West High School - Senior Occident Yearbook (Rochester, NY)

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154 THE OCCIDENT reer of New York State was the con- struction of the Erie Canal. Since its completion, the state has taken first rank in the commercial world. If the Erie Canal has been so success- ful, what ought not the Barge Canal, a great elaboration of the Erie system, to accomplish ? It will be able to accommo- date about 3,000,000 tons of freight an- nually at much lower freight rates and ten times the volume of traffic on the present canal. It will have magnificent harbor and terminal facilities at each important town with adequate machinery provided to load and unload the barges. One reason for the failure of the Erie Canal was the lack of proper harbor and terminal provisions. The old canal was able to handle boats of an average dis- placement of 500 tons when loaded, while the new canal will be able to handle 3000-ton steel barges mechanically pro- pelled. Therefore transportation on the new canal will be much more rapid. Of course there will be no tow-paths on the new canal. Another advantage of the new canal will be that it will naturally force, on account of its low freights, a reduction of the same on the railroads. The latter have been supreme in the realm of trans- portation long enough and the new canal will compete with them on a fair basis. The people of this state, as well as of those surrounding, will thereby profit, for low freight rates are the magic key that opens the way to profitable produc- tion. They transform the wilderness into busy beehives of industry. They attract business. They increase employ- ment. It is these facts, which cannot be gain- said, that will gradually enter the minds of individuals and corporations about to establish new plants for manufacturing and attract to New York State where they will have access to cheap transpor- tation facilities of the new canal. The magnet of the lower costs of materials and food-stuffs on the one hand, and the lower cost of conveying the finished products to the consumer on the other, will force the establishment of new in- dustries in New York State, and the prosperous expansion of those already here. In this survey of the Barge Canal, I have tried to make it evident that the canal is very desirable primarily because it will be an important factor in the struggle to reduce the high cost of living. Also it will be one of the most important canals in the world, a fact of which New Yorkers may well me proud. Wilbur Coopbr Mildred M.—Do you think the au- tomobile will displace the horse? Helen S.—Yes, it will if it ever hits him. May—Who is that new janitor? Harold McN.—He used to be a bar- tender. May—Oh, I thought I had seen him before. Irene—I couldn’t marry a man study- ing for pharmacy. Vincent—Why ? Irene—Because I would never live on a farm.

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THE OCCIDENT 153 friendly mariner are greatly appreciated by the whole school. The business staff of the play con- sisted of Mrs. Clara B. Ellis, director; Sanford Slocum, business manager; El- lison Martin, asst, business manager; Roy Darron, advertising manager; De- witt Reed, property manager; Mary Fil- more, asst, property manager; Warren Sperry, stage manager; William Taft, electrician. The presentation of “Her Husband’s Wife” has set a high water mark in West High theatricals and we all hope that this high standard may be maintained. The Possibilities of the Barge Canal Before discussing the possibilities of our Barge Canal let us review the his- tory of the New York State canal sys- tem. Doing so. we find that Dewitt Clinton was the father of the system. He dreamed that the canals would create a commerce of such an extent as the na- tion had not yet witnessed. He believed that New York City would become the granary of the world, the emporium of commerce, and the focus of great pecu- niary operations, through the influence of the canal. Clinton’s project was ridiculed by many who called it a “worthless ditch. Nevertheless, in 1825, this canal was opened and it was not long before it proved of great value to all. Commerce on it grew so that the shipping center of the country shifted from Philadelphia to New York City. Important cities at once sprang up along its route and it gave a cheap outlet to the unlimited re- sources of the Great Lake section. Not many years passed before the Erie Canal was outgrown. In 1903, the peo- ple of this state voted greatly to enlarge this waterway of Clinton’s, and make it a Barge Canal. Accordingly, a sum of $108,000,000 was appropriated, followed in 1915, by a second appropriation of $25,000,000. The Barge Canal will consist of four branches, namely; the Champlain Canal which will connect Lake Champlain with New York City; the Oswego Canal which will connect Lake Ontario (at Oswego) with New York; the Seneca Canal which will connect Lake Seneca with New York; and the Barge Canal proper which will connect Buffalo with New York. The Barge Canal is one of the world’s engineering feats. It is about ten times longer than the Panama Canal. It con- tains some of the most notable locks in the world of which there arc fifty-seven. The new canal makes use of rivers and lakes wherever practical, it “canalizes” them by the building of dams, locks and , other engineering works, and obtains what is known as slack water navigation. The length of the combined canals is about 446 miles. Only thirty percent, of this must be excavated. Of course diffi- culties have been encountered in the con- struction. About twenty-five per cent, of the canal must be cut through solid rock. In some places fills-in are necessary to conduct the channel over natural depres- sions. Now comes the question: Do we need this expensive waterway? The answer is an emphatic YES! Let us see what the Erie Canal ac- complished. Was Dewitt Clinton’s dream fulfilled? Yes. New York City became the greatest metropolis in the na- tion. Up to the height of the Erie’s popularity, in 1882, it had earned about $50,000,000 above the cost of construc- tion and maintenance. It gave the cities along its banks the impetus of their de- velopment. Commerce is the mainstay of New York State. Its greatness in commerce is due to the cheapness of transportation afforded by its excellent transportation facilities. The turning point in the ca-

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WEST HIGH BEST IN YEARS Quint Shows More Form Than Ever Before Winning five out of the six games al- ready played is a mighty good record for an Orange and Black basketball team. It’s a record that is to be looked up to. The only game we lost was the one which was played with Lima, and that was by a one point margin. Newark is Easy. Newark was an easy pick for our bovs and the pass-work machine carried the opponents off their feet. It was a steady string of baskets and, with Bartlett and Pete slipping the baskets in, the score steadily rose. The century mark could have easily been reached by the Occi- dentals, but owing to the monotony that was established by such a one-sided game the referee cut about eight minutes off of the second half. But even this made the game a record-breaker for it is the largest score ever made by a West High team, we received 78 points to Newark’s 12. Brockport Also Bows. Brockport Normal came to Rochester to make a clean sweep of all that hap- pened to get in the way. They were positive that they had an easy time in store when it came to West High and they had a perfect right; for they were considered by experts the better team and out-weighed our midgets by a good- ly number of pounds. But they were “stung.” West High put up the hardest fight in years. The score was tie most of the time and when one side scored the other side worked twice as hard and scored also. The final whistle was about to blow and the score was 20-20. The ball flew into Capt. Bartlett’s hands. He looked around and saw all the men cov- ered, so down the floor he dribbled and shot a basket unassisted. The whistle then blew and we come out on top by a score of 22-20. This put one of the hardest opponents of the season on ice. Newark Tightens Up at Home. Newark showed much better form on their home court and held us to but 2f points to their 14. West High played a loose game and should have piled up a larger score. This was perhaps due to a change in the line-up and it is a well known fact that when small town teams play on their own court, they usually can shoot the ball through the hoop from all comers, while West High is handi- capped. Occidentals Also Take Canandai- gua’s Measure. The second game with Canandaigua was played on Canandaigua’s home court and resulted in a second victor)' for West High over the academy boys, this sea- son. A brand new shift was made in the line-up with Brigham and Zeitler back in the game; but Zeitler was gently pushed into the wall by a Canandaiguan and was