The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-28
The $lOO,OOO Allowed
 Will Relieve Con- ditiOn.
Chairman of Alabama's Committee c, Brsine.. Men Di.cus.e. Effort. to Secure Money and Re-
 suits of Its Labors.


 lrejoicing on the part of Montgomery
 business men. The most gratified man lin Alabama yesterday was w. F. Van- Idiver. Chairman of the committee that | had been pushing the movement for the appropriation. Mir. vandiver has worked necessarily. putting his whole Iheart into the effort. Even when the report that $25,000 would be allowed
 to the Alabama was made, he continued Ibis systematic. never-say-die work. and 1 that his persistency won over every lthing in the end makes him deserve ldoubIy the hearty congratulations
 showered on him yesterday.
 | The nine members of the committee from Alabama who went to Washing lton to secure hearing before the Riv- CTS and Harbors Committee of Con gress were: Chairman, W. F. vandi- yer, w. NJ. Teague. Montgomery; Charles F. Moritz, Montgomery; F. l.,
 Tate. A. Hohenberg and F. B. Mo- tCaskey, wetumpka; w. R. Peacock, 10. lC. Melville and J. F. Hooper. Selma: | R. H. Clarke, E.. Craighead and John Quill. Mobile.
 ed hard. still the directing of the fight l. and the bulk of 1t all has been on Mir. Ivandiver's shoulders, and that his ef- forts have been crowned with success makes Montgomery and all this section of Alabama very much indebted to him. MT. yandtver Interviewed. When asked how he was pleased with the S1O0,000 which has been appropri- ated by the Rivers and Harbors Com- mittee for the Alabama River, Mir. Van diver said:
 T am perfectly delighted. Of course we are more or less disappointed at only securing sI00.00o when we start ed out to get a half million dollars, but, | if you will remember the plan was to secure half million dollars. to be Appropriated on the continuing con- tract plan; that Is to say, $100,000 per annum for five years. Having only se- cured $100,000 fiat, we now hope to have a plan adopted for the Alabama
 River exclusively. that is to say, in mo way connected with the Coosa or
 any other stream. and feel very sure,
 when this is done. that we will have no trouble in securing sufficient
 amount to give us permanent navi-
 gation the year round"
 | Asked If there was an effort making
 at this session of Congress to secure
 a plan different from the plan suggest ed for the Coosa and the Alabama Riv- Ter, Mir. vandiver replied:
 "Yes, there is a bill, already prepared, (which will be introduced in Congress lat this session. requesting an estimate to be made for securing four-foot lchannel from Montgomery to the mouth Iof the Alabama River. and also from lwetumpka to the mouth of the Ala bama River. Each estimate is to be made separately. As stated. this bill Is now being prepared, and will be in- ltroduced in Congress at this session. '
 "Do you consider" Mir. Vandiver was asked, that four feet would be suff- Icient at low water to give navigation Ithe year round. and do anything like Ia large volume of businessT
 1 "Yes. sir" he answered. -Four feet Iwill give us a splendid condition of the lriver to do a very large volume of business every day in the year. When we should have only a scant four feet the steamboats navigating the river have a fleet of barges which may be fused to take care of any extra tonn- Iage that may be offered.
 Troubles of Committee.
 We have had quite a lot of trouble in securing this appropriation" Mr. IVandiver continued.
 Tn the first place, the scheme that we were advocating as per resolution and memorial of the Alabama River lConvention. was not the scheme that lhad been estimated on and recommend ed or condemned by the Board of En- gineers. The present scheme which was estimated on by an act of Con Igress, was to secure a six-foot depth for the Coosa and the Alabama rivers. Our late convention and our commit ltee dealt only with the Alabama River This was the first difficulty that we Ihad to encounter The Board of En- gineers in reporting on the Alabama River in connection with the Coosa and Alabama River scheme. as stated,
 condemned the scheme entirely, and only recommended an appropriation flor the Alabama River of $25,00O for | the purpose of continuing snagging op- erations only, and in fact it was hard lily sufficient for vigorous work along | Ithat line.
 we found that Captain Cavanaugh's Ireport and estimate were made up on | the 2Sth of last September, long while before the Alabama River Convention
 was held, and It will be recalled that
 the Board of Engineers was in Mont gomery on the day that we held the Iconyention, and made up its report Ilater. condemning the whole scheme, land as stated, recommended only $25,000 for the Alabama River.
 we also found very strong oppo-
 sition on the part of the Rivers and iHarbors Committee to take up any new Ischeme, and we were compelled to ad- init that our scheme was new one, | for the Alabama River. so far as the action of Congress was concerned. Consequently, we were classified in a lcold kind of way as a new scheme entirely, there being so many other schemes claiming equal merit with ours, land the Rivers and Harbors Commit | tee having determined that 1t would accept no new schemes in this appro- priation bill. Thus the great difficul- | ties we had in getting any considera-
 tion for the Alabama River are appar- ent."
 Mir Vandiver was asked If it was not
 fact that the Rivers and Harbors ICommittee declined to give Che dele gation a hearing.
 Difficulty in Washington. That was one of our great dificulties right in the beginning" he said. We asked Colonel Bankhead to make an engagement for our committee to ap- near before the Rivers and Harbors Committee when, he was here at the Alabama RiN,r Convention, and he lcheerfulIy promised to do so. On No- venber 2S, when the committee met in Washington, Colonel Bankhead went Immediately to work to secure a hear ing for us before the Rivers and liar bors Committee. The Committee had decided not to hear the advocates of any cause before them whatever dur ing this session. Colonel Bankhead, Mir. Taylor and Colonel Wiley. how ever, went vigorously to work to se- cure for us a hearing before a sub leOmmfttee of the Rivers and Harbors