Publication of Barge Canal Bulletin -- Akin to Canal Record and Reclamation Record -- Barge Canal, Like Panama Canal, in Need of Creating Favorable Public Opinion -- Services of the Bulletin: Spreading Information to the General Public: Keeping Contractors in Touch with Construction: Preventing the Repetition of Experience Like the Nine-Million Scandal: Encouraging a Spirit of Loyalty -- Lectures Used -- Exhibits a Valuable Means of Publicity -- Various Expositions -- Nature of Canal Exhibits -- Highest Award at Panama-Pacific Exposition -- Newspaper and Magazine Publicity -- Need of More Advertising.

The modern business man believes in advertising. If he did not, the success of his competitors would soon convince him of his error. The State is sometimes charged with not conducting its affairs according to business methods, but, be that as it may in the main, it is true that in connection with Barge canal construction the modern business practice of advertising was employed. At least such an attempt was made, but whether the means used went far enough to accomplish all that was desired is doubtful, especially in the light of certain recent happenings.

Several channels of publicity were employed. Probably the most effectual was the issuing of a monthly publication by the State Engineer. This was called the Barge Canal Bulletin and its publication ran for just eleven years, beginning with the February, 1908, number and ending with that of January, 1919. The State Engineer was not alone in using this means for reaching the public ear in matters of public concern. At various times, often for terms of several years and sometimes for only short periods or even intermittently, many State departments have had their regular or occasional publications. Federal departments have done the same. Aside from the right of the people to know how their affairs are being administered, heads of departments find that it pays in both financial and moral support to keep the public informed. The publications most nearly akin to the Barge Canal Bulletin were the Canal Record and the Reclamation Record, the former the official Panama canal publication, the latter the monthly periodical of the United States Reclamation Service. The Reclamation Record did not begin publication until about two years after the first Barge Canal Bulletin appeared, but the Canal Record antedated the Bulletin by five months, its first issue being that of September 4, 1907.

The Canal Record was a weekly publication and it differed somewhat in character from the Barge Canal Bulletin, serving to keep the Panama canal builders in touch with general activities on the Isthmus as well as those of construction, but this was the publication which inspired the State Engineer to issue something of a like nature. It was at the suggestion of a Federal engineer who had been engaged on early Barge canal construction that State Engineer Skene founded the monthly which his successors continued until the canal was completed in all save a few minor and incidental details.

In the history of the Panama canal there came a time when the people of the country were beginning to be dissatisfied. Things were not going smoothly on the Isthmus and changes of administration were taking place. It is said that President Roosevelt at this time determined on a plan of wide publicity, to turn the tide of popular sentiment. The Canal Record was one feature in this campaign; a most active press bureau, which reached to almost the last newspaper in the land, was a more effectual means. It is known by all how well this plan succeeded and much credit is due the President for conceiving the idea and boldly carrying it out, but he had a powerful ally in the nature of the enterprise itself. The Panama canal had all the elements of popularity -- the romance of the Spanish conquest and of all the early days; the colossal failure of De Lesseps; the adoption of the project by the United States; its office in joining two great oceans; its world-wide fame; its dimensions, admirably suited to tickle the American pride; the enchantment of distance from home. The Barge canal had as much or greater need for a favorable public opinion. By many and with good reason it is considered a greater engineering feat than the Panama canal, but like the prophet in his own country its home state has been foremost in failing to appreciate both its greatness and its importance. It had no such catalogue of characteristics to appeal to the imagination. In the early days of the Erie canal there had been romance in the thought of connecting the great inland seas with the ocean, but somehow that sentiment had worn threadbare. There was no glamour of the distant and the unseen. Moreover there was the very real handicap of former disfavor, a feeling which people had not forgotten or through prejudice did not want to forget. To succeed in a campaign of publicity for the Barge canal involved many difficulties the Panama builders did not have to contend with.

When the Barge Canal Bulletin was started there was no precedent for just the kind of publication it was thought this should be and a policy had to be worked out. Also a mailing list had to be secured and this was done by first making an initial list through a general knowledge of those persons already interested and those who should become interested in the canal and then continuing in an attempt to interest others to the point of their asking to have copies sent to them. For undertaking these tasks the State Engineer selected the writer of the present volume, since he had been in the department for many years and had a rather broad acquaintance with the whole canal scheme, especially through his work as author of the former canal history, which had but recently been published under authority of State Engineer Van Alstyne. The editorship of the Bulletin remained the same throughout the period of its publication.

The purpose of the Bulletin was to give the citizens of the state authoritative information on the whole project -- what progress was being made in construction and how the money was being spent. From time to time also articles calculated to be of popular interest were published and often these were copied by the public press. In fact it was rather surprising to see to what extent the papers of the state reprinted items from the Bulletin, items of general interest almost without fail and often items of local interest, even the prosaic descriptions of what the contractors in the vicinity were doing.

