The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-31
wArnRwAYs CONVENTION.

but very happy President was whiris'
 back to his hotel. A
 WATERWAYS CONVENTION.
 President Taft spesks :. TAe FITS
 New Orleans. Dis. E... Oct so.--wn,
 President Taft declaring himself
 squsrsiy In favor of a bond issue foi the development of the country's in land waterways and the Governors oi ltwenty-one States voicing assuranct of their hearty sympathy with the
 movement. for such improvement the day of Lakes to the Gulf Waterways
 convention was characterized by much lenthusiasm
 It was after nightfali when the last of the governors was heard and the
 hall was emptied of the hundreds of
 delegates.
 Owing to the fact that much of the
 morning program had to be moved for
 ward. owing to several hours delay
 in the opening of the convention. It was decided to postpone the address of
 clifford Pinchot, chfef forester of the
 United States until Monday.
 At Mondays session many members of the large congressional delegation in attendance will make brief ad- urc51o III auuittou " tno ppcnNo. q" Icluding Secretary of War Dickinson and Speaker Cannon. whose names ap- pear on the program.
 Speech of President.
 Tn his address this afternoon, Pres ident Taft said:
 I'm 'deiighted to be present (you see we adopt in our administration
 the Roosevelt policies to the full) and
 to head the highly honorable delega- ton that has come from St. Louis to the gulf. We have passed through all
 the dangers of the navigation of the river and they are not confined to the shoals. sand banks and the bends.
 and we are here without the, loss of a
 single man. There are some few of us who have braved the whole way. | and I hesitate to speak of those who l resorted to the humiliating device of taking land transportation to get here.
 hope that will be suppressed in the
 minutes of this meeting. When Uncle
 Joe addresses your honorable body. don't ask him where he left the river
 and when he got back to it.
 "But testing aside, our coming indis
 cates what we hope may be an epoch
 in the change of the character of tran
 sportation in this country. Do not
 misunderstood me. do not think that
 we are going to fill the bosom of the
 Mississippi with barges and ocean
 steamers tomorrow morning. The change which is bound to be effected with respect to that steam will come gradually. It will come with the de-
 mand that is certainly growing for an Improvement in our transportation and
 the cheapening of that kind of tram | sportation, to wit. bulky merchandise
 that ought to be carried more cheaply than 1t is today.
 we have seen human ingenuity l turned and developed to the highest degree in the growth of our railroad transportation and the economy of the conduct of railroads. But the condi- tion of our rivers, the apparently hope- less task of making them useful has turned the public attention from them and there is not in reference to river
 construction or river navigation that | improvement that we ought to have | had in the last forty years. ask l you what progress has been made in | the last thirty or forty years in re- ference to river navigatIons.
 Now we have reached a point wher, l we are bound to use those because tn, amount that Is required to be carrie, l will necessitate 1t. In Germany and II foreign countries, to which we ar, | pointed to show what can be done witt river navigation, there the governmen exercises control and says that. witt | respect to the ratesI certain Of then I shat1 beCsuchI0m 7thB BsriNerrtlYat bulk,
 merchandise must go. that1w wha I dol we sado? Why We sa syto the rail roads. If you will only arrange you | rates so as to compete with the rive we will permit you to make them so a. | to drive the river out Of business Now. that Is what has been done, an, while the river has served the purpos, of regulating rates to a certain exten and reducing them. 1t nevertheless ha | not exercised that power and that in | fiuence that 1t might if 1t were actuali,
 used for the purpose.
 'eThe Secertary of War yesterdal l ggested--aithough he is as far iron | a government ownership man as posst ble--that perhaps 1t might be well tt let the government experiment a bit ir risking some capital to put 6 few line. on the river to try and see whethAi something cannot be done with tha l business.
 Tn Kansas City they are investing money today to try 1t on the Missouri l river. And the question whether WI can meet the point that you have go | to have some means of gathering tht l business and getting 1t on to the boa In order to compete with the railroad may give rise to the suggestion tha | the government might establish sta | tions along the river for the purpose oi housing the merchandise to be sent b, l the river. All those are suggestioni l that will have to be worked out before we reach satisfactory conclusion. Now, in St. Louis, I said that | thought that we ought to satisfy our selves with respect to a great improve ment of the river. that 1t would be use. | full before we went ahead and invested all the money necessary. and that wher | and issue bonds for the purpose be. l cause that Is the rapid way. Now | think that we have solved the .auas- | tion of the navigation of the ohio rfxei 1 for tho purpose of improving the trad; | of that river; and if you are going te make the Mississippi valuable stream | you have got to depend on the feederi 1 to that stream, of which the Ohio to. day is far and away the most import ant.
 Tt will cost $es. .o0o.O0O. I am in Ia vor of going ahead with that whicl | has been determined to be useful ant | issuing bonds and building those i'm | provements. I am not in favor O l building the Mississippi improvement | until the Ohio river improvement Il l complete. but am in favor of findinl | out what you ought to do In the Nils
 sissippi river Succinctly and knowin,
 what 1t will cost before you go In an,
 spend all your money.
 'I have been delighted to read, be cause I had otherwise different idea that the Mississippi has been improves and improved greatly toward the lowe end that the Mississippi river commis Ston vvorkfnR with I,ouiafanat and NflS