The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1909-11-05
FOR
RIVERS
PRESIDENT REITERATES UTTER
ANCES IN FAVOR OF
WORK.


ANCES IN FAVOR OF
WORK.
Declares Congress Has Shamefully
NEGLECTED. Rivers Hints Govern
ment Could Do Something Along
Federal Ownership Lines-Points to
European Policies.
New Orleans, Nov. with Presi-
dent Taft declaring himself squarely
in favor of a bond issue for the deveE
opment of the country's inland wa
terways, the governors of Fl states
voicing assurances of their hearty
sympathy with the movement for such
improvement, the first day of the
Lakes to the Gulf Deep Waterways
Convention was characterized by
much enthusiasm.
The president began his address by
having little fun regarding the trip
down the river. He said the danger
had all been rum" and that the fleet
had come through without the loss of
single man. Mr.. Taft thanked the
congressman and the governors for
having resorted to the humiliating de-
vice of land transportation at one
stage of the journey.
The president declared no progress S
had been made in river navigation in
this country in the last 40 or As years.
The waterways of this country, Mr..
Taft declared, must be used eventually
to carry the bulk of heavy merchan-
disc.
Bonds for Deep Waterways.
The presidents declaration that he
| favored the issuance of bonds for car
rying out the Ohio river improvements
as one of the approved projects of in
land waterways, called out a burst of
applause. The Ohio river improvement
will cost $63 100000.
Mr.. Taft said he also favored bonds
for all other improvements, including
the Mississippi, just as soon as feas-
ible projec can be decided upon and
can be shown to be necessary and JUS
tifable. The Ohio river gives the bulk
of business to the Mississippi, the
president declared, and every improve
ment of a tributary tended to increase
| the value of the great water highway
| to the gulf.
|. The president told of improvements
to the Mississippi on the way down
and especially in protecting the banks
| from further sloughing off at the out
side The engineers say they need
| 50 100000 more year to carry on this
beneficial work as it ought to be car
ried on, and that it was a shame con-
gress did not give it to them.
President Taft said:
Il am delighted to uo pres ent. You
| Roosevelt policies in full. We have
passed through all the dangers of the
navigation of the river, and they are
not confined to the shoals, sandbanks
and the bends, and we are here with
out the loss of a single man.
But testing aside, our coming indi-
Gates what we hope may be an epoch
| in the change of the character of trans
portation. Do not misunders tand me.
l do not think that we are going to fill
| the bosom of the Mississippi river with
barges and ocean steamers tomorrow
morning. The change will come grad
ually. 1t will come with the demand
that is growing for an improvement in
our transportation and the cheapening
Of that kind of transportation, to wit:
bulky merchandise that ought to be
carried more chcaply than it is today.
American Rivers Neglected.
eve have seen human ingenuity de-
veloped to the highest degree of
growth of our transportation and the
economy of the conduct of railroads.
But the apparently hopeless tack of
making our rivers useful has turned
public attention from them and there
is moi the improvement we ought to
have had in the last forty years.
Nov we have reached a point where
we are bound to use these streams be-
cause the amount of freight will nee
essitate it. In Germany and in other
foreign countries, the government ex-
ercises control and says that with re-
spect to the rates certain of them shall
be such on the river that bulky mer-
chandise must go that way. What do
we do? Why, we say to the railroads:
If you will only arrange your rates so
as to compete with the river we will
permit you to make them so as to
drive the river out of business.''
The secretary of war yesterday sug-
gested-although he is as far from
government ownership man as pos
sible-that perhaps it might be we'll to
let the government experiment bit
in risking some capital to put few
lines on the river to see whether some
thing cannot be done with that bust
ness.
"Now, in st. Louis I said that
thought that we ought to satisfy our
selves first that improvement of the
rivers will make them useful, and then
we ought to invest the money quickly
and is size bonds for tho purnoco Noxx,