Land owners adjoining at first objected, but now they gladlypay $2 per year per acre for receiving sewage on their own land.

Dantzig, Breslau, Magdeburg, and other German cities, haveadopted the same process. Many of the cities in Western andCentral Europe are growing quite as rapidly as our own, andpractical attention has been given to their sewage for the last quar-ter of a century.

VIGOROUS ENGLAND TOOK THE LEAD YEARS AGO.

England, however, took the lead years ago, and most interestingsewage experiments can be studied there.

There are thirty-eight places on the River Thames and RiverLee where the sewage is treated, and crude sewage is not allowedto run into the streams. Birmingham, with a half million of pop-ulation, treats its sewage chemically, and then applies the effluentto meadow lands.

SOME SUGGESTIONS ON SEWAGE DISPOSAL. 21

In Central England and back of her greatest harbor, Liverpool,is a small area, and perhaps one of the most densely populated ofany region of its size on the earth, due largely to the harbor andthe adjacent deposits of coal and iron ore, where, within a radiusof forty miles of Manchester, are located nearly a dozen largecities, Liverpool, Birkenhead, Leeds, Sheffield, Salford, Bolton,Blackburn, Preston, Oldham and Huddersfield, and a hundredsmall places, many so adjacent that the region seems one immenseextended city. Here, in a broken hill country of impervious soil,in narrow valleys and on small short streams, the sewage questionhas been a difficult one, indeed, but English brains and energyuse chemical precipitation and other methods with much success.

TIDAL CURRENTS SUMMONED TO THE AID OFLONDON.

The output of sewage of thrifty Glasgow and the enormous ag-gregate of many nationalities of "greater London " is carried byintercepting sewers down into estuaries, where, by the natural flowof fresh river waters and the powerful tidal currents, it is borne attimes seaward. At London, however, the nuisance became sogreat in the Thames, both to the shipping and to the residentsupon the banks of the river below and above the points of dis-charge, that the authorities of late have been compelled to treatchemically the whole sewage.

A CHEMICAL TREATMENT ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.

To discharge our sewage without chemical treatment into thethe river, or into Lake Erie, even many miles east of the city, willbe to repeat London's folly. But to keep our sewage out of theharbor and lake is a sound policy that generations to come willheartily approve. It will take years to complete the extensive sys-tem of intercepting sewers contemplated by the city, and in themeantime Cuyahoga River and the water supply will be foully pol-luted by a score of valley sewers, including the enormous Wal-worth Run sewer, 16 feet, 9 inches in diameter. Instead of a mil-lion dollars for a flushing tunnel, $40,000 annual interest on thebonds, besides the large working expense of the same, why not as atCanton and elsewhere, treat chemically the sewage that flows fromthe larger valley sewers into the river till the whole valley sewageis intercepted by the new system? Thus a much smaller amount

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22' . SOME SUGGESTIONS ON SEWAGE DISPOSAL.

of expenditure for a few years will save building the costly flush-ing tunnel, and also will save hundreds of lives.

BOSTON, CHICAGO AND OTHER CITIES SPENDMILLIONS.

Thoughtful Boston is expending $10,000,000 to rid its low BackBay lands (the aristocratic quarter), the Charles River, and ail itsdocks and shipping of sewage.

It is carried by gravity far away to Moon Island, and then pumpedinto the ebb tide, which conveys the sewage far out to sea.

Energetic Chicago willingly pays $30,000,000 to free forever itsriver, harbor and shipping from sewage by a great drainage canal,which connects with the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.

South Framington, Marlborough, Gardner, Brocton, of Massa-chusetts, Oberlin, of Ohio, and other cities and towns of America,take their sewage out upon adjacent lands.

Both Detroit and Buffalo discharge their sewage into the con-tracted and swift waters of the great lakes, that pass uniformly bywith a strong current.

The experts, adopting, they say, the " diluting method," andwith very limited knowledge of the lake currents off Cleveland, re-commend that our whole sewage be "discharged into Lake Erie,ten miles east of the city, near the lake bottom at least one-halfmile from the shore." Why do the experts by intercepting sewersdischarge at a single point, if they fully believe in the dilutedmethod? Surely the "dilution " is greater by our present severalwidely separated lake discharges. Are the experts consistent?

On the next page we present to Cleveland's taxpayers a minia-ture government map of Lake Erie, the contour of which is verysuggestive in the important matter of lake currents.

Everybody is familiar with the rebound of a ball when thrownat an angle against a barn or smooth surface—the angle of reflec-tion is equal to the angle of incidence. One can easily compre-hend that the vast volume of water which is poured out of the De-troit River at A easterly into Lake Erie must flow towards andreach the lake shore of Ohio at B, west of Cleveland, and the re-bound must be in a northerly direction, passing far north of Cleve-land's harbor and impinging against the Canadian shore at C.

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24 SOME SUGGESTIONS ON SEWAGE DISPOSAL.

CLEVELAND IS LOCATED ON A GREAT BAY.

