Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-08-10

BTSSS mas ALREADY H1dQe appropriations
for the surveying of a number of the
streams that would go to make up
this belt line. At the next congress
the reports of these surveys will be
ready for consideration and the gov
eminent Is expected to make appropri-
atoms that will set the improvement
work in motion. The senators and
representatives Of the middle west
and south are committed to the water
ways improvement plans. The New
England congressman, who are inter-
ested in the plans for a system Of
waterways from New England to the
gulf along the Atlantic coast, are the
allies of the westerners and southern
ers. An indication of this is given in
a speech made last week in congress
by Representative j. Hampton Moore
of Pennsylvania, who, though speak
ing more particularly for the Atlantic
! coast line, favored it as part of an
inland waterway belt. Mr.. Moore
said:
! Such waterway carried to its full
extent means nothing more nor less
than the completion Of an inland belt
line or circuit by which, when other
means of transportation should be-
come inadequate, the good Lord In
His original dispensation apparently
intended the peoples Of this land
should be brought together. 1t re-
quires but glance at the map and a
cursory knowledge of the physical con-
ditions to show the feasibility Of run
ming an inside water line from the
factories of New England to the farms
Of Florida; thence along the Gulf of
Mexico to the Mississippi river, up
the Mississippi. through improved
waterways, to the Great Lakes. and
thence by the way of the Erie Canal,
or the ST. Lawrence and its connect
ing waters, to the place of beginning.
Not an idle or visionary proposition
this, but real, live suggestion, which
a few men, in boats Of moderate draft,
have already successfully undertaken
to demonstrate. 1t is possible to COM
plete this water belt line, and there
is good reason to believe the people
are generally beginning to realize the
advantages 1t would bring to agricul
ture, commerce, and industry.
At this time I can not fully discuss
the reasons for opening up this com.
pleted circuit of eastern, middle west
|
routes. 1t involves too many features
transportation irrigation, water
power and conservation, the invest
ment of capital, the employment Of
labor, and the building over and i'm
provement of waste lands-all very
; proper factors for governmental con
sheraton; but will say, in passing
that the congress which INDUCES its
generous impulses with regard to Pan
ANA and our island possessions could
; not spend our national wealth more
advantageously than here in our owl
country, north, east, south and west
: where it will circulate amongst thost
who create it. and where every dollar
spent will be in the nature of an in
, vestment, the dividends from which
must return to the treasury and thu
: people.
l AS it is, the government UP to 190
has not spent altogether upon rivers
$ and harbors more than 1852 100000
q This is all that has been done for so
J. 600 miles of navigable streams, includ
3 ing harbors, in the 46 states and tes
= ritories. That it has not been undu!.
t generous is shown by comparison
I with France, a republic not so larg
9 as the single state of Texas, which
d since 1914, has spent upon the i'm
: provement of rivers and harbors t.
tai Of S700,0O0,0O0 OF the whole 1852
100000 appropriated for our own coui
try, $20S 100000 went into the Missis
Il sippi valley, while the great Atlanti
e seaboard states, with all their impor;
t. ant rivers and revenue producing ha,
}, bors, were kept down to about $40
d 100000 or only twice as much as tn
J. city of Manchester spent in a singl
$ generation upon the 30-mile cana
5 which brings the ocean steamers ava
y from the Mersey river opposite Liver
a pool, through the farms and garden
of northern England. to the scenes O
n its own activities in inland manufae
r turing and industrial enterprises.
$ There are 30,000,00O people in tn
e states bordering the Atlantic oceaI