The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1909-11-01
NO IMMATURE waterway
PLAN CAN BE CONSIDERED
Secretary of War Dickinson Speaks at COnuen-
tiOn of Lakes-tO- Gulf Deep Waterway AssO-
ciatOn--PIan Should Not Be Adopted Until
Confirmed By Expert Opinion : Hasty
and Unsound Conclusions Will Be Dis
credited on Sober Second Thought.

New Orleans. La, Nov. l.-Jacob NJ
Dickinson, secretary Of war was Z
speaker at the convention Of tbs
Lakes-to-the-Gulf Deep Waterway As
sociation today Mr. Dickinson urgeC
thar caution be exercised in the plai
for the proper lakes-to-thegulf water
way, saying the work was ton vas
and costly to be improvidently under
taken 1T so vitally affects the for
tunes of so large a territory that nc
immature plan, nor one that will not
be acquiesced in by the country
should have your advocacy, the speak
er declared.
He added, Our people will under
take any expenditure that they are
convinced is well justified.
There is conclusive evidence that
something should be done as early
as practicable on large scale, for
utilizing the transportation facilities
with which nature has provided u.s.
In beginning his address, Secretary
Dickinson said.
THE proposed improvements to nav
igation that now absorb our interest
are of stupendous magnitude, and
present questions involved in much
controversy. Heretofore, the work
has been detached, spasmodic, inter
mittent 1t has largely depended up
on the activity Of merely local in
fuences Now all the forces of the
public sentiment in the states border
ing on the Mississippi and its tribu.
taries have converged, and there is
a conclamatory cry for inaugurating
and carrying to a prompt execution a
comprehensive and permanent plan
that will give to that region the high
est development that its natural trans
portation facilities, aided by the best
skill, can afford.
"As was said by the president, who
was then secretary Of war, in his adj
dress before this association in Chi
cago:
"A plan should not be adopted until
by expert opinion and care
full investigation, but when it is adopt
ed, when its utility is made certain,
then it is neither economy to the gov
in the matter of expenditure
nor is it benefit to the people to de-
lay the furnishing as rapidly as it can
be economically expended, of the full
amount Of money needed to make the |
a useful and completed |
hing.
'Hasty and unsound conclusions viii |
be discredited by sober second thought |
It would be calamity if the magnifi-
cent enthusiasm behind this move
nent, which it has taken SO many /
years to evolve and concentrate,
should be mere brutum fuImen, as
t will be, unless the plans in which
t finds expression carry the convic-
ion that they are sound, and promise
'esults commensurate with the pro-
Dosed expenditure.
The government has already de-
'oted approximately six hundred mil
ions for the improvement of the
Of which two hundred and
light millions were expended in the
Valley The advocates Of
he proposed Intra-Costal Waterway
rom Boston to Florida; and thence to
he Rio Grande, covering a distance of
bout twenty-six hundred miles. con
ecting up navigabIe streams in esse
nd in posse of approximately 27,6O0 /
niles, are not somnolent, but in a
tate OF the highest activity They
vill be insistent for appropriations.
he aggregate-cost of internal improve
lents now advocated is estimated at
bout FIVE hundred millions of dollars.
hose that assure the best and surest
esults for the outlay win come to the
ront There may be cooperation.
ut there will probably be rivalry for
The resolutions of the Atlantic
leeDer Waterways association. while
xpressing sympathy with all meri
lrious movements for the improve
lent Of the waterways, specifically re-
srring to that proposed from the lakes
, the gulf, pledges cooperation only