The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1909-04-27
EIkinS Discusses
Railways and Rivers
Believes in Improving Water
Ways But Not at An
Enormous Outlay

=. e1Att W Sss <AktkAA = ~
am hardly prepared to endorse 81
bond issued % ave hundred millions
of dollars to develop waterways OF
the United States / believe that
current revenues MIN Be Sufficient To-
work out some comprehensive sys-I
tenn Of waterway development, coy-I
ering long period Of years. but
should current revenues fail to meet
current obligations, then 1 would
mot hesitate tosplaee an additional
obligation upon posterity In ordsrI
that We may have in the
United States as perfect q
met work of waterways as
Ihaye the countries of Europe. 4 say
this because posterity for all time
lwill enjoy the vast dement's OF such
Improvement and development. e
Senator Stephen %. Elkins. on
INVEST Virginia, who made the above
statement, as chairman of the COM.
mittee ON interstate commerce and
as a ranking member of the commit
tee of commerce, Is essentially an
optimist. he believes in the future
Of the United States and inshis con-
sentative legislative work has re-
fected this optimism on numberless
occasions. But Senator Elkins
Is Not a Dreamer, II
his early life having taught him that
to do things is better than to dream
things. A product Of Ohio and rais-
ed on farm, he was early imbued
with the idea Of securing an educa-
ton and becoming lawyer. After
Ibis graduation from the University
of Missouri in 1860, he was admit.
lied to the bar and afterwards at the
close of the war, he went to New
tMexico, which territory he repre-
scented in the forty-third and forty
fourt congresses. From that day to
this Stephen B. Elkins has been in.
terested in waterways and does not.
flake any stock In the oft-repeated
declaration that the railroads are
antagonistfc to waterway develop
ment in the United States. He SAYS
1t will take both railroad and water
way to do the carrying business Of
this country.
Need n F,xed. pI.n
What we need most in the United
States is some fixed plan for I'm
proFing orr rivers which can DE
made lnayigable ny the expenditure
I9sof; conservative sum. every year.
Piece-meal appropriations are things
of the past. so Tar as waterways de-.
yelopment is concerned. We have
been too careless and unmindful Of
the benefits and advantages OF these
great water courses with which ma
ture has so bountifully supplied us
and we have seen whole. harbors and
rivers closed up which could have
been kept open. All this should be
prevented and We should harness
the rivers, seas and lakes to do
their proportion of the work Of
commerce building as railroads have.
The railroad goes everywhere, the
river has no feeders, except as 1t
may now and then have a tributary
for Its course is axed by immutableI
law.
While am opposed primarily to.
putting larger debt upon the
American people feel convinced
that sometimes this great waterway
problem OF development should be
borne in a measure, or i may say
largely, by those who come after us.
When We have $4,000, 900 of peo-
pie and that time Is not SO very far
away, We win need the water
courses help to handle our great
traffic, especially the heavier and
bulkier freight. The river Is al
slow carrier, for great bulks can
only be transported by barges In
tow. The. railroad
Is the Express Messenger
to handle the lighter and more per.
ishable freight. so that the river
land the railroad have each their
proper function and We should not
be blinded to those conditions.
I'VE are in the throse Of our sec
ond waterway agitation largely due
to the work Of the National Rivers
and Harbors Congress. The drst ag-
itatlon followed hard on the revolu-
ton and in far reaching effect shared
with the Declaration offndependencel
the distinction OF having opened the
most important era in American his
tory. The agitation now going on
gives abundant promise of a stilll
more far-reaching revolution peace |
full though It is, than was ever con-
templated in the far-off days Of
Washington ana Gallatln. w have