The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-09

us the cinapness that the river gives And speed is not the only thing, The railroad can not rival the water course in oheapness.. and then there is another advantage that the water course has. When you finish a river suf1ciently deep for commerce. or canal upon which boats can float. you make 1t pos- stbie for man with small capital to act, while the railroads make it possi- ble for men with large capital to act . Where there Is river, any man who can build a boat can engage in trans- portation. and if he cannot build big boat, he can build a little boat. and if you have large number of little boats. the big boat will have to meet the rate that the little boat fixes. You win ind it much easier to regulate rates on water than on land, because competition can be much more active on water than on land.
 The time has come when the land available for homesteads Is being well taken up. and when these lands are occupied. en. instead of sending peo- pie into new fields to lay out new States. we must begin t5 take smaller sections and develop t.se land more thoroughly and with that will come a pressing need for better transporta- ton. We are an exporting nation. We send our agricultural products to for eign markets and when IT wheat or our cotton reaches the London mar ket, its price is fixed there by the com- petition which 1t meets. If bushei of wheat sells for 6 dollar in London and 1t takes fifty cents to get it from the farm to London, the farmer gets fifty cents a bushei for lis wheat If you can SO improve transportation that the farmer can get his wheat from hIs farm to Liverpool for twenty-five
 
 cents to the farmers price for his wheat Every man who produces a dollars worth of material for the mar. ket. Is thus interested. It Is a fact that 1t is admitted that the railroads cannot carry freight as cheaply as the boats can. and therefore every farmer Is interested in established water com munication wherever water communl- cation Is possible. I believe in improv- ing the waterways everywhere. no matte rwheer these waterways are. I believe that 1t is the duty of those charged with the business of govern ment to develop those things upon which a nations prosperity depends.
 Usurf0us Interest.
 "The first question is: Should the work be done7 If the work should be done. and I believe that 1t should, then you people who believe 1t should be done. should agree upon the best methods by which to do it. But ro- peat that you must not be frightened because 1t may require an investment At St. Louis last fall they resolved that s500,o00.000 spent in improving the waterways of the Mississippi would bring an Interest in the way of de- creased cost of transportation amount ing to $1S0,00o.0o a year. If that is true. my friends. 1t is usurious inter est on the investment. But as it Is not interest collected from anybody but Interest saved we are not liable to the penalties fixed in the statutes for should begin now to lay the founda- ton for the future greatness of this usury.
 I believe that the plan should he commenced now. I believe that we country in the development of these natural resources these God-given wa- ter courses of ours"
 Clifford Pinchot, chairman of the