Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-11-21
BOOST FOR COAST WATERWAY
Eastern Men Oppose Money Spent on
Western Desert"
GEN. ANGUS STRONGLY OPPOSES
Declares IL Strange to Divert MIL
lions of wealth to West Rather
Than spend It on the
SeabOard.

PHILADELPHIA. Pa, Nov So-After n
two days discussion OF the project for
an inland waterway along the Atlantic
| coast from New England to Carolinas.
the Atlantic deeper waterways conference
| will this afternoon form a permanent
organization and begin an aggressive cam
paign to accomplish the undertaking.
Resolutions will be adopted asking tho
assistance Of the national government and
the cooperation of all states interested
in inland waterways.
Yesterdays session was devoted TO
discussion OF the water routes from Phila-
! delphia north to Boston, todays were
largely taken up with addresses on the
waterways that are proposed to form part
Of the inland route south from Phisde-
phia to Beaufort s. c.
! General Felix Agnus OF Baltimore who
heads the delegation from Maryland,
! stated in an address that the present con-
! ference is one of the most important meet
ings in the history Of American trade and
transportation. He said
| Il feel that we are at the climax of
the efforts and public spirit Of many years;
| that we are no longer dealing in theories
and paper plans, but are considering plain
business propositions and assured advan-
tages and profits. This scheme of safe
navigation for our domestic commerce
means more for our country and more
for our wealth and happiness than Pan
anna.
Water Rates One-Third Cheaper.
There are three vital facts in the work
we propose to begin here this week:
First, transportation by water is far
cheaper than transportation by land. Care
full figures from the great lakes, from the
Mississippi and from large canals show
| that the rate per ton by water is about
| one-third the average rate by land.
Second, the conditions Of traffic between
the north and the south have been acute
and unsatisfactory for several years Since
1880 the assessed values in the south have
increased from $2,SOO,0OO 900 to S2O,0 600, 900
and the south is now mining 200 per cent
more coal than all the rest of the country
mined in 1880. 1t is producing three times
as much coke, twice as much lumber and
just as much pig iron and we may add to
this the enormous cotton crop. of 100000
bales and find total of raw products worth
more than S1,OOOOO annually. A large
part of this must go to the northern mar
kets and hundreds of millions of dollars
worth Of your manufactured products must
be returned to southern markets. The lines
of railroad we now possess are not equal
to this business and it is not likely that
they will be increased for years to come,
nor is 1t probable that their present rates
will ever be lower. Here we have the
! absolute necessity for relief made so mani
4 fest that not even. a railroad man can dis
pute 1t.
Figures on Growth of Trade.
Third. the growth OF the country is not
only proceeding at an astonishing rate in
the numbers Of the population, but is ex-
panding almost incredibly in the ratio of
trade movement to the population itself.
1 beg to quote these figures: The freight
In mile tons has grown from 1000, ,OOo 900 I'm
1882 and 1900, 100000 in 1890 to 1877 900 900
in 1905, the total for the latter year being
more than twice as great as for 1890. The
gain of 5000, 100000 tons between 1900 and
1905 was very much larger than the total
OF 1882 and nearly two-thirds as great as
the total of 1890
Undoubtedly, much OF our great financial
trouble was due to the fact that transporta-
ton had not been able to give that quick
exchange of materials and products which
would enable us to make the freest use of
our money. In other words, slow trans
portation means the tying up of our cur
rency, which under the most favorable
circumstances is hardly adequate to the
needs OF the country
biggest work OF the world is being done
and where the necessity for quick trans
portation is largest. we face a situation
that calls for prompt relief, and the only
possible way out OF the difficulty is to pro-
vide these water facilities. There is no
other way. We will never get II from the
railroads because our new needs will grow
much faster than any new facilities they
can give.
Opposes Money Sent to Desert.
1--WE are made to realize our duty more
keCnly than ever by the wide publicity
which the presidents trip down the Mis-
sisslppi has given to the schemes for the
middle and far west-schemes that call for
hundreds of millions OF dollars, not to mem
ti0n the building OF the Panama canal and
those great irrigation appropriations which
congress is expected to make.
1T seems to me a most extraordinary
thing that we should divert millions OF the
national wealth to the desert when here
along our eastern seaboard we have all the
factors of a high civilization demanding
recognition and encouragement have no
objection TO making the deserts blossom as
the rose, but do think we owe the greater
obligation TO the men whose farms and
mines are turning out wealth and to the
cities whose populations are dependent on
the factories which have been built by their
enterprise and capital.
More benefit is to be obtained from
81 200, 900 spent on these interior waterways
than would come from five or ten times
that sum invested in the Mississippi OF at
Panama or in desert lands"