Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1907-10-09
ROOSEVELT ADVOCATES WATERWAYS,

In his address at Memphis, Tenn.
on Friday, on the occasion of the
meeting of the inland waterways COM
mission and the Lakes to- the Gulf
Waterways vention, President
Roosevelt put himself squarely Oh
record as favoring large expenditure
of public funds for the purpose of
deepening the channel of the Missis-
sippi and it's tributaries. Among
other things he said:
"The Mississippi river and it's tri-
butaries ought by all means to be
utilized to their utmost possibility.
Facility of cheap transportation is an
essential in our modern civilization,
and we can not afford any longer to
neglect the great highways which
nature has provided for us. These
natural highways. the waterways, can
never be monopolized by any corpor-
alton. They belong to all the people.
and it is in the power of no one to
take them away. Wherever a navig-
able river runs beside railroads the
problem of regulating the rates on
railroads becomes far easier, because
river regulation is rate regulation
When the water rate sinks, the land
rate can not be kept at an excessive
height. Therefore it is of national
Importance to develop these streams
as highways to the fullest extent
which is genuinely profitable Year
by year transportation problems be-
come more acute, and the time has
come when the rivers really fit to
serve as arteries of trade should be
provided with channels deep enough
and wide enough to make the invest
ment of the necessary money profit
able to the public. The national
government should undertake this
work. Where the Immediately abut-
ting land is markedly benefited. and
this benefit can be definitely localized,
/ trust that there will be careful in
vestigation to see whether some way
can be devised by which the immed-
late beneficiaries Ray pay portion
OF the expenses -as is now the custom
as regards certain classt of improve
ments in our municipalities and
measures should be taken to secure
from the localities specially benefited
proper terminal facilities. The ex-
panse to the nation of entering upon
such a scheme of river improvement
as that which believe it should nm
dertake. will necessarily be great.
Many cautious and conservative people
will look askance upon the project,
and from every standpoint it is neces-
sary, il we wish to make it success
full, that we should enter upon it only
under conditions which will guarantee
the nation against waste of its money,
and which will insure us against en-
tering upon any project until after
the most elaborate expert examinatiof.
and reliable calculation of the proper
tion between cost and benefit. In any
project like this there should be a
definite policy. and resolute purpose
to keep in mind that the only inn
provements made should be those real
ly national in their character.
The industries developed under the
stimulus of the railroads are for the
most part permanent industries, and
therefore they form the basis for
future development But the rail-
roads have shown that they alone can
not meet the demands of the country
for transportation, and where this is
true the rivers should begin to supple
ment the railroads, to the benefit Of
both, by relieving them of certain of
the less profitable classes of freight.
The more farseeing railroad men, I
am glad to tell you, realize this fact,
and many of them have become earn
est advocates of tine improvement of
the Mississippi, so that it may become
a sort of inland seaboard, extending
from the gulf far into the interior,
and hope ultimately to the great
lakes. An investigation of the pro-
posed lakes to- the-gulf deep water
way is now in progress under an ap-
preparation of the last congress. We
shall await it's results with the
keenest interest. The decision is
obviously of capital importance to our
internal development and scarcely
less SO in relation to external COM
merce.