Railroad engineers tell us that Lake Erie's bank at B is rapidlybeing worn away, and it is evident that the currents that flow fromB to C are also wearing a great bay on the Canadian shore at C.Thence, the waters depositing sand at D, escape around LongPoint north of Erie, and flow past Buffalo and over Niagara Falls.

Cleveland is located on a great bay that deeply indents thesouthern shore of Lake Erie. Locate the new water intake as theexperts recommend at E, four miles from the old pumping station,and E. would still be three miles from F on a straight line drawnfrom G at Point Avon at Fairport. If the lake currents are asshown, what presumption to imagine that the sewage of Clevelanddischarged east of the city will be always carried safely away fromour old or a new water intake, especially when hundreds of wit-nesses testify to seeing all about our present water crib, and oftenfar north of it, the floating refuse of garbage barrels, which wasdumped by contractors into the lake far east of the crib.

Warm sewage, rising to the top of the cold lake water, will fol-low the garbage, and though it be discharged eastward, yet, driftedby the winds, it will surely return via the city intake and hydrantsto claim its daily victims.

VETO EVERY UNSANITARY SEWAGE DISPOSALSCHEME.

Mr. Force's flushing tunnel in use would only hasten out of theriver and forward to the water intakes the output of eighteen ormore valley sewers and quantities of manufacturing waste. Hisflushed discharge would always be into a great basin of shallow,sluggish water enclosed by the government breakwater.

Here vast quantities of sewage in the future would continue toaccumulate, as in the past, and to be heated by the summer's sunto again be more generously and surely flushed out around andfinally drawn into our present water crib or intake, or into anynew intake, every time the clounds of heaven brought copiousshowers into the Cuyahoga Valley—showers of refreshing for sub-urbanites, but millions of deadly microbes for city takers of lakewater. The State Board of Health should veto at once every un-sanitary and unscientific sewage disposal scheme that endangersthe health and life of citizens of Ohio.

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SOME SUGGESTIONS ON SEWAGE DISPOSAL. 25

) • The last Legislature enacted bills which will enable the City of

Cleveland to make the following improvements, provided the CityCouncil approves, and that the money can be raised.

^ 1. For garbage plant -..: $ 150,000 00

cost $6,000,000) 750,000 00

Total *$5,560,000 00

*An increase of about 60 per cent, of the city debt. Anamount almost double the total appropriation bill of theState of Ohio for 1895, which is $3,535,117.December 31, 1895, city debt $ 9,716,599 19

The city debt is increased, if the authorized bonds

are issued, to .' $15,276,599 19

The proposed improvements for waterworks, sewers, park sys-tem, etc., when completed and paid for, including the interest, willcost $20,000,000 or more.

A very important matter, and much discussed just now by thecity administration, is the money question. Its members oftenask, how can the necessary funds be secured. It is estimated thatthe s per cent, (old debt limit) of the present city's tax duplicate,' will yield a balance of $800,000. The last Legislature raised theCleveland's old debt limit of 5 per cent, to 7, and the extra 2 percent, on the 1896 tax duplicate, which is estimated at $135,000,000is $2,700,000. This amount, added to the balance above, will fur-nish for said improvements only 3,500,000. A million should besaved by postponing indefinitely the flushing tunnel. The newdebt limit of 7 per cent, reached, how can the balance of over onemillion be raised? . Nevertheless we heartily favor all practicalimprovements for Greater Cleveland.

IV. A "Court of Honor" for Cleveland.

" Noble public buildings, like open books written in stone, are read of all men."

All public buildings in America should be permanently andartistically constructed, as in Europe, and with accommodationssufficient to meet not only the needs of the present, but the de-mands of future generations.

The golden opportunity is ours to create for Greater Clevelanda court of homor, if we wisely elect to locate and build suitablePostoffice, City Hall, Court House, and Public Library.

IDEAL SITES FOR PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

The ideal site for a new Postoffice embraces, as is generallyconceeded, the area occupied by the old Postoffice, the Case block,and the intervening street. The whole site then would be sur-rounded by streets, which is a legal requirement. Fortunately thenew Postoffice matter is in charge of our capable Congressman,Hon. T. E. Burton, and others, gentlemen who will not fail inconsummating this much-needed and worthy project.

It is equally apparent that a new City Hall, Court House, andPublic Library can be more centrally and economically located onthe Public Square than elsewhere. Since all our electric railwaylines converge on the Public Square, for a single fare everybodycould then transact business with Postoffice, with city and countyofficials, and visit both the library and Cuyahoga's fine tribute topatriotism.

The total value of the unoccupied sections of the Square for thepurposes named is not less than three million dollars. Thiswould make a saving in interest alone of not less than $120,000per year.

Both New York and Philadelphia built their-city halls and courthouses on their most centrally located squares or parks. NewYork built her $9,000,000 postoffice on a park, and she is nowdiscussing the locating of her new Public Library on another park,occupied in part at present by an old reservoir. Other cities haveacted likewise.