The Bulletin was a boon to contractors and to those having materials or machinery to sell. It contained information on the preparation of plans, the advertising and awarding of contracts and the bids that were submitted, and so became a complete calendar for their guidance. Although the law required the advertising of a contract-letting in certain newspapers and engineering periodicals, there can be no doubt that the Bulletin gave material aid in securing wider competitive bidding and so helped to reduce the cost of construction. Incidentally, by keeping the contractors and indeed the whole public thus informed, the Bulletin saved a great deal of correspondence that otherwise would have added a considerable burden to the departments of the State Engineer and the Superintendent of Public Works.

But the mission of the Bulletin was wider than the mere company of those who had business relations with the canal. Care was taken to sent it to substantially the whole press of the state. On the mailing list were chambers of commerce and industrial organizations, libraries and educational institutions, State and municipal officials, technical, business and social societies and a host of individuals. The edition reached a maximum of about sixty-three or sixty-four hundred. While the bulk of those receiving it lived in New York state, its circulation was by no means confined within state boundaries. Many copies went far afield, even to the ends of the earth. Probably it would have been better if more copies had gone to other parts of the country, especially to the territory surrounding the Great Lakes, and perhaps more care should have been taken to show to the people of that region how they might be benefitted by freely using the waterway after it should be completed.

There can be little doubt that one incidental good of the Bulletin was its service in making almost impossible a repetition of the ignominy attending the nine-million improvement. In spite of the Barge canal being the State's most stupendous project there has been scarcely a whisper of fraud or improper conduct during its whole construction. The be sure there has occurred little or nothing to give color to any charge of such character, but to one who has been connected with both canal enlargements the easy possibility of a different story is apparent. Very few persons know how the nine-million scandal started. The desire of a discharged engineer for revenge, without caring whom or what he injured, was at the bottom of the whole disgraceful affair. The investigating commission found little that was blameworthy, virtually nothing so far as the engineers were concerned, but the sinister stories, once given utterance, kept on going, and some of the engineers were ruined professionally and the canal received such a staggering blow that it has hardly yet recovered. But the point of the recital is that without knowledge of actual facts the people of the state could not discern between criticism and calumny. If a policy had been adopted of sending broadcast messages of the improvement and its financial standing, it is quite believable that the whole unpleasant experience might have been avoided.

Another incidental benefit was the esprit de corps which the Bulletin tended to foster among the many engineers and other employees engaged in prosecuting the work. By getting a more comprehensive view of the entire project these men could labor together more harmoniously, to the advantage of the whole work and the mutual benefit of all concerned. This spirit of loyalty and pride might well have been encouraged much further. At Panama it was so encouraged and the good results were apparent.

Another instrument of publicity was the lecture. Some of the engineers had the ability to speak in public and, assisted by lantern slides or motion pictures, they interested many an audience gathered under the auspices of some organization. In making a pictorial record of progress hundreds of photographs of the work have been taken and it was easy to prepare very attractive sets of lantern slides. Some of the machinery used in building the canal was of novel character, as we have seen, and lent itself to rather unique film productions. Motion picture companies were induced to photograph canal construction and to send these views upon their circuits and incidentally furnish a reel for State official use. Thus by way of supplying a pleasing entertainment the lecturers were able to do a valuable work in canal education, and this means of publicity also was carried beyond the state confines.

Yet another means of advertising the Barge canal was the sending of exhibits to various state, national and industrial expositions. Many thousands of people were thus enabled to learn through a pleasant diversion something about the canal. As the expositions lasted from a week or two to well towards a year, as in the case of the national shows, and as there were thousands of visitors each day, the number of those reached ran up into the hundreds of thousands. Annually for about eight or nine years the State Engineer had exhibits at the New York State Fair. Then there were numerous exhibits at various industrial expositions in New York city and elsewhere; also one at the International Navigation Congress in Philadelphia, one at an Atlantic Deeper Waterways convention in New London and another at a Middle Western meeting in Pittsburg. Besides these there was an exhibit at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition at Seattle in 1909 and the most elaborate exhibit of all at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco in 1915. In all there were more than a score of these occasions, and at each place, except Seattle, from one to a half dozen representatives of the State Engineer's department were in attendance. These exhibits were not small and most of them required several months for preparation. They were made possible by money for expenses being furnished by the organizations under whose auspices they were held. On a few occasions portions of them were loaned for still other expositions and fairs.

