The Unspectacular St. Lawrence

The St. Lawrence Seaway is an engineering masterpiece designed to produce economic miracles. It hasn't quite. In the confident hope that a deepwater channel would churn up an international trading boom in the North American heartland, Canada and the U.S. sank $442 million into the Seaway. Last week, as the Great Lakes shipping season approached its crest (unaffected by the coastal shipping strike), the two-year-old Seaway had lost some of its glamour. Says Milwaukee Port Director Harry C. Brockel: "It hasn't been as spectacular as expected. But then, a lot of people were looking for wonders." Though traffic on the St. Lawrence has increased 75% since 1958, last year's volume was still one-third below the 29 million tons that the Canadian-American Joint Tolls Committee originally predicted for 1960. Among the reasons why the 1960 projection proved over-optimistic was a 20-day longshoremen's strike at U.S. lake ports and a slowdown in ore shipments during the recession. But other difficulties are more chronic and basic. Some shippers complain about slow, costly stevedoring at Seaway ports. Others have been discouraged by erratic shipping schedules and time-consuming accidents and stoppages, notably in the Welland Canal, which is the Seaway's Scylla and Charybdis.

Modest Rewards. Port cities that set their original sights too high are hurting now. Cleveland's officials are disappointed because the Seaway attracted only 25% of the expected new tonnage and not a single new industry. Duluth built a new $9,000,000 port terminal, and though the city's outgoing shipments have risen, its import turnover is off 46% from a year ago. Other regional centers profit in some ways only to lose in others. Buffalo's ocean tonnage has doubled, but its great milling business has sagged because Midwest grain carriers now head straight overseas without stopping at Buffalo. Lake Erie steelmakers enjoy cheaper ore imports but suffer stiffer foreign competition, because imported steel is cheaper when brought in through the St. Lawrence.

Cities that set modestly realistic goals are better off. Milwaukee projected 500,000 Seaway tons a year by 1965, may well hit that total this year, helped by a surprising spurt in scrap-metal exports. Ports in Canada are also doing handsomely, partly because railways there are not slashing rates selectively to buck the Seaway as U.S. railroads are doing. Hamilton, Ont., now the busiest port on the lakes, increased its traffic by 600,000 tons last year. Montreal went up 300,000 tons, Toronto 50,000.

Potential Gains. U.S. shippers are slower to switch from time-tried methods of transport. Many a Midwestern grain exporter still prefers to barge his payload down the Mississippi to New Orleans, where shipping schedules are more regular and where the cargo can be put aboard 60,000-ton vessels that sometimes offer cheaper rates than the 15,000-ton ships plying the St. Lawrence. U.S. Seaway authorities want the Government to publicize the economic advantages of their route, but Congress is wary of favoring the waterways over the hard-lobbying railroads and truckers.

Odds are that the Seaway in time will live up to its promise. Traffic in May through the major Montreal-Lake Ontario link rose 20%. Farther west, another traffic increase is expected upon completion of the "Connecting Channels" project, which will open a 27-ft. waterway through the Soo Locks and the Detroit, St. Clair and St. Marys rivers. The Seaway should benefit ultimately, too, from major new iron mines being developed in Labrador and from steadily mounting U.S. and Canadian exports. Says Chicago Regional Port Director Maxim Cohen: "We're just a waddling infant. It will probably be 1965 before we can take off our diapers and put on pants."

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