Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-06-15
WATERWAYS The
SUBJECT OF TALK
DEEP WATER THOMPSON OF DU.
Z LuTH TO ADDRESS BIG BOOST
Err MEETING THURSDAY.
A PROMINENT SPEAKER
Commercial Association Have Secured
Men of National Fame on Rivers
and Harbors for the
Occasion.

Arrangements have been made by
the Commercial association for S. A.
Thompson, field secretary of the Ma
tional Rivers and Harbors Congress to
address the business men of this city
on the necessity Ct improving the wa
States. The meeting will be hello on
Thursday, June H. at the Commercial
association rooms at p. m.
Mr.. Thompson is recognized as one
of the best posted men in the country
on this subject. the study of which he
began some twenty-five years ago
while In the newspaper business In
Duluth, MINI. Later he was elected
secretary Of the Chamber Of Commerce
Of that city. and while in this position
appeared 50 often before the commit
tee On Rivers and Harbors to urge i'm
proyements on the great lakes. that
the newspaper correspondents OF
Washington nicknamed him Deep
Water Thompson of Duluth"
Fought for Channel.
He was one of the two speakers
selected to present the resolutions OF
the Detroit Deep Waterways conyen-
ton to the committees of Congress, the
other being the late Hon. Geo. Fl. Ely
of Cleveland. He was in the thick VI
the fight for the Twenty Foot Chan
nell" and after the bill provided for the
construction Of that c:aannel had been
passed, he was publicly thanked by
HoE. N. c. Blanchard, chairman of the
committee on Rivers and Harbors,
afterwards j. s. Senator and Govern
or Of Louisiana), in a speech on The
floor of the house, for the assistance
he had given.
Prof. Lewis M. Haupt, the distin-
guished engineer of Philadelphia, who
was a member of two OF the Isthmian
! Canal Commissions, cal S him the
foremost American authority on the
economics of waterways"
An article from his pen on The Eff
fects of Waterways on Competing
Railways" which appeared in the En-
cheering magazine in July, 1902, won
favorable comment not only through
out the United States, but also in
Great Britain and the continent of
Europe, and was reprinted and used as
a campaign document in behalf of the
issue Of s10i,00o,000 in bonds for the
enlargement of the Erie canal.
Is a Remarkable Speaker.
Mr. Thompson speaks very rapidly
having record Of ESQ words a minute
for an hour and ten minutes, but he
/ also speaks very plainly. The st
Paul Pioneer Press said Of him. IF the
| audience last night had numbered s.
600 instead of 500, no one would need
to have missed single syllable o!
| what was said"
He has a memory for facts and
figures which seems to have no limit
and this enables him to speak without
so much as a scrap Of paper in front
of him, and yet quote such statistics as
he uses with as much accuracy and
certainty as If he were reading them
from manuscript. But anyone who ex-
poets to hear simply mass Of dry
statistics will be agreeably disappoint
ed. His theme Is presented not only
in a manner to hold the attention, but
to excite the interest and arouse the
enthusiasm OF his hearers. A Mime.
sofa editor said of him. HE Is the
only speaker ever heard who car
clothe table of statistics with the
fascination of fairy tale"
This Improvement of waterways 1.
q subject of vital importance to the
nation at large, to the state Of Iowa
and to this city, and every bushes.
man should hear the facts which Mr.
Thompson will present in his address