Our new Postoffice, City Hall, Court House, and Library, thuslocated, well planned and constructed, would become the pride ofthe present generation, and the admiration of posterity.

A COURT OF HONOR FOR CLEVELAND.

27

Noble public buildings, in which science and art unite, alwaysbecome praiseworthy monuments of highest knowledge and pur-pose, and, like open books written in stone, they are continuallyread of all men.

OBJECTIONS TO THE PUBLIC SQUARE ANSWERED.

Objections, of course, are made. Some say "that the PublicSquare is needed for a breathing spot." Fortunately, Superiorstreet is 132 feet in width, and breezy Lake View Park is onlythree blocks away. Who, in recent years, ever saw a businessman, weary clerk, or mechanic sit on the Public Square? Or hasanybody ever seen a mother or nurse-maid airing the baby on theSquare? They prefer the cool winds off Lake View, or some otherpark. Years ago the Public Square ceased to be a sanitarium, forgrass, flowers, and trees will not thrive there.

Owners of property about the Square also object. They say" that public buildings on the Square will injure our property."The reverse statement is truer, viz.—that public buildings on thePublic Square, where business is to-day curtailed, will enhanceand give permanent values to every foot of the abutting property.If the Square is not built upon, the property surrounding it willsuffer a marked depreciation, or blight in value, the same as hasbeen keenly experienced by owners of property on River, Water,and Bank streets, including lower Superior street, because of theswift movement of the business and resident centers up town.

Lawyers interpose legal objections. This is to be expected.

On April 2, 1894, a vote was taken by the citizens of Clevelandon the subject of erecting a City Hall on the Public Square,with the following result: yes, 18,968; no, 13,650; majority infavor, 5,318. But if there is any truth in vox populi, vox dei, lawyers should respect this verdict.

PUBLIC LIBRARY ON THE SOUTHWEST CORNER

OF THE SQUARE.

The Public Library should be built on the southwest corner ofthe Square, opposite and east of the Forest City House. A splen-did Grecian structure would be ornamental, with its Doric, Ionic,and Corinthian columns.

28

A COURT OF HONOR FOR CLEVELAND.

CITY HALL, AND COURT HOUSE ON THE NORTHERNHALF OF THE SQUARE.

Our City Hall and Court House should occupy jointly the wholenorthern half of the Square to the street line, including the spaceover Ontario street. The total area is 468 feet fronting on Super-ior street by 183^ feet deep. This area is quite sufficient, sinceour age is utilitarian. This one building, fifteen stories in height,exclusive of cellar and basement, would have nearly thirty acres offloor surface, which could be increased by more stories when needed.The use of structural steel, the arch and elevator have more thandoubled the height of the new city buildings, and thereby have en-hanced the value of most lands centrally located. The height ofour public buildings on the Square at the outset should be such asnot to be dwarfed by the adjacent private buildings alredy erectedand planned.

To unite on the Square the Court House and City Hall in a grandstructure with a high tower, as in Philadelphia, not only saves thecost of two separate sites but lessens the cost of two separate build-ings, and it will save largely in the expense of maintaining twobuildings with heat, light, water,and other necessities ; also, it willsave great inconveniencies to the public. Besides, a single massivestructure will add dignity and general effect, which is most desir-able in public buildings.

A ROOF GARDEN OVERLOOKING CITY AND LAKE.

A roof garden on top of a tall building on the Public Squarewould afford the people ten times as much enjoyment as is nowderived among stunted trees, wilted grass, and the hot gravel ofthe Square. Gorgeous roof gardens multiply in New York andChicago. These breezy gardens with far-away outlook over cityand water, have become the city man's Arcadia. There thousandsof weary folks betake themselves in outing shirts and tan shoes,and with concert music forget the hot summer evenings. Thesecentral roof gardens will become as essential for popular comfortas the parks themselves.

Of course the Court House end of the great structure should bein the northwest corner, adjacent to the old Court House and jail.Large, light, and suitable rooms of justice should be built. Theold and the new Court House might be united over the street by a"bridge of sighs," as in Pittsburg, and under the road by a whitetiled and lighted tunnel, which would furnish a safe passageway forprisoners to and from the jail to the court rooms.

A COURT OF HONOR FOR CLEVELAND. 29

STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE.

The style of architecture of the combined City Hall and CourtHouse should be substantial and not unlike that of the elegantbuilding of the Society for Savings. A granite facing for the wholestructure would prove quite as cheap in cost and more durable thanany of our know sandstones or limestones.

TWO MASTERPIECES IN ARCHITECTURE.

The cities of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia have recently completedtwo wonderful public buildings. Pittsburg was fortunate in securingthe services of the late Mr. Henry Hobson Richardson, of Boston, anarchitect of genius and phenominal energy, of large soul and concep-tion. Hewas paid one hundred thousanddollarsincommissions, andhe built for Allegheny county his masterpiece, "a palace and a prisonon each hand," and a stately tower 180 feet above all, the wholea magnificent temple, "justitia sacrum," the pride and admirationof Western Pennsylvania. Its cost was $2,500,000.

