The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-11-18
MISSISSIPPI
PROJECT COSTLY
States Bordering on River Ask
improvements to Tune of
S63,OOO,OOO.
By Ernest G.. Walker.
Mail Special to The Advertiser


most picturesque of all the many events
of President Taft's long transcontinen-
tai tour has been his trip down the
Mississippi River. The country has
been following him aboard the light
house tender Oleander as he braved the
perils of shadows and sandbars and
bends and as the feet of nondescript
boats, carrying twenty-five governors
and III members of congress, wheezed
along behind him all the way from St.
Louis to New Orleans.
The long sail will add to the volumin-
Gus history Of that great river and will
be remembered as the outcome of an
effort of the powerful Business Men s
Association of st. Louis to arouse in
terest in the improvement of that river.
Many distinguished people have sailed
on that very famous waterway. Among
them have been Presidents and numer-
Gus other dignitaries, but never before
has there been such party of numer-
Gus influential individuals from whose
number session of the senate and
house of representatives could almost
have been called.
The great States bordering on that
river want improvements, in the shape
of a fourteen-foot channel that will
cost something like 500, 100000 accord
ing to the estimates of army engineers.
The project is the largest single one,
yet mapped out, saving only the Pana-
ma Canal. There have been two or
three tremendous campaigns before con-
gress for money to inaugurate this i'm
provement but thus far these campaigns
have not succeeded beyond the authori-
cation of surveys. But it is expected
there will be a river and narbor appro-
priation bill in congress this winter.
If so the clamor for a ''starter" for
the fourteen foot channel promises to
be well nigh irresistible.
The President has declared himself
for the project under certain limitations
but has discouraged action that might
prove too hasty. He wants first that
the improvements to the channel of the
Ohio River, which is the greatest feeder
of the Mississippi be pushed ahead. In
the meantime he wants experiments
made with well established lines of
boats on the Mississippi. He has even
suggested that the government put on
at its own expense a line or two of
boats to carry freight. He also wants
something done toward terminal facill-
ties and wharves. The investigations
of the river and harbor committee of
the house on waterway projects have
demonstrated that one of the chief diff
iculties in building up the sadly neg
lected facilities of American rivers for
handling freight is proper wharves and
other freight landing and unlanding
facilities.
The congressman of the Mississippi
Valley districts will come to Washing
ton. fresh from the big sail to urge
their campaign for a large appropria-
ton. 1t will undoubtedly be resisted
as the treasury funds are low, and the
leaders are already crying out about
the imperative necessity of economy.
President Taft has gone on record as
favoring bond issues for certain in
terror projects, such as the reclamation
of arid lands and waterway improve
ments. With him on the sail down
the Mississippi River has been Speaker
Cannon, who represents Mississippi
Valley district but who is little
"skeery' about the fourteen foot
channel project because of the great
drain it might be upon the treasury in
the immediate future. AS the head
| man of the house, holding the purse
strings of the United States govern
ment, the Speaker has to be conserva-
tive about big expenditures. There is
an unwritten law that the United
States government must not issue bonds
except in time of war. The voting
public has generally been unfriendly
to the party that was not able to make
both ends meet-to keep the expendi-
lures within the receipts-especially if
the expenditures brought about an IS
sue of bonds. The Speaker has not
been in public life for more than thir-
" years without remembering how
treasury deficits have driven parties
out of power.
There Is apparently to be big con-
test over the proposed bond issues this
| winter. with pretty nearly the
entire West in favor of the
| bonds and pretty nearly the entire
East against them. For some years
congress has favored the continuing
contract system for rivers and harborS
| improvements. By this method con
| tracts are let for large projects, which
| require term of years for completion
| Theodore z. Burton, of Ohio. now sen
| ator but then member of the house
| and chairman of the rivers and harbor'
| committee, ehampioned that system in
| the face of great opposition but it wa:
finally adopted and has worked very
satisfactorily indeed. After author
! izing the contract congress votes tbs
money needed to continue the work
| along weN-defined lines, from year tc
year The engineer office of the army
| IS accordingly able To conduct the con
/ struetion of such improvements method
: ically and with less waste. Speaker
| Cannon is in favor of sticking to that
plan in improving the Mississippi Thu: