Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-10-05
ROOSEVELT IN CAMP
President Arrives at the Hunting
 Grounds In Louisiana.
HIS PLAIN TALK AT MEMPHIS
Emphasizes His Theory of the Need of an Effective Fighting Navy and Cautions Us Against Big Talk With out Equal Performance.

Lake Providence, La, Oct. 5.-Pres- ident Roosevelt, Surgeon General Rix- ey and a large party of hunters are in camp near this place and will hunt bear and wild hogs in the Louisiana canebrakes for the next two weeks. The guides declare that there are bears, wild boars, few partners and other game to be found in the cane brakes, but the outing has been off, cially designated camping expedi- tion." It is to continue for fourteen days, and at its termination the presi- dent will go to Vicksburg, Miss, on, Oct. 21 and deliver the address prom 1sed to the people of the Bayou State. The president came here on spe- cial train from Memphis, Tenn, where he addressed the convention of the ] Lakes to the Gulf Deep Waterways as sociation. Sixteen governors of states, the congressional committees on rivers and harbors and other influential citi- zens took part in the proceedings of the convention, the object of which is [ to arouse national interest in the de- < velopment of the Mississippi river. President Roosevelts address was in part as follows: '''
 The Mississippi galley is magnificent empire in size and fertility It is better adapted to the development of inland navigation than any other valley in either hemisphere, for there are 12,000 miles of Watarwav r lose fu11v vi ble, and the conditions are so favorable that 1t will be easy to increase the extent of navigable waterways to almost any required degree by canalization.
 A Roosevelt Built First Steamboat.
 Early in our industrial history this val- ley was the seat of the largest develop ment of inland navigation in the United States, and perhaps you will pardon my mentioning that the first steamboat west of the Alleghanies was built by Roose- Welt, my great-grandfather's brother, in 1S11, for the New Orleans trade, and in that year made the trip from Pittsburg to New Orleans. But from various causes river and canal transportation declined all over the United States as the railroad systems came to their full development. It is our business to see that the decline Is not permanent, and it is of interest to remember that nearly a century ago President Madison advocated the canal azation of the Mississippi
 The Mississippi river and its tributaries ought by all means to be utilized to their utmost possibility. Facility of cheap transportation is an essential in our modern civilization, and we cannot saf- ford any longer to neglect the great highways which nature has provided for us. These natural highways the water ways, can never be monopoiized by any corporation. They belong to all the peo- pie. and 1t is in the power of no one to take them away. Wherever a navigable river runs beside railroads the problem of regulating the rates on the railroads becomes far easier because river regua- I tion Is rate regulation. When the water rate sinks the land rate cannot be kept at an excessive height. Year by year transportation problems become more acute, and the time has come when the rivers really fit to serve as arteries of trade should be provided with channels