For nearly two centuries the "city of Philadelphia had its cityhall in spots," like many other large American cities. For gener-ations the want of proper apartments has crowded the city officialsof Philadelphia, and her citizens who had business with them, andalso interferred with the county in their administration of justice.The cost, the locality, and other causes stood in their way. Fi-nally the Legislature of Pennsylvania, by an act approved 5th ofAugust, 1870, provided "for the erection of all the public build-ings required to accommodate the courts and for all municipal pur-poses in the city of Philadelphia." That act created the commis-sion which is still in charge of the duty, and gave the citizens ofPhiladelphia the privilege of indicating by popular vote whetherthe buildings should be on Washington Square or on PennsylvaniaSquare, the latter being more centrally located, and intersected bythe city's two great thoroughfares, viz: Broad and Market streets.

THE PEOPLE OF PHILADELPHIA VOTED IN FAVOROF WASHINGTON SQUARE.

The people, by a large majority, voted in favor of PennsylvaniaSquare. Then there followed angry opposition in the city counciland Legislature, and a series of litigations, but without changingthe location. The first stone was laid on the 12th day of August,1872, and to-day Philadelphia boasts of the finest city and countybuildings in America, if not in the world.

30 A COURT OF HONOR FOR CLEVELAND.

PENNSYLVANIA SQUARE AND CLEVELAND'S PUBLICSQUARE ARE OF NEARLY THE SAME SIZE,

each containing about ten acres. Other similarities exist in thesetwo squares, their relative locations, the personal objections offered,and the preliminary steps taken.

The Philadelphians combined their city and county offices in asingle noble structure at a municipal center, from which all thingsradiate and to which all things converge. Market and Broadstreets at their intersection were closed to all except pedestrians,who now pass tnrough the buildings, and a large interior court.This remarkable structure is 470 feet from east to west, and 48634feet from north to south, covering an area, exclusive of court yard,of nearly four and a half acres, and is one of the largest singlebuildings on the continent. It contains 520 rooms, of suitabledimensions, and is thoroughly fitted with heat, light, ventilation,and every convenience. The citizens have easy access to courtsand departments of the city government by eight grand staircasesand twenty-four elevators. The whole structure is thought to befireproof, and has cost over $16,000,000.

THE PHILADELPHIANS IMITATED THE BELGIANAND ENGLISH CITIES.

The architecture is French Renaissance, modified to the require-ments of a great American municipality. The basement story is offine white granite. Above this is white marble, from the Berkshirehills of Massachusetts, which is wrought in forms of exquisitebeauty. The whole exterior is bold in outline and rich in detail,being adorned with ornate columns, pilasters, pediments, cornices,and enriched windows.

On the north side stands the grandest tower, probably, in theworld, crowned with a statute of William Penn, twenty feet inheight. The tower is ninety feet square at the base, and with itsbronze statute rises to the extraordinary altitude of 547 feet, Thatit should have been kept eight feet less in height than the height,555 feet, of the marble obelisk to the memory of Washington, isto the credit of Quaker modesty.

The Philadelphians, imitating the Belgian cities of Mediaeval timesand thrifty English cities of to-day, have made the structure thecrowning feature of Philadelphia, whether the approach is by rail-way or steamer.

Are not the citizens of the Forest City as enterprising as those ofPittsburgh and Philadelphia ?

V. The Mediterranean and GreatLakes Compared.

"Seas do not divide; they connect."—Emperor William II., of Germany.

" Next to the protection of life and property, transportation is the most Importantconcern of civilized existence."—C. N. Dutton, C. E.,!New York.

The European Mediterranean is a great inland sea which servesas a connecting link between the three surrounding continents,viz. : Europe, Asia, Africa. Its area is nearly a million squaremiles, and its shores include about three million square miles ofthe richest of lands. Here the extremes of temperatures are un-known.

The area of the American Mediterranean, or the great freshwater inland lakes of North America, is to-day only about a tenthof the old world sea.

GREAT LAKES ONCE AN ENORMOUS INLAND SEA.

Scientists however claim that 12,000 or more years ago, whenthe St. Lawrence and Mohawk Rivers were gorged with glacier ice,the five or six great lakes and adjacent submerged lands formed asingle enormous inland sea, which in size must have rivaled theEuropean Mediterranean.» Before the Atlantic wore away and submerged the isthmus that

once connected Europe with Africa at the Strait of Gibralter, theevaporation being twice that of the rainfall, the level of the Medi-terranean sank, till in place of the present big inland sea thereappeared several great lakes. The waters of the Black Sea ranthrough the Bosphorus and Dardanelles into the Levant or easternbasin, the same as the surplus waters of Lake Superior to-day rushthrough the narrow rapids of St. Mary's River into Lake Huron.

An examination of the submarine map of the Mediterraneanreveals that its eastern and western basins, with a depth varyingfrom 1,000 to 2,000 fathoms, were once separated by an isthmuswhich . extended between Cape Bon in Tunisia and Sicily, andafforded free communication between Europe and Africa for ele-phants, the hippopotami, the sleepy dormouse, and other landanimals.

