Baltimore and the Canal.

Chesapeake City, Md., Aug. 2.

To the Editor of The American: He who has passed through to the Delaware River by way of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and has come back again to the Chesapeake by the same route, has at least stored an experience which, in the future, he will be glad to have. When we get that tide level 35-foot deep ship channel across the Peninsula the trip through will undoubtedly be a little more expeditious. The journey to Philadelphia by the way of the canal is worth taking, however, if only for the purpose of obtaining a few mental photographs of the shore lines on the Maryland side and the Delaware and Pennsylvania territory, respectively.

We shall, without long delay, have a report from the committee which the President has appointed to investigate and report upon the most feasible route for a ship canal between Chesapeake and Delaware waters, and it may be accepted with assurance that the very able committee which has this duty in charge will make its recommendations finally with a complete understanding of all the difficulties of construction and advantages that will accrue after construction. It is premature, therefore, for the casual observer to entertain any views concerning the practicability of one route or another. At best, his conclusions can only be arrived at upon partial and superficial information.

There is one phase of this canal question, however, which seems to be rising into prominence, which is new, does not involve problems of engineering, and which possesses a highly engrossing human interest aspect. It is a phase which the debating societies, scattered through Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware might find no end of mental excitement in discussing.

Ex-Mayor Latrobe took a humorous crack at this phase of the canal question in his speech at the luncheon given by General Agnus following the occasion of the organization of the Canal Committee. General Latrobe said: "There is one danger connected with this canal. When built all our crabs and terrapin may migrate to the Delaware Bay, and the Chesapeake Bay would lose its reputation as the gastronomic center of the world."

The humorous view presented by Baltimore's seven-times ex-mayor of this newfangled theory that Philadelphia would get more benefit from the canal that Baltimore is about the same attitude. It is just about as likely that the Bay commerce which is now tributary to Baltimore would make a rush through the canal to Philadelphia as that the terrapin and the crabs would swim through to the Delaware Bay. Philadelphia and the states of Pennsylvania and Delaware will undoubtedly benefit immensely by a ship canal across the Peninsula, but not at the expense of Baltimore.

Philadelphia's chief advantage would be in gaining a safer, quicker, Southern route for her great coasting trade. By using the Chesapeake 200 miles of treacherous coast off Maryland and Delaware could be avoided: and if a deep waterway is opened in time, as it surely will be, from Norfolk to Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, a very much longer inside route will be made practicable for the coasting traffic to Southern ports. It is highly probable that ocean-bound ships to and from Philadelphia, if the Chesapeake route were used, would touch at Baltimore. Even if this were so, it is difficult to figure how the Patapsco port would be damaged thereby. The outcome of Philadelphia and Baltimore being upon the same ocean route, and within upon the same ocean route, and within 100 miles of each other, would most likely work to the disadvantage of New York.

There would be a much greater inducement for the great ocean line to come up the Chesapeake, when there were two great ports offering traffic, than under existing conditions. Philadelphia and Baltimore conjointly should at least counterbalance New York in producing ocean cargoes. At present New York is in a class by herself, having a foreign commerce greater than Baltimore's, Philadelphia's and Boston's combined, with all the other Atlantic ports thrown in for good measure. The linking together of Baltimore and Philadelphia commercially would constitute a serious blow to New York's shipping supremacy. The result would almost surely be to concentrate the southbound ocean traffic at the two cities, using the Chesapeake route.

As for the bay trade, perishable products, such as fruits, vegetables, fish, crabs, oysters, etc., now go to Philadelphia according to market demand. To suggest that the travel and traffic of the bay in general would make a 100-mile longer journey by water to get to Philadelphia, passing Baltimore by, has the same quaint humor in it as General Latrobe's facetious prophecy that the crabs and terrapins will all crawl through the canal and leave us. We will keep our bay traffic until Philadelphia grows all the way down to Havre de Grace, and before that happens Baltimore will have grown up to Havre de Grace, and the contest for supremacy will be at the mouth of the Susquehanna.

REPSAC.