The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

26 NATIONAL RIVER AND HAR. BORS CONGRESS. _. Tha ineceting of the National River snd Harbors Congress at Washington last week was probably the most im- portant gathering of a waterways asso- ciation ever held in the United States. Delegates were present from all parts of the union, especially from the middle west. The utterances of President Roose- -yelt, who was called upon by a delega- tion at tlie white house, were especially notable. He said: "Just as I feel that the national gov- ernment should concern itself with util- ization of the water of rivers in their soutces, where the country is dry, so I feel the national government should con- cern itseli with the proper control and utilization of the water lower down in the rivers, where they are fitted to be the great arteries of communication. I have had it brought strikingly to my attention put recently how much we suffer at pres- ent because of the inadequate transpor- tation facilities of the railways for mov- ing the great grain crops and cattle crop of this country. We need, and must have, further facilities for transportation, and, as has been well pointed out, one of the effective methods of affecting railway rates is to provide for a proper system of water transportation. "It would not be possible for me to enter into any discussion of the details of your plan until I have spoken with some of the leaders of the two houses of congress. I shall consult with them at once, and trust that something defi- nite and effective can be done along the lines of that you mention. You wnder- stand, gentlemen, I could not, offhand, -commit myself to the details of any pol- icy without taking into consideration what the feeling of the co-ordinate branch would be, and I must be guided largely by their views. I am sure that you will find there the genuine patriotic purpose to do what is best for the interest of our common country." Resolutions were adopted urging con- gress to appropriate not less than $50,- 000,000 annually for the improvement of rivers, harbors and waterways, com- mencing with the present session of congress. In the preamble the resolu- tion recites that some sure and adequate system of transportation must be added to the railroads and the development of the national highways was the cnly an- swer to the problem. Congress was asked in the resolution to put the rivers and harbor bill on the same footing as other regular appropriation bills, . The association is in a flourishing con- dition, as the report of Mr. Jo FEL lison, secretary and treasurer, indicated. The organization now embraces fifty- TAE Marine REVIEW eight cities and twenty-nine states, hav- ing 161 separate associations and a to- tal membership of 2,708. The convention was called to order by its president, Mr. Harvey D. Goulder, of Cleveland, who addressed them as follows: I took up this morning a newspaper which contained this statement: The Deep-water Convention is to be held in this city this week. From the results they get, they don't seem to draw enough water to need much deepening to be done. (Laughter.) I will not detain you, with the dis- tinguished speakers we have for this morning; but the problem for this convention is this: "If not; why not?" : For this convention I do not hesitate to say that if that statement of the newspaper is true, then that great, big: journal has not done its duty. If that statement be true, then you and I (and I see here the familiar faces of men with whom I have worked on matters of this sort for twenty-five years) have failed, either in judgment, or ih effort; or.in both; I do not think that this convention represents a failure. I do not 'think it stands in any sense or in any degree for.a failure. We have been having river and harbor appropriations; we. have been spending the money. Young as I am, I have seen ships upon waters aided 'by government appropriations. I have seen them grow from five hun- dred tons in carrying capacity to near- fifteen thousand tons. In my time I have seen a commerce grow until, through channels which have been ap- propriately aided by the government, wisely and intelligently aided, there traveled last year five times as much commerce, five times as much net ton- nage, five times as-much actual freight, as Professor Johnson estimates. would go through the Panama canal after it had been in operation for ten years. I have seen freights reduced from five dollars:sactom to seventy cents a ton. I have' seen, in the year 1906, in eight months of the year, the season now closing--I have seen and you may all see the saving overi:other methods of carriage upon the great lakes sys- tem of more than double all of the money that the government has ever invested in those improvements. I do not speak for the great lakes. I hope we will not get into individual projects here. We ought not. Our strength would lie in other directions. But I have seen that, and so I take issue with the proposition that these movements are futile. Now, what can we do? Here is the great, big, United States, like a young, lusty, energetic, optimistic business man, starting out. And we know, we who think (and I believe I am one of them) that we are starting out in this country, and we have got to make in- vestments; and we have got,-.if it should be necessary, to go in debt in order to carry out our projects, just as any healthy, lusty, rational, good, strong, young business fellow does in his business. We have got to take those responsibilities. Here we find a situation today of this character: You can scarcely ride on a passenger train and get to your destination at the schedule time. Why? Because they are too busy. Up in our region large contracts for the delivery of coal could not be car- ried: out because they could not get the transportation. All the cars that all the manufacturers in the United States could make, working over-time, were ordered, and were being brought in; and they could not carry the coal. The same thing is true in respect to the iron ores. I speak of these things that come more particularly under my notice. I learn, as an incident of my business, purely, merely as an incident, that away up in the northwest the small local elevators along the rail- roads were filled, the farmers' barns and granaries were filled, and there is grain going to waste, splendid wheat going to waste, for which there is a market, simply because they can- not get the transportation. Those men cannot get it carried forward: and our= "Ships -- at. the shipping points on Lake Superior can- not get the grain. ~The grain exists, the market exists, the price is good, everything is favorable; and they sim- ply cannot carry the stuff. Now, here we go: Our members of congress, our speaker, our president, -all of them are figuring about regulat- ing the railroads, and regulating rates. We have our commission, and all that sort of thing. There is not a man who has enough interest and enougn in- telligence to attend a conventicn of this character who has not learned be- fore he came here that the best possi- ble regulator of rates, the safest regu- lator of rates, is to improve methods of water transportation. (Great ap- plause.) And there is not a man who could gain admittance, accredited. to this room, who does not know that wherever there has been an intelltgent and a reasonably liberal disposition of government investment in water trans- portation, there the results have shown the investment to have been a splendid investment. (Great applause.) Now, I may not detain you, because I know that these other gentlemen ought to speak; and most of the men