32 THE MEDITERRANEAN AND GREAT LAKES COMPARED.

THE EUROPEAN MEDITERRANEAN.

A further study of the old world Mediterranean, physically andhistorically, may reveal the future great possibilities of the newworld inland lakes. Like our great fresh water lakes, the salt Med-iterranean is practically a tideless sea. The levels of the greatlakes slowly rise and fall till their respective basins become re-stricted to areas necessary to equalize the amount of evaporationand precipitation.

This is not the case with the Mediterranean. All the estimated226 cubic miles of water, which its rivers annually discharge intoit, are evaporated, besides much additional water. The differencebetween the rainfall and the evaporation is supplied by a copiousupper current from the Atlantic flowing through the Strait of Gib-raltar, while an under current flowing west disposes of most of theexcess of salinity.

THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION, ANDTHE PHOENICIANS.

The Mediterranean region is the cradle of civilization. Many ofthe great dramas of the distant past, and not a few important eventsof later dates, were evolved on its shores. The Phoenicians dwelton the sea coast of Syria, occupying a narrow strip of land. Homerrepresents them as daring pirates and merchants. They first ap-plied astronomy to navigation. Their ships visited the BritishIsles for tin and penetrated the Baltic for golden amber. Theirsplendid system of colonization became a chief source of theirpower, wealth and extensive commerce.

The Phoenicians furnished the world with alphabetical characters,arithmetic, costly products of the loom, and choice works of artwhich even the early Greeks greatly admired.

The South of Europe is divided into three beautiful peninsulasthat extend into the Mediterranean, the most eastern of which in-cludes Greece.

THE HELLENES, OR GREEKS.

From Mt. Olympus, throne of the gods, and from Mt. Parnassusthe traveler cannot fail to observe the chains of mountains that di-vide Greece into small irregular plains that aided in forming theGreeks into separate states. The scenery is very picturesque, andthe climate is most enjoyable. Here is a small country where wereenacted wonderful parts in history by the Hellenes or Greeks.

THE MEDITERRANEAN AND GREAT LAKES COMPARED. 33

They, too, doubtless, belonged to the famous Indo-European race,who from the earliest times have been the conquerors and civilizersof mankind. The Greeks also extended their colonial system every-where along the coast of the Mediterranean, till in the sixth centuryB. C, the Hellenic race was the most powerful, in extent of terri-tory and resources, in the European world. Poetry, the drama,architecture, and sculpture reached their highest excellence inGreece.ROMANS, AND THEIR RIVALS, THE CARTHAGINIANS.

Italy, the middle peninsula, proudly claims Rome, a city whichbefore Christ, by successive stages rose to be the most popular, therichest, and the grandest of European cities, and was mistress ofa universal empire. Her public edifices were of almost unparallcdmagnificence. Upon and about her seven hills stood palaces, tem-ples, basilicas, fountains, and baths, colossal mausoleums, obelisks,statutes, triumphal arches, aqueducts, amphitheaters, and greatartificial lakes for spectacular sea fights.

Carthage, on the north shore of Africa, became the rival ofRome. Love of gain and not patriotism was the ruling passion ofthe Carthaginians. The three Punic wars destroyed the power ofCarthage. The perserverence and iron will of Rome finally tri-umphed over the strategy and political genius of Hannibal, andScipio destroyed Carthage and ran the plowshare over its site, sow-ing salt in the furrows, emblem of annihilation.

THE VICTORIOUS MOSLEMS.

In 647 an expedition left Egypt, impelled by the hope of plunderand the desire to promulgate the religious system of Mohammed,overran North Africa, and soon had fleets at sea which dominatedthe Mediterranean. For a long time it seemed as if all Europewould be obliged to submit to this new religion.

These victorious Arabs, or Moselms, found the sword an efficientmissionary, and pressed forward till checked at the Pyrenees byCharles Martel, and later by the cross at the walls of Vienna.Wherever the Arabs settled, they introduced an improved system ofagriculture, they fostered literature, and the arts of peace, andeven to this day their architecture is the wonder and admiration ofthe world.

Commerce was highly honored by the Arabs. In the ninth cen-tury, however, dissensions began to undermine the Moslem Empire,and in 1492 the Arabs or Moors were driven out of Western Eu-rope by Eerdinand and Isabella.

34 THE MEDITERRANEAN AND GREAT LAKES COMPARED.

BEYOND. THE PILLARS OF HERCULES.

The dread of the vast solitudes of the ocean beyond the Pillarsof Hercules was gradually overcome. Columbus discovered Amer-ica, and the Portugese circumnavigated Africa, and so relegatedfor a time the Mediterranean to a position of secondary impor-tance.

When Ferdinand De Lesseps created the Suez Canal, once morethis historic sea became the highway of nations. Now a roundvoyage to the East is made in sixty days, which formerly requiredfrom six to eight months.

