Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-02-14

ING Iallroad companies of this county. If II
had been a railroad man and had been behind
inc great system of railroads that are reaching
PACK into the country and developing great
area, would have been looking out for the
fssIs things that have been done. But
want TO say to You that the appropriations
have been largely inspired to build and con-
struct deep harbors and waterways either to
&lRfAish great ports TO improve great harbors
Ioi imports or exports or to supplement the
railroad operations. say it not in criticism
but ! say it because it is fact and should be
observed. We have not lost any money in it.
!Sie have never deepened a harbor at the re-
guest OF a great railroad system of this country
that we did not bring back great returns to
the American people. 1t has been said that
hn putting in ten millions OF money for deepen
ing boston harbor we added three cents a
bushel on the value of every bushel of wheat
grown on American soil. Do you know what
that means? Just ston to figure it for a
moment and what it woulG mean to the North
Dakota farmers alone But the fact is that in
the past we have been expanding large sums of
money in deepening harbors, improving the
mouths of rivers and providing export and i'm
tions. y
The Demands of Commerce
Nov. the time has come when what we
want Is different regime, when we want
not not only to supplement the railroad operations,
tDut where as l have undertaken to suggest to
you, the demands of commerce in this country
require that we shall have great trunk lines
OF competing highways. not alone on the coast
but throughout the great interior of this coun.
try; not only to supplement railroad operations
and make it possible for railroads to reach back
into the interior to carry on their great opera
tons, but to add to the facilities and to cheaper
the rates to the producers of this country
That is the new regime. Now how are we
related to that proposition after we are in the
midst of the battle? In the hrst place Iacall
your attention to the general proposition. We
have in the Mississippi valley $4,000 miles
of navigable water, natural channels, as was
said by the president at Memphis. How far
this great system can be increased by inter.
Iacing canac it is almost impossible to imagine
sture has provided, placed here by Providence,
and waterways that, are not duplicated any
where else on the face of the earth. That is
the resource That is what invites us to this
new policy from the standpoint of resource.
Now what are we going to do about it? Why,
the Mississippi people have scheme to ex-
pend about thirty millions more below Cairo,
It is estimated thatsit will cost perhaps twenty
& FIVE millions from Mississippi. to Cairo and
the government estimates it will cost thirty-one
millions to extend from Chicago down and
connect It with the Mississippi fourteen feet
deep at the mouth Of the Missouri We have
already made the Ohio river nine feet deep lat
an expense Of sixty-three millions and we are
now considering project in northern Alabama,
where i VII cost tsp millions OF dollars to lgo
Big Things Projected 1ioi
!, vii will now goe down2to the Wachita and
big things we are planning in general way
IN the Mississippi valley. We propose to have
an outlet to the north, connecting the system
of Great Lakes. to sbuilde and extend an arm
across the state 81 Illinois and to sxten d1w an
msto the Sreat lakes, and that,is what this
scheme means, just as New York is proposing
by tdeepsning the Erie canal to extend AN arm,
s9ed IL sas ahs s dssp Ht sd hun
arm OF the Great. Lakes, east from Buffalo to
the Hudson river, a point in the harbor OF
/ new York and we come to the mouth of the
river river. and another outlet will be provided
south and east from the mouth of the Mis-
souri, river and another outlet north and east
ana that y the proposition that faces this great
valley through which this great river runs, and
valley is: are we going now to continue to
slnnber, and will this great project 20 on
and are We going to join? That is, what we
| ere here for in this convention. Now the
is whether or not the Missouri river s navi.
gable. You know / have got so am ashamed
to ask that question: ask that question in
m mg after t meeting of my people down at
Kansas City, meeting after meeting. of men
that came in and looked into my eyes and j
could just read it--to have boats running or
me \. sxs would splendid thing
Is the missouri River Navigableg (
Now we have got that question pretty well
settled down there. This is the way, i an.
swered it at first: said to them, "eGntlemen,
every man who has. ever had any experience
on. the Missouri river, every man who lives
now and remembers time when boats were
running upon, the Missouri river, every steam.
boat pilot or captain that ever operated a boat
on the, :, Missouri river, every engineer, whether
IN civil life or in the government service. who
mas ever looked up the question and pre-.
tended TO- be competent to- pass Judgment upon
it, every one of these men has declared and
declares today that the Improvement Of the