The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1907-06-06
JsrrEs FOR PASS OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER

| strongest influence. against the MiSsiS-
| sippi River route is that our internal
| trade, is vastly greater than our eXter-
nal. We buy of our producers many
| times as much as we sell abroad. The
great mass of the consumers of farm
products are located in the East, in
New England. New York, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, etc, and east and west
railroads reach them, which the west
ern rivers do not This is a fact of over
whelming Importance which the river
advocates constantly overlook.
On the Other Hand.
On the other hand, there is a move
ment all over the world of the most
marked character for the revival of
waterways. natural and artificial, as
heavy carriers. and this movement is
extending to this country. England,
Germany and France are improving
their old canals and digging new ones
at great expenditure of money and in
this country We have New York expend-
ing 500, 100000 upon canal, with va
rious other schemes involving millions.
A scheme which will eventually be
worked out to success is that of improv-
ing the Chicago Drainage Canal and
the old canal system and Illinois River,
so as to give a deep waterway from
Chicago 10 New Orleans. The Isthmian
Canal gives a great impetus to this pro-
ject and makes Chicago earnest in her
desire to have a route by which ships
can be loaded at her wharves and sent
directly TO South America.
The Presidents Itinerary.
The agitation in favor of the i'm
provement of the Mississippi is the
cause of the Presidents trip down that
stream. All the people of that vast
stretch of country are interested in it
and are making their interest felt in
such way as cannot be disregarded.
Sixteen Governors have united in the
invitation to the President, and there
is the strongest pressure being put upon
him to visit and speak at hundreds of
places. The published plan, however,
says that he will only stop at four
places-keokuk. st. Louis, Cairo and
Memphis
At Keokuk he will be on the Upper
Mississippi, with its clear waters and
rocky banks. In the old days the
rapids at Keokuk. II miles long, pre-
vented steamboats, from going above
them, except at high water, and Keo-
kuk was the highest point reached by
the larger class of boats. The Govern
ment afterwards built a canal around
these rapids at an expense of $4,000
000 There is a plan which will soon
begin to be worked out to convert these
rapids into a water power. which, it is
claimed. will equal that of Niagara.
AT st. Louis the President viii find
a city which has had the most unusual
metamorphoses. 1t began first as a
French trading post for furs and skins;
then became the depot for the exchange
of the products of the lower rivers with
those of the upper, and is now great
central manufacturing city and distrib-
uting point with population of 5I5,-
23S in 1900. and which is now believed
to closely approximate 100000.
Cairo, at the mouth of the Ohio, is
a place having the greatest eXpecta-
tions and the poorest performances of
any in the United States. 1t was ar
IDENTIFY believed that Cairo, at the mouth
of the Ohio and near the mouths of
the great Cumberland and Tennessee
rivers. would become the greatest city
in the country. and an unknown amount
of money was lost in the hopes that
were wrecked by its failure to have the
growth anticipated. Cairo has, how
ever, grown from the muddy. MAS
matte, frog-haunted. Observation-Disclosures.
dreary little "Garden of Eden" which
Dickens described. to pleasant. we'll
built little city of 1856 Inhabitants.
with houses and streets standing well
above the floods which used to sweep
across the town plat.
Memphis is the last town on the high
lands until Vicksburg is reached. Be-
low memphis the MISSISSIPPI River
sweeps over to the west to reach the-i
highlands, on which stands Helena.
Ark, and leaves ON its eastward side
the great wide, low-lying. malarious.
but immensely fertile "Yazoo bottoms"
once the main cotton field of the world |
Memphis is located on the high Chick
asaw Bluff far above the floods. She
is the market town and distributing
center for the great Yazoo region and
the fertile country of Arkansas Mem |
phis had her vcissitudes like New Or
leans, whose course she foolishly fol-
lowed into rebellion. but is now rapidly
growing in Importance with the devel- |
opment of the country around BY wise !
sanitary measures, including scienti-
fic sewerage system. she has stopped |
the ravages of the yellow feve.' and her |
population has developed far beyond |