English commercial intercourse with the Mediterranean datesback to the time of the Crusades, and to-day Great Britain is thegreat carrying power of the world.

DISCOVERERS OF THE AMERICAN MEDITERRANEAN.

The American Mediterranean, and the valleys of the Ohio, Mis-souri, and Mississippi, were explored by the missionary, the furtrader and the soldier, who bore the flag of France. The outpostsof civilization on the line of the St. Lawrence system were held byFrance for over two hundred years, when, by the treaty of Paris,in 1763, she ceded Canada, or half a continent, to Great Britain,with about equal water rights on the great lakes. The French ex-plorers, Cartier, Champlain, Duluth, Hennepin, Joliet, La Salle,Marquette, and others, were the pioneers of faith and civilization,and their names and influence cannot be forgotten.

FERDINANDO DE SOTO, HIS LOVE, AND BURIAL.

Ferdinando De Soto, who was the first European to look uponthe "father of waters," when a youth, loved Isabella, the beauti-ful daughter of his old patron, Davilla. For fifteen lonely yearsshe waited and watched for the return of her lover from his longjourney to the new world, and married him. Then Isabella accom-panied Ferdinando back to Havana, where she patiently awaitedhis return from the conquest of Florida, and a fruitless search forgold.

The Hot Springs of Arkansas, which De Soto discovered, wereaccredited with being the long sought for fountain of youth. Buta slow fever ended his life far from his expectant bride. That allknowledge of his death might be kept from the superstitious Indians,who credited him with supernatural powers, his grief-stricken com-panions encased his body in a tree-trunk, and wrapping it with hismantle, at dead of night they sank it in the depths of the Missis-

THE MEDITERRANEAN AND GREAT LAKES COMPARED. 35

sippi. News of the death of her Spanish lover crushed Isabella'sheart, and she expired at Havana.

LARGEST SYSTEM OF FRESH WATER NAVIGATION.

The Dominion of Canada and the United States for nearly halfthe distance across the new world are divided by the St. LawrenceRiver and system of great lakes. From tidewater on the Atlanticthe great lakes system penetrates 1,400 miles into the heart of thecontinent, and the head of Lake Superior is only 1,700 miles fromthe Pacific coast. Belle Island at the mouth of the St. Lawrenceis about midway between Duluth and Liverpool.

The area of these great American lakes is about twice the size ofthe State of New York. They contain more than one-half the areaof all the fresh water on the globe, and form the largest system ofinland and deep water navigation on the earth. No other inlandwater system floats so vast a commerce, or touches, as this does,the vital interests of so many millions of independent and thriftypeople. It is also remarkable that three of the drainage systemsof the continent have their sources about one hundred and fiftymiles northwest of Duluth. Thence flow waters to the ocean,northward into Hudson's Bay, southward through the MississippiValley into the Gulf of Mexico, and eastward through the lakesystem and the St. Lawrence into the Atlantic. Of the eight statesthat boder directly upon the great lakes, some are the largest, mostpopulous , and highly productive, while to the northwest of Duluthand also tributary to the lakes, lie spread out of American andCanadian territory, capable of boundless production and great pop-ulation, an area equal to thirty states, the size of the Empire State.

GIGANTIC TRAFFIC ON THE GREAT LAKES.

The tonnage of the great lakes will not only compete for thisenormous commerce, but for the unlimited products of the vastplains and mountain regions of the far Northwest. And this isnot all, for largely on this water line the commercial exchanges ofthe Atlantic States and Europe will be made with the Pacific slope,Japan, China, and distant Australia.

Already the traffic on the great lakes is gigantic, approaching65,000,000 tons. The grain movement alone in the season of 1891from Duluth and West Superior, from Chicago, Milwaukee, Toledo,and Detroit, was 197,165,208 bushels (of a total production of399,262,000 bushels), or three bushels per capita for every inhab-itant of the entire country.

36 THE MEDITERRANEAN AND GREAT LAKES COMPARED.

The total entries and clearances, foreign and coastwise, in 1889,for the ports of London and Liverpool, were 33,420,617 tons, andthe same year the total entries and clearances, in the foreign trade,at all the seaports in the United States were 26,983,313 tons. Thecombined tonnage is 60,403,930 tons, which falls below that ofthe great lakes.

VALUABLE HIGHWAY OF THE GREAT LAKES.

The fish of these lakes are valuable, but vastly more profitableare the great lakes as an international highway for the cheapeningof tonnage for the people.

For the years 1888, 1890, 1891, the all rail rate average forwheat from Chicago to New York, 985 miles, was 14.76 cents perbushel. The average rate for same years on wheat from Chicagoto New York by the lakes (1.73 cents) and the Erie Canal (5-14cents) was 6.87 cents per bushel, a saving to producer and custo-mer of over half the railway freight, or 7.89 cents per bushel,which means a vast amount of annual savings. In 1859 it cost tocarry a bushel of corn from Chicago by lake to Buffalo 15^ cents.In 1895 it cost only seven-eights of a cent. In 1867 it cost tocarry a ton of iron ore from Escanaba to Lake Erie ports $4.25.In 1895 ^ cost only 50 cents. For the season of 1896 the all railand water rates have been the lowest ever known. West of thelakes the railway freight charges exceed one cent per ton mile. Onthe close of navigation trunk lines usually double their freightcharges. The five commodities, wheat, corn, iron ore, coal, andlumber, make up nine-tenths of the total enormous tonnage movingthrough the Sault Canal, the iron ore being over one-half.

