The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-10-07
BOTH IN CHICAGO
Taft and Bryan Meet at Deep
Water Convention.
Democrat Candidate First to
Reach the City.
TAFT SPEAKS FIRST.
Each Meets With Enthusiastic
Reception on Arrival.
The Opening Finds Every Dele
gate Seat Occupied.

Chicago. Oct. National attention
was directed to the opening of the
lake-to-the-gulf deep waterways con-
vention today, when the Republican
and Democratic nominees for the
presidency arrived in Chicago pre-
paratory to doing their part in the
gathering toward the deep waterway
project that will link the great lakes
with the ocean.
William Jennings Bryan was the
first to arrive, and at z a. m. was
greeted at the Northwestern station by
a delegation that included officials of
both the waterways convention and
the Democratic national committee.
Two hours later William Howard Taft
received a similar greeting, and after
short interval was escorted to the
convention hall, where he delivered the
hrst of the notable speeches that will
| mark the three days sessions. Each
of the political leaders talked enthusi-
astically upon their arrival of the pro-
ject which has led to the great gath
ering now in session.
The scenes preceding the tapping of
the gavel by President William K.
Kavanaugh. which called the gather
ing to order, were reminiscent of a
national convention of one of the
great political parties. Tuesday even
ing the downtown hotel Hobbies had
been thronged with early arriving
delegates and visitors, and in the
hours before the first session was
called the throngs had been increased
until the officials of the convention
declared that 10000 attendants were
| already on the ground. When the con-
vention was called to order every dele
gate seat was filed and the galleries
of the Auditorium theater had long
been filled with fortunate possessors
of tickets. The appearance of Will
| liam H. Taft, who was introduced by
Governor Charles S. Dineen, was the
signal for an ovation that lasted for
many minutes.
With the exception of a speech by
President Kavanaugh outlining the
work of the association and the sue
cess it had attained only official busi-
ness occupied the. convention until the
introduction of Mr.. Taft. At the con-
clusion of his speech the Republican
candidate left hurriedly for Galesburg
I'LL, where he made a speech before
returning to meet Mr.. Bryan at the
Commerce in the evening. Commit
tees on resolutions, nominations, Gre
dentials and finance were appointed
and the convention adjourned for the
day 20 permit the delegates to make
| a personal inspection of the deep
Nv dtCl way lOQlS OSlNtcn NllCdSO anu
Joliet. Four special trains, provided
by the Chicago Association of Com
merce, conveyed the delegates, their
families and friends, over the Santa Fe
railway. which parallels the drainage
canal to Lockport, Ill. President Nc
Cormick. of the drainage board /:
Eman E. Cooley, engineer of the
canal, and Isham Randolph, chairman
of the Illinois waterways commission,
pointed out the work so far accom-
plished and answered the output of in
quiries hurled by the delegates.
Tomorrow William J. Bryan, Clifford
Pinchot and Walter D. Moody will be
the principal speakers before the con-
vention, and in the afternoon the dele
gates will be taken on an automobile
tour through the city.
Taft's Address.
In his address Judge Taft spoke in
part as follows:
1.-The question of systematic i'm
provemen of our inland waterways is
one which our government has all too
long neglected. We find that the en-
ormous increase in productions of our
people in all lines of industrial activity
has outstripped the ability of our
great railway systems, extensive and
efficient as they are, to transport
them. We must have recourse to our
waterways No nation has been so
favored with so magnificent a system
Oh ndV1SdDle lakes ana rivers, search
ing in their providential distribution
every section of the great valley lying
between our east and west mountain
ranges and of the slopes from these
to their respective coasts. If we i'm
prove these in accordance with a well
defined progressive policy we shall, in
conjunction, with our great railways
and other forms of Transportation,
keep pace with the Industrial and
commercial advancement of our
country.
Nor does such a policy of water
way Improvement operate disadvan-
tageously to the railways even though
it compels lower freight rates, incon-
sistent as this statement may seem. In
the natural economy of transportation
the bulky raw material, commanding
the lower freight charges, falls to the
waterway, while the manufactured
goods of infinite variety seek the rail-
way. BY reason of the low water
rate and the unlimited carrying ca
pacity of the waterway, you carry
millions of tons of raw material to
furnaces and factories, there to be
converted into corresponding tons of
merchandise capable of bearing a
higher freight charge. Thus one sys-
stem becomes complemental to the
other.
"Your project proposes to connect
bv a deeD waterway the great lakes
system with the Mississippi river and
the Gulf of Mexico. and thus with all
the harbors of the world. 1t is grand
conception and appeals to the
thoughtful consideration of those who
must finally pass upon its adoption.
Furthermore, the irrigation Of arid
lands, which is not only one of the
most successful of the conservation
| policies, but represents the largest di-
rect effort ever made by any govern
raent for the man who works his owr
| farm, is a natural part of any compre-
| hensive plan of stream control. So is
the drainage of swamp lands. which
will add many hundreds of millions tc