OVERPRICED CORPORATE WELFARE? The editors at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel are not yet ready to close the St. Lawrence Seaway.

But those pushing to close the seaway - the conservation group Great Lakes United called for an overseas-freighter ban in late March - forget that the seaway provides economic benefits.

So did the North Shore Line, but when the railroad was no longer able to meet its payroll, it closed.

While oceangoing traffic accounts for only about 7% of all Great Lakes shipping, that percentage is higher for some ports and carries an economic impact beyond the small number. Port of Milwaukee Director Eric Reinelt said the annual percentage for Milwaukee is usually around 11% and has been as high as about 20%. In 2006, the port handled more than 710,000 metric tons of imports and exports through the seaway, up 99% from 2005.

Yes, and a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant can be depended on to say something about the "intrinsic worth" of his creations. That tonnage works out to about 7100 railroad cars, or about 20 car movements (some of which involve a car arriving with one cargo and leaving with another) per day. That's fewer freight cars than the North Shore Line handled in a day.

In addition, he says, oceangoing ships provide the best and cheapest way to deliver such freight as steel and wind turbines used in power generation, as well as to move grain from farmers in southeastern Wisconsin to foreign ports.

With a side order of round gobies, zebra mussels, and fish viruses. The Seaway has a positive marginal product. Whether that marginal product makes its continued operation worthwhile is another matter, and the Port Director is unlikely to say, yes, turf me out. It's up to the editorialists to give that case consideration.