A petition is being circulated now to rebuild a portion of the old Pennsylvania Canal. The petition will have to be signed by a sufficient number of merchants and other businessmen of the territory through which the canal would pass to show that the public really wants it to be rebuilt.

It is planned to have a meeting of the Old Boatmen of Central Pennsylvania in the near future. The process of securing the signatures for the petition is a long and tedious task, as it will have to be taken as far as Havre De Grasse, Maryland.

After the sufficient number of signatures is acquired, the petition will be sent to the legislature at Harrisburg and then to Washington. When it will reach Washington will depend on the promptness of the body at Harrisburg. No doubt the businessmen and other merchants will be much interested in the restoration of the great waterway but it may not receive favor with the railroad companies.

Locks and aqueducts would have to be rebuilt. Transportation by canal rather rail would probably be cheaper.

It would take a huge sum of money and a great deal of time for the reconstruction work.

It is not likely that the canal would run through Williamsport, if it were rebuilt, because the industry of the city would not warrant it.

In the days of the old canal the lumber industry was a drawing card for the canal, and perhaps the new one would extend no further than Wilkes-Barre.