A REMARKABLE RECORD. INCREASED CARGOES..The cost per ton per mile for an average of 800 miles was onlyone mill and three-tenths. This is less than one-fifth of the lowestcost to any of our railways. This very low water rate alone makesit possible for the Lake Superior iron ore to move on wheels tomeet the coal of the Central States.

The record of the Oliver mine, a Carnegie property, on theMesabi range, for 1896 is most remarkable. Recently in a singleday two steam shovels mined 10,750 tons of ore, and during Julythe Oliver mined and shipped 180,000 tons. In the ore businessalready dependent on the highway of the great lakes there is nowinvested the enormous amount of about $250,000,000.

On June 30, 1896, the registered American tonnage of the lakeswas 1,324,067 tons, and in 1895 included 1,755 steam vessels and 1 587

THE MEDITERRANEAN AND GREAT LAKES COMPARED. 37

sailing vessels and barges. The capacity of the newer steel steam-ships range from 2,500 to 5,000 tons. The larger ships with twentyfeet of water will carry 6,000 or more tons. The great lake fleet,regardless of wind and weather, bears its cargoes from port toport, a thousand miles apart, with the precision of the steam rail-way, each of the cargo ships conveying more than ten ordinaryfreight trains.

CLEVELAND SECOND ONLY TO THE CLYDE

IN SHIP BUILDING.

A large percentage of these steel ships are built in Cleveland,and we proudly rate the Forest City in shipbuilding as second onlyto the Clyde. Ought we to be content with any position save thefirst in shipbuilding, manufacturing and commerce?

Borrowers of trouble have feared that Cleveland might becomean inland city by the advance of Niagara Falls into Lake Erie,draining our lake so that a river thirty miles north of Clevelandwould connect Buffalo and Detroit. But the probable use in thenear future of all the water above the Falls upon turbine wheels inthe production of electricity should allay our anxiety.

We need, however, to be much concerned in securing deep watercommunications between the great lakes and the Atlantic, alsoin regulating the levels of the lakes.

THE ST. MARY'S AND SUEZ CANALS.

The carrying capacity of the present lake fleet will soon begreatly increased, when twenty feet of water is had through everychannel between Duluth, Chicago, and Buffalo. At a cost of about-$5,000,000 the great Leonardo lock on the siteof the original lock of1895 at St. Mary's Falls is already completed. It is 650 feetlong, 80 feet wide, and has a lift of 18 feet. In 1895, in sevenmonths, almost 100 per cent more tonnage passed the St. Mary'sCanal than through the Suez Canal, a world's channel of commerce.The record is as follows: The commerce in actual freight of St. Mary'sCanal (eight months), was 16,860,781 tons, against 8,448,385tons for the Suez Canal (twelve months.) The value of St. Mary'sCanal tonnage was $185,000,000, and the cost per ton-mile waseighty-five one hundredths of a mill. This is less than one-fourth of what the best railway receives on through freight.Six million dollars more are being expended in removing otherchannel obstructions and in dredging flats and shoals. These deeperchannels will greatly reduce freight rates.

38 THE MEDITERRANEAN AND GREAT LAKES COMPARED.

At the lower end of Lake Erie serious obstructions to navigationare encountered. Only fourteen feet of water will be availablefrom Lake Erie via the Welland Canal and the St. Lawrence Rivereven when costly improvements, now in progress, are completed bythe Canadians, so that at the foot of Lake Erie most of our trafficfor the seaboard and foreign ports must break bulk, and sufferwastes, tolls arid transfer charges often as great as the lake com-merce itself.

DEEP WATER NAVIGATION FROM LAKE ERIETO TIDEWATER.

How to minimize the food prices paid by the consumers is one ofthe world's great problems. An important factor in the solutionis cheap transportation, which is a powerful magnet that attractsand creates traffic. The keenest minds of the continent are seekingto solve the great problem of deep-water navigation from LakeErie to tidewater. From an American standpoint the patrioticsolution is in the route from Lake Erie to the Hudson via LakeOntario, the River St. Lawrence, Lakes St. Francis and Champlain.The canal mileage would be seventy-five miles only, and the tonmileage would be increased 50 per cent, or more.

