The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-11-25
HE BLAMES TAFT.
President KaTanaugh of the
Deep Waterway Association
Finds Fault With the President
for DilatOry Action.
ON PRACTICAL BASIS.
The Matter of River Betterment
Should Be Placed, He Says.
Looks Hopefully Toward Action
OF the New Congress.
On PRACTICAL BASIS.

St Louis, Nov. 25.-Prefacfng his
address Of welcome with q review Of
the work OF the Lakes TO the Gulf
Deep Waterway association, Preside ut
William K kavauaUgh declared today
that the organization has consistently
demanded that river betterment be put
on practical basis. On this point his
words were:
Almost at the outset this orgauiza-
ton unlike other river associations
condemned the pork barrel policy
and demanded that river improvements
be put on a practical basis IN which
commercial conditions should be held
paramount TO political consideration.
What is the resuIt2 Within the
last four years public sentiment has
changed; demands for waterway i'm
prOvement have become nonpolftical
and even the president. despite a
growing Indifference toward our great
project and favorable towards his own
river, has announced hereafter that no
pork barrel bill Will receive his ap-
provaL
From the beginning this assoCta-
tiou has taken the ground that uaviga-
ton should be developed in accord
ance with a comprehensive system
beginning with the lakes TO the gulf
deep waterway as its natural main
artery Throughout It's history this as
sOciatiOu has insisted on the principle
that each waterway IS a unit from its
source TO its mouth-the only principle
on which the perpetuity Of navfgatIo 4
can rest
THROUGHOUT its career this 6SSOc OcIa-
ton has held that the waterway issue
IS one Of business and not OF politics
The resuIt2 While no single iuStru-
mentality can bring about revolution n
among q great people. this organiZa-
ri0n is among those that have II the
last two years stirred public sentim ent
to it's depths. awakened the spirit of
citizenship and implanted in the hearts
OF our people sense of civic duty
rising above call of parties or com
rnand Of bosses. and let him Who
doubts recall the Ides Of November.
Speaking Of the necessity for trans
portatton facilities he said
@The need for better and quicker
TRANSPORTATION has not grown less since
this association was created-indsed- II
has grown more pressing IN 1865 We
we're all startled by reports Of railway
congestion so serious that towns
throughout the western interior suffer
ed for lack Of supplies. while the pro
duce Of the farms rotted on the ground
for lack Of cars to carry il to market
This condition. which gave our move
neut its first impetus led to the fore
cast that production would soon suffer
from both the insuricfency and cost 0f
transportation
I1a1kS c1i6EIy 10 Lle Ll4EILy u
men now present. the Sxty-fIrst con-
gress. at it's long session last winter,
enacted a river and harbor bill superior
TO its predecessors in several respects,
largely in that il contained modest
approprfatiou for the Lakes to the Gulf
deep waterway conditional on approval
by a board Of engineers, for which pro-
vision was made
The item was we'll intended and had
the intent been carried out faithfully
the critical point Of our project would
now doubtless be past II is a bitter
6fsa ppofntmeut that We have to record
at least partial failure Of this intent
through al official party first noted by
some Of its members in last years river
trip
The president postponed appoint
ing the board for many weeks, thus
making It apparent that the board
report If in conformity with the act
of con gress must necessarily be hastily
arrived at The president also ap-
pointed men on this board whom the