The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-03-21
Best Regulating Influence
 Is WaterUays And Not LalDs

bors appropriation of the Congress Of the United States.
 campaisn of Educatios.
 We wish to keep up this campaign of education" declared Mir. Fox em- phaticaily, until we will be assured of this appropriation which will bene- 1t every state and locality in the Un- ion. and such fruits do we expect of this agitation that there should be at the next annual meeting of the Con gress in Washington at least 5000 pub lie spirited citizens present instead Of 1000 as was the case last year"
 The other speakers of the evening were c. F. Moritz. a member of the City Council and a prominent whole sale merchant of Montgomery; Horace Stringfellow. special counsel In the lit- igation of the Montgomery Freight Bu- reau: Captain H. B. Ferguson, of the United states Eneineering Corps; c. Grosvenor Dave. secretary of the Montgomery Commercial Club. and John l.. Matthews. special writer of The Boston Transcript and for maga- zines on the subject of rivers and har- bors.
 A motion was made at the end of the speech h-making which was adopted. providing for the appointment of a committee of eight. who should accom- pany Mir. Fox today and Monday on a soliciting trip through the city with the view of raising funds to support the work of the Rivers and Harbors ConRress in the educational campaign now under way throughout the various States of the Union.
 On this committee were named the following: R. M. Henderson. H s. Koel- hefer, F. P. Glass. c. F. Morits, Frank D. Kohn. F. F. Chaffee. Horace String fellow and c. Tuiiis.
 The committee has been called to- gether this morning at 9 o'clock In the rooms of the Commercial Club on Court Square for the purpose of dividing up the work of solicitation. Two of them will accompany Mir. Fox this morning and two this afternoon. The remainder Of the work will be done by the other four members of the committee on Mon day.
 In other cities of Alabama the funds raised bv the efforts of MT. Fox and the cooperation of citizens has far ex- cseded expectations. On this account a special appeal was made last night to make every iota of patriotism in the city assert itself in the next two days
 Freight Congestion.
 In opening his speech MT. Fox called the attention of hts hearers to the re markable congestion of freights fin all DArtN OK kn0 COuuAEN 0uAtA8 tll0 RAo~~ perous times of 1908 ana 1907, To ac- commodate the enormous increase In the production of soil mines and fact ories in the future, MT. Fox proceeded to show that there must be other tn- strurnents of transportation than. the railroads. This Is proven by the req son that the railroads have acknowt- edged their inability to cope with the situation. The truth of their inca L kswrt tta "a a4 0t Che increase in the, last few years of railroad mileage and facilities has been far below the proportion of increase in the products of the Nation to be hauled.
 Therefore the only hope is in the waterways of the Nation. Here the speaker launched on an eloquent praise of the rivers and inland waterways as the great influences of the Nation In the regulation and equalization of rates.
 eve must regulate our transporta- tion rates through the use of our wa terways," said Mir Fox. "Too long all ready have the Legislatures of the States persisted in their unnatural ef- forts to bring the common carriers un- der their regulation. ft Is time to stop the haggling over railroad rates and resort to the natural method or regu- lation, that of equipping the water routes of the country so that rates will seek an equitable level according to the inevitable laws of competition. The Amount Needed.
 To give the rivers and harbors the necessary equipment to take care of the stupendous increases in traffic that may be expected in the coming years, Mir. Fox estimates that s50o,00o.000 would be an adequate amount to be spent by &he nation. This money spent on the rivers and harbors. said Mir. Fox, would be sufficient to take care of the entire low-class freight of the United States while the higher class trafic would be carried by the rail- roads.
 That the improvement of the inland