The cost of a twenty-foot canal, which would be $100,000,000 ormore, is of course the most serious obstacle. Already the Hans-brough-Cooper bill is before congress, which seeks the incorpora-tion of the Maritime Canal Company of North America—a measureasking no government aid or guaranty in any form to build a shipcanal from the great lakes to the Atlantic. The loeks to admitvessels are to be 550 feet in length and sixty-five feet in width, thenumber of locks not to exceed ten. The course around NiagaraFalls, in the State of New York, with a declivity of 326 feet, in-cludes only two locks, the Dutton pneumatic possibly. This im-provement would stop the payment by the United States of tolls toCanada through the twenty-five locks of the Welland Canal. It isa very difficult problem to determine the type of vessels that will bebest adapted to lake, canal, and ocean going service combined.

NEW YORK STATE WILL EXPEND $9,000,000.

In the meantime, the State of New York, believing in improvedcanals for the barge fleet, has voted to expend $9,000,000 or morefor the increase of depth of water from seven to nine feet, and forwider canals, and for an improved and less number of locks on theErie, Champlain, and Oswego Canals. The old Erie Canal, 351

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THE MEDITERRANEAN AND GREAT LAKES COMPARED. 39

miles in length, that cost the State $50,000,000,and paid into theState treasury $34,000,000 more than its total cost up to the timewhen tolls were abolished, has also saved for the people hundredsof millions of dollars in the reduced cost of transportation, by itscontrol of East and West trunk railway rates. It is well knownthat rail tariffs are about doubled between the lakes and tidewaterduring the close of navigation.

The railways of Pennsylvania bought the canal property of thatState, and so prevented competition.

The citizens of New York, more jealous of their rights, haverepeatedly declared that "their canals shall not be leased,sold, or otherwise disposed of, but shall remain the property andunder the control of the State forever."

This deepening of the Erie Canal is .perhaps the best improve-ment of the waterway to the sea that can be expected, till we enterupon the achievements of the twentieth century.

HOW TO REGULATE THE PERMANENT LEVELS

OF THE GREAT LAKES.

For the present, it would seem that far greater benefits wouldaccrue from the expenditure, of perhaps $5,000,000, in the con-struction of dams across the Niagara River and the St. Mary'sRiver in an attempt to regulate the permanent levels of the greatlakes, thus preventing in dry seasons a change of several feet inthe depth of water in many of the lake channels and harbors.

Popularize the project of properly regulating the lake levels, andthe money problem can be more easily settled than the internationallegal questions which may be raised. Engineering difficultieswould be readily overcome, and thus much needed improvementswould repay the investment many times. No piers or other ob-structions should ever be built in any lake water ways west ofBuffalo.

'•' To conceive extravagant hopes of the future," said Burke, "isa characteristic of mankind," but we think the statistics of thegreat lakes warrant the

BROADEST OF PLANS AND THE HIGHEST HOPES.

"For thirty-five years I have watched the increase in our lakecommerce, but neither I nor anyone else has been able to expandin ideas at the same rate. The wildest expectations of one yearseem absurdly tame by the side of the actual facts of the next.

Gen. O. M. Poe.

40 THE MEDITERRANEAN AND GREAT LAKES COMPARED.

No doubt in the past, cheaper material, cheaper labor, and cheapercapital have given Great Britian the ascendency in shipbuilding in-dustry and in commerce.

But close observers clearly see that the law of diminishing returnsin Great Britain has become operative; that prices relatively in thiscountry and England are approaching a common level; that herdomestic ores have fallen off nearly 50 per cent.; that she is obligedannually to import more and more of foreign ores and pig ironsuitable for Bessemer and open hearth process of making steel ;that even the Bilboa ore district in Spain approaches exhaustion,so that the United States, especially the Cleveland district, is onthe eve of competing successfully and on a great scale with theworld in all the iron and steel industries. Already several ship-ments of pig iron have been made to England. If our country isto regain its old-time supremacy on the ocean in commerce, is ittoo much to hope that with the unlimited supplies of cheap steelores, and coal near at hand, Cleveland and other lake cities willfurnish structural steel in abundance, which can be sent by Eriebarges to tidewater, and there built into ships and buildings cheaperthan Great Britain or the Atlantic seaboard can supply the requisitematerials ?

A GREAT NATIONAL NEED TO-DAY

is enough American tonnage to carry our immense surplus producefrom tidewater to Europe, and when possible from the lakes via aship <-^nal, and so save an annual drainage of over a hundred mil-lKfti dollars paid to foreign ships. This would greatly help to keepthe balance of trade in our favor and make a credit nation of theUnited States.

The American Mediterranean or great lakes improved, witha deep water ship canal completed, will surely furnish the bestpossible road bed from the heart of a large rich continent and en-ergetic civilization to the world's markets. The wheat of the greatWest is handicapped by the fact that ocean tramps, not half thesize of the lake boats, carry two competing bushels of Argentina grainto Liverpool for the carriage paid on one bushel from Dakota to theRiver Mersey. Mr. Joseph C. Oldham says that with a deep channelto tidewater our lake steamers could find work all the year round.Whatever competition steam railways, reinforced by electricity orfuture compressed air or gas may offer, our inland fresh water com-munications will regulate the prices of many, if not all, of themost important primary products of the great Northwest.Western Reserve University N,Library