Los Angeles herald., 1907-06-09

ny lllC eiIiOi Va W -
ters" is likely to be more general than
ever before, after next October. Over
the long aqueous highway where once
thousands of passengers each month
made the journey by boat from ST
Louis or Cincinnati to New Orleanse,
the president of the United States has
promised. unless some unforeseen eX1-
gency prevents. to make tour of in
spection next autumn. Mr.. Roosevelt
is anxious, it is we'll known, to see both
what has been done on the greatest
of American rivers and what larger
projects remain to be completed IN
order that the revival of the routes OF
inland water transportation, for which
the chief executive has pleaded elo-
uuently, may take place. The needs
of the Mississippi are, OF course typi-
cal of the needs of the lesser rivers 1t IS
significant that governors of sixteen
states have united in urging President
Roosevelt to make this trip. HE mas
accepted their invitation ana coupleu
with il a statement of belief that the
Improvement of conditions of trafhc
on our waterways is of vital concern 10
every community OF this country.
"A
of the natural highways of Uncle
SANS dominion, the voyage, whether
nm or down the long winding stream,
will be of a kind to appeal to the I'M
aeination of a man of President Roose-
veil. $ Temperament. Whatever is lett on
the river from the activities or ante
bellum days still possesses the pictur-
esoue human interest which delights
rresident of generous impulses and l1K-
ing for men of the adventurous pioneer
tvne. The feet of river steamers, TO De
sure. is smaller now than 1T was IN the
halcyon days of the trafhc. line auVeiiI
of putting tugboats capable OIL pun
ing bevy of barges for thousano
niles or more in reasonably quick tlllle
has caused the gradual disappearance
of most of the many-decked steamers
into whose holds three thousand tons
or more of cargo could be slowed.
AS the author of the winning of the
West" and the Life of Thomas Hart
Benton" President Roosevelt IS Ger
tain to be particularly interested IN the
"reminiscences of pioneer days along
+he riyer-in the grass-groWn towns
which once aspired to be metropollses
and in those places which, like Mem
phis and Vicksburg, are really achleV-
ing something. of the greatness thal
was early predicted.
The president may perhaps start
from St. Louis, which from snall
French trading post has become one
of the largest cities OF the western
Ienoisnhere. It's destiny was cut out
for II long before the days of railroad
building. for the early settlers discov-
cred in it a center from which tra1e
was possible over more than Io'Ooo
miles CT navigable river. Some OF the
stretches of uninterrupted course on
which st. Louis has prided 1tset ever @
since the era when canoes and raIts
furnished the only transportation IA
cilities of the interior of the country
were 5000 miles up the Missouri as tar
as Fort Benton 800 miles on the MIS-
sissippi to Minneapolis, 1900 miles down
stream to New Orleans, 1000 miles up
the Ohio to Pittsburg, 300 miles on the
Tennessee to Florence, $50 miles on
the Cumberland to Nashville, TOO miles
I'D the Arkansas to Fort GIBSON, oVJ
miles on the White river to Bun RIVER
600 miles on the Ouachita to Camden,
and 700 miles on the Red river into
the interior of Texas. The total OF
navigable waters in the Mississippi ana
its tributaries under the present plan
of Improvement will be about 16,O0O
miles.
OF the immense commerce before the
Civil war along the deepest and most
valuable stretch, that between st. Louis
written a quantity picturesque and
syrnpathetic account, such one as
might be expected from man who IN
childhood had as a practical ideal OF
future greatness the possibility of be-
coming a steamboat pilot. For the
boys in the Missouri river town IN
which Mr.. Clemens was brought up all
entertained a vague hope that II COO
was good to them they might become
pirates. but next to that they wanted
to be boatmen. The sight of the pas
senger traffic was of a character TO
fire the imagination. Some idea OF the
extent of it is gained from the state
ment that the marine insurance written
in the city of St. Louis about the time
Mark Twain was looking longlngly
upon the river craft-specifically in
1S42-amounted to nearly $SO,OOO, OOO
The story of the decline of commerce
on the Mississippi to a position in
which, though still considerable, 1t has
for many years been distinctly sub
ordinate TO the railroad interests OF
the Mississippi valley has been graphic
ally and amusingly told by Mark Twain
himself in chapters with which Presi-
dent Roosevelt is of course familiar.
The narrative shows that other factors
besides the natural competition be-
tween two types of transportation en-
tered into the decline. Thus the Civil
war witnessed the destruction OF many
famous old boats that had made their
mark by nearly equaling the racing
record from New Orleans to Cairo
three days fiat. 1t was an easy matter,
in the latter days of the Confederacy,
when a northern boat steamed between
southern shores to mount a battery of a
few guns on one of the bluffs and sink
her as she tried to pass; so that even
after, in President Lincoln's classic
phrase, 1.-The Father of Waters flowed
untroubled to the sea-" a good many
mischances befell members of the river
feet.
Interesting historical evidence on the
Mississippi itself of work already done
to improve this great natural highway
of commerce Mr.. Roosevelt will find
everywhere. From an early date labor
and money have been spent in relieving
the channel of the snags, so easily
formed in a stream that is perpetually
eating away it's banks. The course of
the river has been more or less straight
ened out by natural and artificial
means 1t is a curious fact, for ex-
ample, that in IT'S years, ending in 1875,
the Mississippi is known to have short
i - OIO