The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-03-18
TURNS To WATER
President Roosevelt Plans to
Help the Railroads.
Appoints a Commission on Rivers
and Canals.
MATTER Is SERIOUS.
transportation Facilities Wholly
Inadequate at Present.
Both Congestion and Freight
Rates May Be Reduced.

ment of an inland waters commission
of which Theodore Burton. chairman
of the rivers and harbors committee OF
the house. is to be chairman. In let
tiers to members of the new commits
Eion, defining its scope and duties, the
president outlines in a more compre-
hensive way than has heretofore been
ATTEMPTED even in the resolution OF the
river Improvement congresses the ends
towards which this government should
strive in a development of natural ana
artificial waterways
One important reason for the COM
sio-l's appointment is that 1t may
study the project of developing a great
system of water transportation In view
of the inability of the railroads 10
handle the country's freight
The members of the commission
are: Representative Theodore E Bur-
ton, chairman of the rivers and har-
bors committee of the house; senator
William Warner of Missouri, Senator
Francis G. Newlands of Nevada; ex-
Representative John H Bankhead of
Alabama, who until his retirement
from congress on March 4. was rank
ing Democratic member of the mouse
committee on rivers and harbors;
General Alexander Mackenzie, chief
of engineers of the United States
army: w ]. MCGEE, former head of
the chronological bureau of the
geological survey, now a resident of
St Louis; F. H. Newell. chief of the
reclamation service of the federal gov
eminent; Clifford Pinchot. chief of the
bureau of forestry; Herbert Knox
Smith, who recently succeeded James
r. Garfield as the chief of the bureau
of corporations in the department of
commerce and labor.
The purpose for which the commits
sion has been formed is to devise a
comprehensive system of interna-
confined to a development of natural
waterways. but it can proceed to in
vestigate the subject of canal con-
struction with the ultimate end in
view of connecting, through canals,
the natural waterways of the country.
In the closing days of the congress
siona1 session Representative Burton
introduced bill providing for the APP
pointment of a commission to investi-
gate the canalization of waterways.
The bill carried an appropriation and
was defeated. It provided that the
commission should be composed of
three senators. three representatives
and three other persons to be chosen
by the president
The commission which the president
has named does not follow this
classification. 1t is apparent from the
announcement which accompanies the
creation of the commission that the
president considers the development
of the waterways a part of that
same broad policy of internal develop
ment which has resulted in the estab- |
lishment of the reclamation service |
and the vast forest reserva tiOns.
The keynote of the recent successful |
river congress in Washington was that |
river improvements is rate legislation. !
The same tone pervades the presidents /
suggestions to members of the commits |
sion, for he calls attention to the fact |
that the railway facilities are entirely |
inadequate to handle the transportation |
of the country.
The president in common with all 9TH |
ers who interest themselves in the de- |
velopment of the country. has been |
greatly impressed of late by the repeat |
ed freight congestions on the great |
railroad systems 1t has been pointed |
out by railroad men in explana ton of /
these congestions that products of the |
northern interior states have doubled |
in ten years, while the railroad facili- |
ties have increased only one-eighth.
1t is plain that the development of the |
railroads possible in the near future |
cannot suffice to keep transportation |
abreast with production. The only ap-
parent remedy for this condition Is /
obviously the development of a supple |
mental system Of transportation by wa |
ter. In the Mississippi valley this con- |
gestion is greatest and from it's inhab- |
itants the most strenuous demands for |
relief are coming. To this section of the |
country and its needs in the way of |
additional transportation facilities the |
waterways commission will give special |
heed.
The difficult problem of controlling
the waters of the Mississippi, the Ohio |
and missouri, tnat are subject to great |
floods in the spring and after prolonged |
summer rains, will also be considered |
by the waterways commission. The |
science of forestry was called to the aid |
of the commission and it is for this |
reason that Clifford Pinchot is made |
member.
The control of these floods will depend |
largely on regulation in the flow of wa |
ter into the small tributaries in the |
mountain and hill country to the west |
of the Mississippi and Missouri and /
by this control not only would the wa |
tiers be held back but the soil would be |
saved from washing If proper forest |
and grass cover could be secured for II /
Half a century ago two eminent engi- !
neeers. General Humphreys and Gener- !
al Abbott, computed that the Missis-
sippi alone sweeps into its lower reaches
and the Gulf of Mexico each year the |
enormous quantity of 400 million tons |
~ floating sediment, which is said to be |
twice the amount of material that will |
be excavated in digging the Panama |
canal.
In addition the Mississippi robs the
soil of an enormous amount of earth |
salts and soil matter carried in solution
This immense load not only causes the |
of the lower river, but renders the flow
capricious and difficult to control |
Worse still, most of the sediment thus |
carried down to the gulf is the most fer |
tile material of the fields and pastures |
drained by the smaller and larger trib- |
utaries. Now, If the soil that is now |
denuded along these tributaries could |
be recovered. with the aid of forests ana |
grasses, not only would the flow of wa
ter be regulated and floods prevented |
but the great and increasing evil of the |
washing from the soil of it's most valu-
able constituents would be stopped or |
minimized.
Palmer In los Au0oIeS