Evening journal., 1909-11-03
DEEP WATER WAYS.

HE Lakes to-the-Guf-D -Deep-W ater- Ways
- Convention, which has been in seeson at
New Orleans, has concluded that the time has
come for action-that the stage of mere talk has
been passed. Taft, in his address, took the same
view, that the way to get the channel is to dig it.
Perhaps this is easier said than done, for action
requires money and the problem for the friends
of improved water ways along the Mississippi,
as it is for the friends of the Chesapeake and
Delaware ship canal, is to get the money. The
New Orleans convention has decided 10 send a
delegation of FIVE hundred leading business men
from many states to Washington to urge upon
Congress the necessity of making a large appro-
priation for improved water ways. These dele
gates will act also as delegates to the River and
Harbors Congress, which meets in December.
With these additional delegates, the coming
Rivers and Harbors Congress will be more inn
posing assemblage than ever before, and the
indications are that Congress will be forced to
take action for the improvement of the water
ways. The resolutions adopted by the conven-
ton urge that Congress shall adopt at once
definite plan of water ways improvement.
1t is interesting to observe that in some parts
of the country there is considerable opposition
10 the entire scheme of better water ways This
opposition comes chiefly from the newspapers
that speak for the railroad interests, and it IS
thought that the railroad companies are behind
whatever opposition has been developed. 1t is
asserted that no matter how many Improvements
were made to the water ways, the river traffic
would not be increased because the tendency is
towards railroad transportation. The decline of
water travel, it is held, has not been because of
the condition of the water ways, but it is the
natural result of railroad development, and the
preference of shippers to employ rail trans
portation.
All this shows with what the friends of better
water ways must contend and will doubtless stir
them TO renewed efforts for their projects.
Professor Emory r. Johnson, of the University
OF Pennsylvania, one of the Congressional Com
missioners who have been touring Europe to
study the water ways problem, thinks that the
relations between the railroads and the friends
of water ways should be one of cooperation
and not antagonism. He points out that there
is no clash in countries where the governments
control the railways. On this point Professor
Johnson says:
an England and this country the clash is
inevitable and the question becomes one of Gov
ernment regulation to bring railroads and water
ways into physical coordination. Methods frc-
auenty employed OF forcing traffic over rail-
road systems not just from a public point
of view It is certainly not to the public interest
to permit railroads to raise rates and crush out
competition. For example, it may well be to
the advantage OF the Philadelphia shipper to
reach points partly by rail and partly by water
which are now open to him only by rail.
"I believe the development of inland water
ways is the best in the long run for the railroads.
1t is a short-sighted policy which fails to build
up industry and rather places obstruction in the
path in order to retain every particle OF present
traffic"
lust what the report OF the commission that
went abroad will contain, is problematic, but It
will probably outline a plan of definite action
for the government