Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-30

WATERWAY is
CRY OF PEOPLE
f.. 81 81 l.a p
EXPERT HEARS DEMAND FOR
DEVELOPMENT
SAYS MUCH WORK is NEEDED IN
PACIFIC COAST PORTS
Special Director of National Rivers
and Harbors Congress Com
pletes Remarkable Tour of
the United States

WASHINGTON, D. c., Oct. 2e.-
John A. Fox, special director of the
National Rivers and Harbors congress.
which will hold its sixth national con-
vention in this city December 8, 8 and
10, is enthusiastic over the prospects
for the biggest gathering of waterway
advocates this country has ever seen.
Mr.. Fox, who is an engineer of dis
tinction, having been connected with
many of the big waterway projects of
the country, is Just completing a tour
of the United States in the interest Of
the National Rivers and Harbors con-
gress, whose cardinal plank is "a pol
icy and not project in so far as the
waterways of the United States are
concerned Mr.. Fox, who is an earnest
advocate for bond issue Of s500,000,000
to be spent on the rivers, harbors and
canals Of the United States to make
them equal of the best in Europe,
said, speaking of his tour Of eduoa-
tioh for better waterways:
ct have just completed practically
the same circuit of the United States
that President Taft is now making,
having Travelled over $4,000 miles since
going south out of this city last De-
cember. It took me down the Atlantic
seaboard to Florida; athrough the
southern states to the Mexican border
on the Rio Grande; up the Pacific
coast states from San Diego on the
south to Bellingham on the north of
Puget sound, back through the valley
of the Columbia and Missouri rivers;
east along the lakes down to the Ohio
and Tennessee rivers and now again
TO the Atlantic seaboard. r'N"+
Coast Needs Development
Throughout that entire journey the
pulse Of the nation has been quickened
q L i IN cxyc
tenn of waterway improvement. The
Pacific coast harbors need immediate
appropriations from congress to deepen
them and provide for commerce
through the Panama canal. San Diego,
Los Angeles, Oakland, Eureka, Port
land, Grays Harbor, Tacoma and Sc
attic must be provided for more liber-
ally in the future if the western coast
is to reap the full benefit of the great
isthmian cut now being made. The
Sacramento and San Joaquin, the CO.
lumbia and Snake rivers on the west
ern slope traverse a country that is
developing too fast to wait for appro-
priations made in the old manner.
They must receive larger amounts
from congress if the country is to re-
ceive any marked benefits.
1.-THE great region adjacent to the
Missouri river in Montana, Nebraska,
Iowa and Missouri is awakening from
the desertlike a huge giant under
the wonderful touch of irrigation, and
that magnificent artery of traffic can
no longer be allowed to remain unused
and unserviceabIe when the farmer in
that railroad-bound empire, is paying
II and IS mills per ton per mile to
move his product that could, by ju-
Clicious expenditure of money, on the
great river, be moved for 21a mills at
most by water.
Clamoring for Relief
1.-THE people along the Ohio, the
Tennessee and the upper Mississippi
rivers are clamoring for relief through
adequate water transportation, and If
every member of congress could have
heard the unanimous cry that L have
listened to, during my 15,000-mile tour,
for larger and more regular appropria-
tions on the part of congress, for
business-like development of our great
arteries of traffic, am sure that re-
lief would be provided, and that
quickly.
"From all that I have gathered
throughout this tour I judge that the
meeting of the National Rivers and
Harbors congress to be held in De-
cember will be attended by fully 5000
of the best business men of the coun-
try, bent on securing favorable iegis-
lation for our river and harbor I'M
provement at the coming session of
FIFTY million dollars annually must
be provided for, and if current revenues
do not warrant such an expenditure,
then we must issue bonds and begin
this great work at once.' /,