The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-23
TAF I Is ENTHUSIASTIC
 OVER DEEP WATERWAYS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1o

changing our policy in that regard Some times that body of men who have had charge of our waterways in the execution of the improvements appropriated for. the army engineers, have come un- der criticism because of the policy pur- sued by the government. That is most unjust That policy has been determined blythe commerce committee of the Senate and the river and harbor committee of the house, and 1t has usually been deter mined by the clamor from home for ap- propriations and by party considerations, whether there was enough money in the treasury to justify the appropriations and not subject the party in power to too great criticism for wasteful extravaT gance.
 Piecemeal Improvements.
 Now, as long as that limitation con- tinues, as long as that state of affairs Is allowed to exist, we may be sure of having a piecemeal, and what shall I call it?-procession-b -by-jerks in reference to our Improvements. Every man who looks at 1t from a business standpoint knows that what ought to be done is for us to agree on the great projects that are necessary to better our condition; to have those projects surveyed; to have the ex-
 
 practical; to have 1t determined by Con- gress that 1t will work for the improve ment hoped for, and then, having made up our mind to do it, to issue the bonds to pay for the construction. I do not think there is any distinction between the i'm provements of the Ohio river from Pitts burg to the mouth of the Mississippi river, from the headwaters of that stream to New Orleans, from the head of navigation in the Missouri river to its mouth and the inland waterways of the west than there is in the construction of the Panama canal.
 ''Now, of course, recognize the dan CT there is in the proposition that you issue bonds for such enterprises. In oth- er words, that when you issue bonds, you are just like-was it not Brother Micawber who. when he had just writ ten a note and turned 1t over, thanked God that that debt had been paid. There Is disposition when you pay for an enterprise by bonds not to realize that some day those bonds have got to be paid, and that Is not payment.
 Confidence in People.
 Nevertheless, I have confidence in the conservation of the American people and Congress that they will not adopt every enterprise hap hazard and go into the
 
 cost anything because we can issue bonds to pay for 1t. but I believe they will go to work with conservatism, that they will calculate the question whether now is the time to do the work or whether the country ought to develop more before making such an expenditure.
 There is now nine feet of water from Cairo to the gulf and if you get your coal and all those other articles of heavy oI1 Tdic fhat tra al ter; if they are to come to you at all, ultimately you have to count on get ting them all the way by water, and that will come through nine-foot inter- coastal canal.
 But, my friends before you can in- duce Congress to vote the money for that canal, or the bonds, you have to show that you have grown to point where the trade will justify the expenditure"
 The President referred to the harbor of Galveston as a typerof waterway inn provement justified by a trade that must have an outlet. Then he continued: There Is not the slightest doubt that the best means of controlling railroad rates is water communication; but that Is not the only means, and we ought to see to 1t that our interstate commerce declared in 1t by adding to it's provisions so as to make it effective" Concluding he said:
 "U want to thank the Confederate and the Grand Army veterans who have hon. ored me by coming here this morning. I hope this test of the Texas sun will not be too much for them; though. when they were earlier in the field they would be able to withstand the sun a good deal better than some of us that have 1it- tie too much avoirdupois. but 1t is a great scene to see the mixture of those who fought for the blue and these who fought for the gray here in Texas sitting together and worshiping the old flag and feeling common pride in the deeds of heroism that were done in the civil war between '61 and '65 and that we re- member now only to weld more closely all those who gather under the starry ban ner'