New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1909-10-26
MR.. TAFT ON RIVER
BEGINS TRIP DOWN
MISSISSIPPI.
GiUeS His ViezcS on WatGr1Cays
4gain-Cannon FaUors
Bond Issue.

ST. Louis Oct. 21.-waterway improve
ment as part of national policy of con-
servation of the streams, the lands ad-
Joining them and the forests at their
sources was the theme of two notable
gatherings to-day in s.. Louis and in
East st. Louis, ILL.,, in which President
Taft, Speaker Cannon and Governors
Deneen of Illinois and Hadley of Mis-
souri, took leading parts. Vice-President
Sherman was at the East st. Louis
meeting. his presence making the occa-
sion perhaps the first at which so COM
plete a roster of high officials had gath
cred at any place west of the Allie
ghanies-
Cabinet members, United States Sena-
tors and Representatives and ministers
from foreign governments listened to the
speeches al one or both of the meetings.
Added to these were state and municipal
officers of all degrees, and close to one
hundred thousand citizens who had gath
cred to see and hear the officials
Tonight the President, the Speaker,
the diplomats, the legislators and sew
eral hundred representatives of CONNER
cial organizations in the Mississippi val
ley are speeding down the Mississippi
River on a 1otilla of paddle wheel steam
ers, bound for New Orleans. There they
are to assemble with hundreds of others
in the annual convention of the Lakes
to-the-Gulf Deep Waterway Association.
whose pet project is the creation of a
permanent 14-foot channel in the Missis-
sippi from the Illinois River to the Gulf
of Mexico.
CANNON FOR BOND ISSUE.
While the Presidents utterances on
waterway improvement were not so far
reaching regarding the creation of the
14-foot channel as those of President
Roosevelt on a similar occasion. and,
therefore. not entirely cheering to the
advocates of an immediate beginning of
the work. yet the fact that Speaker Can
non unqualihedly indorsed Mr. Taft's
stand on bond issues for such projects
gave these advocates encoura cement.
The general good was the test which the
President prescribed in undertaking Of
ambitious works
THE PRESIDENTS TEST
Let us take up each project on its
merits" he said, "and determine by all
means at our command whether the
country in which that project is to be
carried out is so far developed as to
Justify the expenditure of such large
sum of money and whether the project
will he useful when done. When you
have determined that, on the general
principle of good to the entire country,
then I am in favor of doing that work
as rapidly as it can be done, and 1 am in
favor of issuing bonds to do it,
Referring to this sentiment, which was
expressed at a meeting in the ST. Louis
Coliseum at noon, Speaker Cannon, ad-
dressing the gathering at the dedication
of the new federal building in East st.
Louis later in the day, said:
It is a safe and sound outlining of a
proper policy for us 10 pursue in this
great Middle West. We have improved
the Mississippi in the past, and we shall
be improving il a hundred years from
now. when we shall need all our water
courses We in this generation will do
our part wisely. We will not throw
money into rivers TO be washed into the
sea We shall do that first which needs
doing most
The Speaker lndorsed the leNee Sys-
TEN, congratulating East st. Louis and
the neighboring towns on the completion
of the river barriers. the dedication of
which formed part of the days celebra-
ton. He predicted that the Mississippi
would be permanently confined in its
banks throughout its length. and urged
that the states bordering on the stream
share the cost with the national govern
ment.
In his speech at the Coliseum. the
President said;
We are on the eve of great journey
down the Mississippi River, and cursed
be he who calls it junket. The journey
Continued ON third page.