The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-08


 CTS now delegated 10 the engineer | corps of the army, and many addition | al powers and also bureaus of mining of standard and coordination. This convention should endorse the
 accommodations of the National Riv-
 CTS and Harbors Convention, Congress to expend $500, 900. 900 in the next ten
 and harbors of the United States. and so notify Hon. Joseph F. RansdaH. it's President. and the Congressional rep resentation of Louisiana, Mississippi. Alabama and Florida.
 This Convention should endeavor to secure the election of Congressman | who are bound to a policy which will and uniform improvement of the wa | terways and harbors- of the United | States by the Federal government "The money for this development to |. be provided from our national re-
 sources, in addition to our present ex- | penditures, If possible. If not. by bond | issue or if this Is not expedient. as a | last resource, by reduction of expen- | ditures for the navy and army. to the i extent necessary to provide s5o,oOo'ooo | annually.
 | Necessity of work.
 q refer you to the relief map Of the I United States Geological survey which will make apparent at glance | the necessity of including such work | in your general plan. and which brings | out sharply how cheaply and qulckly this great work can be accomplished, along the lowlands of the Gulf and l the Atlantic. 1t is proper that you | should consider primarily the great Mississippi Basin, and make 1t the pa sin, as 1t were of your general work. | 1t becomes your duty. however. to com | 0f the Cnt- | ted States, affording relief where pos sible, and connecting up where prac- ticabIe the different smaller systems
 with the grand basin system Of the Mississippi Valley.
 | What plans have you conceived to amalgamate the great Appalachean wa l ter-sheds into working systems of 1 practical value? Can you conceive Of | peter plan for the eastern shed of this important chain of mountains,
 which drains into the Atlantic, than 1 to gather and mingle the waters of its many rivers at the foot of the slope | where these empty into the sea, into l on inland canal of waterways? The
 same can be said of all the rivers, of l Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. other than the Mississippi River, which drain into the Gulf of Mexico--that is. that an inland
 waterway along the coast would con- meet them all
 The long. creeping, still waterway contemplated by our Interstate League, starts at the Rio, Grande. and as 1t proceeds north and eastward along the Gulf coast, it picks up the several river-strands of Texas ana Louisiana, and ties them as a whole to the great Mississippi at or near New Orleans. Eastward 1t continues It's Journey, making a common system of rivers large and small that flow into the Gulf till 1t reaches Florida, a part of which it lops of. thereby saving hundreds of miles to the ast-wise ing along to the Atlantic. in a North. North -easterly direction. still tying riv- CTS to the Father of Waters, and talk ing, as it were a warm inland Gulf stream to the cooler shores of the Att lantic. s,-.
 This great waterway. partly nat ural and partly artificial, has now &C.,
 complished It's mny objects. It has con neeted to base line three thousand
 three hundred miles long, the many im- portant navigable rivers of the Atlan-
 tic sea-board, and of the Gulf coast. aggregating thousands of miles of com merce7 bearing streams; 1t has connect ca this grand system of water-trans- portation with the grander system of the Mississippi Valley, for, say nine root barge navigation, the cheapest under the sun, Gas the Great Lakes tonnage will attest). It has concentrat- ca GoVerhment funds on this great uu dertaking,. that would have been spent otherWlse in deepening the mouth of slhaii streams tes less advantage; it mas laid the foundation for many a drainage reclamation project which in tune Will be undertaken by the Fed eral Government;san and it has tieveloped WohoerIully and made populous the riehest agricultural lands in the TIni- tea states. that part of our country which can sustain the most peopIe n ti the square mile, I ask for this Ma
 ional waterway project, your most careful consideration"
 Hon: Charles J. Swift, of colum- ous, Ga-' then spoke upon "The Con- Chattahoochee
 Mr. Reed Speaks.
 warner B. Reed. of New Orleans
 spoke of the Western Division of the canal with the promotion of which he Mr P peen engaged for severay years. MT Reed said in substance:
 The Interstate Inland Waterwav, commonly caled the Intercostai Ca nal IS projected inland waterway extending from New Orleans on tba Mississippi River to Brownsville at the mouth of the Rio Grande-a dist ance or about 800 miles A large por-
 ton of this route has had appronria-
 tions and Texas has led off bv berin. ning the work of dredging. In Iouis-
 lana there have been many vexatious delays in procuring rights of way and overcoming number of legal difHcuI-
 ties. all of which Uncle Sam insists
 on having settled before he begins to
 spend the money. The actual work of
 dredging will begin this fall and we
 hope to have long stretches completed shortly.
 This intercoastal canal simply links | together our magnificent network of
 lakes, bays and bayous and will allow
 an almost perfect intercommunicatfon
 between every plantation. In our su
 gar belt 1t will be remembered that
 the only cultivatsble land is on the edges of the bayous and rivers, the bal
 ance being swamp and sea marsh sub ject to tidal overflow, so with this 1 intercoastal canal there will not be
 any plantation that cannot barge it's l products to the market. The sugar l tonnage is only one of our products: 1 there is the cypress and pine the rice
 the immense tonnage of salt sulphur l and oil-all of these clamoring for
 this cause so that they may not have