The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1909-11-05


plan for deep waterway is an ac-
complished fact, an we need now is
action" declared W. X. Kavanagh.
president of the Lakesto-the-Gulf
Deep Water Ways Association, IN his
address at the opening OF its conven-
tion today The history of the Mis-
sissippi river has been a story of in
action and of niggardly appropriations
which have been fought through the
rivers and harbors committe through
congress without rhyme or reason, 4"
said the speaker The whole valley is
sick with the congestion of It's trans
portation system. and only this deep
waterway can relieve it, The people
of the Mississippi valley must have de-
finite assurance that this carrier is to
be completed at a certain date, and
that date must not be much more re-
mote than the completion of the Pana.
ma canal
Mr. Kavanagh said that the people
looked 70 President Taft for the exc
eution Of the great task. He referred
to the executives trip down the river,
saying
lie has seen the richest farm lands
in the world crumbling from its banks,
dissolylng in its waters. he has seen
leyees that protect $4,000 square miles
of this rich alluvial threatened by
these cayng banks; he has seen the
remains of uncompleted reyetmeuts
that have been torn away by the river
because a neglectful Congress has not
provided for their completion and he
has seen a thousand mile channel un.
burdened by a single modern vessel,
the docks Of IFS many cities unmarked
by single installation Of modern ter
minal apparatus.
There was a day when the Missis.
sippi was considered an untamable
stream, which shifted its channel and
deyoured it's banks at viii. Today we
are able to show the President Of the
United States two remarkable chan
ges; one of these is a river which. In
it's most difficult and NOSE readily.
shifting parts, has been bound down
by the engineers TO fixed channel,
with permanent banks; that has been
forced TO scOur its own beds, and per-
init the passing of deeper ships.
The other is a modern garden of
ana worth from $10O to 5000 an acre
capable OF producing in crops every
year enough money to pay many times
over the entire cost of producing a
l4-foot channel from Chicago to New
Orleans, and this soil protected from
waste only by those engineering de.
vices which have held the river in its
fixed bed which make the deep water
way.
I'VE have shown him this, and now
we are ready to ask him to extend
the reyetments which do this work in
to every bend on the Mississippi. and
to carry this deep waterway and the
protection to farm lands adjacent to It
throughout the course Of the Missis-
sippi.
I'VE wish TO go further than this im-
provement. reyetment and contrac-
tion, and TO see some broad general
plan adopted. which shall cover the
whole control Of the water in the
river, shall lessen the floods. and give
us a more general flow at low wattr,
and at the same time restrict the chan
mel We believe that this work must
be carried on not piecemeal by local
divisions, and subject to occasional
appropriations by Congress. as has
been done IN the past nor do we be-
lieve that this work should longer be
subject to the annual arguments and
Vaccinations of a Rivers and Harbors
Committee"
Mr. Kavanagb said: Engineers
have surveyed the route and have de-
clared a deep waterway feasible and
easy Of accomplishment The best
civil engineers have declared it in
evitable he said Chicago has spent
$50 100000 cutting the channel thro.
ugh the rocky divide and Illinois is
spending s20,OOO.0OO TO step it by
locks down 70 the soft bottom portion
Of the Illinois river the speaker de-
elared From there TO the Gulf the
way Is clear and the plans are ready =
Mr.. Kavanagh said The people
will no longer tolerate the pork bar.
rel method Of compelling government
engineers TO allot funds for river i'm
provements, according to congression.
al districts. nor will they allow the de
velopement Of the greatest Of their
highways to depend upon uncertain
appropriations
The speaker said that when Con
gress conyenes this winter it will have