Perth Amboy evening news., 1907-10-02
President in St. Louis Says ItpfO.
vides Federal Control of
Interstate Business.
EXPLAINS PACIFIC TRIP.
Is Opposed decentralization But
Wants Power Restored to Nat
ion that Was Intended.

ST. LOUIS, Oct. f-The old stern
wheel steamer. Miss Nsippi, with the
big blue flag Of The t9esident of the
United States, flying from her peak,
arrived here before 8 O'Clock this
morning, nearly an hour before her
schedule time. All manner of craft
chorused noisy welcome.
At $3.50 O'Clock a committee, rep-S
resenting the business organizations,
of the city. drove to the levee to re-
ceive the President. After shaking
hands with the members of the COM
mittee the President and members
of his party were driven around the
city and then went to the auditorium.
Just as the parade started a down
pour of rain began, but the President
standing in his carriage, waved his
hat to the crowd, greeting thousands
along the line of march. The seat of
his carriage was pool of water. All
the other carriages in the parade
were covered. At the auditorium
the President spoke as follows:
1t is very real pleasure to. adj
dress this body of citizens oftH5s
souri, here in the great city of
Louis. ] have often visited ST., Lo
before, but always by rail. Now
am visiting it in the course of trfA
by water, trip on the great naturaAH
highway which runs past your very
doors-a highway once so important,
now almost abandoned, which / hope
this nation will see not only restored
to all its former usefulness, but given
far greater degree of usefulness to
correspond with the extraordinary
growth in wealth and population Of
the Mississippi Valley. We have lived
in an era of phenomenal railroad
building. AS routes for merchan-
disc, the iron highways have COM
pletely supplanted the old wagon
roads. and under their competition
the Importance of the water high
ways has teen much diminished
! The growth of the railway system
has been rapid all over the world, but
nowhere SO rapid ia t,Iisf.s St551itnd
States. Accompanying this there ha
| grown in the United States q ten
| dency toward the practically COM
plete abandonment of the system Of
water transportation. Such a ten
dency is certainly not healthy and [
am convinced that it will not be per-
manent. There are many classes of
commodities especially those which
are perishable in their nature and
where the value is high relatively to
the bulk which will always be car
ried by rail. But bulky commodit-
les which are not of perishable ma
tire will always be specially suited
y the conditions of water trans
ort. To illustrate the truth of this
statement it would only be necessary
to point to the use of the canal sys-
tom in many countries of the Old
World but it can be illustrated even
better by what has happened nearer
home The Great Lakes offer a
prime example of the Importance of a
good water highway for mercantile
traffic. AS the line of traffic runs
through lakes the conditions are In
some respects different from what
must obtain on even the most inn
portant river Nevertheless, it Isl
well to remember that very large
part of this traffic is conditioned upon
an artificial waterway canal-the
famous 500. The commerce that
passes through the 500 far surpasses
in bulk and in value that of the Suez
Canal.
CONTINUED on page 80