Early in the experience of preparing these exhibits it was perceived that they had to be such as would make a strong appeal to the passer-by at his first glance, and then interesting enough to hold his attention. Models of noteworthy structures or of portions of the canal seemed to serve this purpose and moreover an exhibit of this character could be made to furnish such information as it was desired to impart. The models were always workable and generally the working was done in part by hand, rather than being entirely mechanical, and therein probably lay the secret of their appeal, for people seem to be interested most in that which has about it the personal touch. That these exhibits attracted the people was attested by the crowds that generally stood in front of them.

A few words in relation to the Barge canal exhibit at San Francisco are pertinent here. In announcing the prize given to this exhibit the Barge Canal Bulletin explained that this award was not only a recognition of the exhibit bur also an appreciation of both the canal itself and the place it occupies among the engineering enterprises of the world. For this reason it seems well to quote the Bulletin.

"It is a source of considerable satisfaction," it said, "to those who have been connected with the construction of the Barge canal that the international jury of awards at the Panama-Pacific Exposition has recently granted the grand prize, or highest award, to the Barge canal exhibit. A detailed account of this exhibit was published in the February Bulletin. A comparatively small amount of money was available for making the exhibit and consequently it could not be entirely comprehensive, but the jury took into consideration the Barge canal as a project as well as the exhibit itself, and thus this award becomes a distinct recognition of the canal as one of the greatest engineering feats of its time, since it receives the same award as its two chief rivals at the exposition, one being the United States Government exhibit, which occupies half of an entire building and contains models of all engineering features undertaken by the Government in recent years, and the other the Panama canal zone concession, which is a replica of the Isthmian canal, covering more than an acre, costing $400,000 and built for financial profit, a charge of fifty cents being charged for admission. Besides these two rivals, the Barge canal had formidable competitors in the exhibits of foreign governments, other states, New York city and large corporations.

"When in a former announcement the jury had granted simply a gold medal to the Barge canal exhibit, a protest was made, both by the State Engineer and his representative at the Exposition, and by the New York State Commission. The protest was entered on the ground that it was unfair to make this exhibit compete with those costing more than twenty-five times as much or with money-making concessions. The apportionment for the Barge canal exhibit was only $15,000 and this sum had to cover the cost of making, transporting and installing its various parts, building its enclosing booth, furnishing considerable electric power and water for operation and supplying two and part of the time three competent men sent for the installation. The rates on models and the distances are such that the item of transportation alone was about a thousand dollars. Thus only about half the appropriation was available for the preparation of the exhibit itself.

"In response to the protest the jury reconsidered its decision and did better even than it was asked. It did not simply put the Barge canal exhibit at the head of a class in which it was contended it might justly compete, but it gave the exhibit equal rank with the United States Government and the Panama canal zone concession.

"In making the award the problems arising in making the models were taken into account and it was decided that, although the models were fewer in number and smaller than in some other exhibits, more ingenuity was shown, as much even as would be demanded in making the original structures or machines they represent. In this reconsideration also, as has been stated, account was taken of the project which the exhibit portrays. The supreme engineering skill demanded in its design and construction was recognized, the multitude of difficulties overcome was considered and its rightful place among inland canals was acknowledged in the award of the highest honor, the grand prize."

For the past seven or eight years the State Engineer's department has had connected with it one or two men who formerly were in journalistic work and had had a thorough newspaper training. These men have used their earlier experiences for the benefit of the canal and have been able to do a large amount of valuable publicity work, sending to the daily press news items and also both signed and unsigned articles of general interest, and contributing to scientific papers writings which have interested the student or more often to the magazines such articles as have had the popular appeal.

The advertising activities we have described were carried on chiefly by the State Engineer's department. Other departments have sometimes assisted. The Superintendent of Public Works and his traffic bureau have done this, but their participation has been largely in the latter years of construction, during the period since the canal has been nearly or quite completed. Of course there has been a vast amount of publicity in which the State has had little or no direct share. Numerous canal articles have been published in popular and technical periodicals and the newspapers have been printing editorials and news items for many years. Whenever canal officials have been asked for help in preparing these articles or for photographs to illustrate them, they have gladly complied. In the recent agitation for a St. Lawrence ship canal the Barge canal has received much incidental publicity. It may be that the advertising from this source will serve better than anything that has gone before to awaken the people of New York state and make them more appreciative of their own canal.

In all of this advertising, particularly that in which the State has been engaged, there has been back of it one main purpose -- to do whatever might best help to build up canal traffic after the waterway should be completed. It would seem that the shippers of the state should all have heard of the benefits of water transportation by this time. The canal, however, is not yet being used to the extent it should be. There are reasons for this, but perhaps considerable advertising must still be done in our own state. It would seem also that shippers beyond the state boundaries should by now have had some adequate conception of the Barge canal and be willing to give it a trial. But probably the radiant halo of the ship canal idea has been only dimmed, never lost in the Middle West and whatever messages concerning New York's canal have reached the people of this locality have not fallen on receptive ears.