Omaha daily bee., 1906-08-26
IMPROVING WEST WATERWAYS
Association Formed TO Revive Traffic
on the Upper and Lower
Mississippi.


The Upper Mississippi River Improve
ment association holds it's fourth annual
convention in Minneapolis this coming
| October. This will join with the Ohio river
Improvement association and representa-
tives OF the lower Mississippi states in
holding a great valley river improvement
convention in st. Louis this coming Noven-
Der This convention will debate the pos
sibilities OF, and make Recommendations
for, the development OF a heavy freight
| channel from the Twin Cities to New Or
leans and from Great Falls. Mont, on the
| upper Missouri, TO Pittsburg on the Ohio.
The value to the whole nation OF these i'm
proved waterways, taken In conjunction
with the improvements now being made
on the Illinois river and the Chicago canal.
opening a ship passage from the great lakes
| to the gulf can not be overestimated. II
| Mr.. Carnegie is right In his claim that
| our internal waterways already offered the
| cheapest transportation in the world. these
! free arteries of commerce will at once con-
troll the traf1c rates of the twenty-five
states that they drain. These states al
ready produce the bulk OF our agricultural
wealth: they already support more than
! twice as many manufacturing plants as the
other outlying states. and the value Of their
finished products is estimted at over ten
billion Of dollars year.
As the market value OF any finished pro-
duct is estimated upon the producers price.
plus the cost of transportation, the open
ing of these great waterways to freight
trafic will benefit both the producer
through a larger demand for his goods,
and the consumer through q lessened cost
for the same.
President Roosevelt has said that the
! highways OF commerce should be open TO all
on equal terms--a condition which Is not
likely to obtain, even through the enforce
| ment of recent legislation that has been
directed 10 that end. When the railroads
are brought directly into competition with
| independent carriers on a common highway,
| they will confront a controlling influence
far more effective than any rate bill can
ever hope to be. The policy OF charging
| all the traf1c will bear IL an obstacle to
Industrial expansion. A low cost OF con-
veyanee is a necessity TO all the crudeI
| products. Moreover, the productive ca
pacity Of our great interior is developing
faster than our facilities OF transportation
There is an ever increasing flood OF pro-
| ducts, crude and manufactured. from farm
mine. forest and factory sources which
| overtax our channels of commerce. efficient
| and magnificent as our railroads have come
TO be.
During the last four years engineers have
been busily engaged measuring widths
depths. charting. changing channels cal
culating the resisting force OF shale-rockec
and soft-loam hanks along the upper Mis-
sissippi. and they have found that the tu
dicious expenditure OF the cost OF but thre'
battleships will wingdam 'channel ade
quate 10 accommodate heavy freightini
from st. Paul to New Orleans. The ver1
dams that make this unlocked channel pos
sibie arrest suficient water to give mill
ing power 20 hundred manufacturing
cities each Of upward Of hundred thou
sand people along the way.
The people OF the Empire state BY direc
vote at the ballot box have appropriated
siol, 10000, OF more than nvs times tina