The Green Forest tribune., 1910-01-21
WATERWAY BILL
 ID BE REPORTED
Congress, However, Likely to Be Slow to Sanction Certain
 Specific Projects.
RIVALRY AMONG PROMOTERS
Civil Service Commission, Tired of Moving, Makes Plea for Permanent 0uarters-Army Affairs in
 Good Shape.

the rivers and harbors committee ol congress will report a bill at this session recommending the appropria tion of a good many millions of dol lars for the improvement of the water ways of the country. It is yet a mat ter of great doubt, however, if the sanction of the committee will be given to certain specific projects in favor of which there has been coun' try-wide agitation. It may be, per haps it is safer to say probably will be- the opinion of the committee that the recommendation for an appropriation to begin the digging of a deep water way from the lakes to the gull or from Cape Cod to the Carolinas shall be put off until the congressional wa terways commission, which has been studying the general subject of com mercial highway improvements, shall have turned in it's report.
 The friends of the deep waterway from Chicago to the Eads' jetties are active in their methods of promoting the plan which they have at heart. The same thing hold true of the men who want congress to sanction the ship channel from Cape Cod down through the coast states to point somewhere in South Carolina or pos sibly Georgia. There is an intense amount of rivalry between the promo ters of these two great plans, but the rivalry is kept under the surface as much as possible in order that the promotion efforts may not cause con troyersy enough to upset the chances of success of either project.
 Other Highway Projects.
 The Mississippi valley waterway and the coast line waterway are not the only interior commercial high way plans which have friends in con gress. The projects which have been suggested and to a considerable ex- tent advanced in planning, are numer- our The southern states want easier water communication between differ ent points, and there are plans for waterway improvement in the north and northwest.
 When President Taft was in New Orleans at a meeting of the water ways congress he said a kindly word for the general plan of improving the rivers of the country, but he advised making haste slowly. As soon as the president finished his speech and the men who are devoting their time and energies to paving the way for water way legislation had had time to digest the remarks, they met and in effect made a political issue out of the cam paign for deeper river channels.
 To Investigate Fully.
 Congress always has way of meet ing demands for work along certain lines with a seeming approval of their general features, but it also has way of delaying things so that it can be given time for a survey of the field and obtaining of an actual knowledge of the needs of the case. The friends of the plan for an immediate improve ment of the waterways say that con gress simply seeks a means of post ponement hoping that some of the de- mands made will be moderated. Be this as it may, congress appointed a national waterways commission of which all the members were either senators or representatives.
 On this waterways commission are men who are extremely conservative on the subject and men who have been insistent that the work should be begun at once. The chairman of the committee, Senator Theodore E. Burton of Ohio, was for some years prior to his election to the senate chairman of the house committee on rivers and harbors Mir. Burton knows aIl about every harbor and stream in the United States and it is admitted by the men who think that he is too conservative that he has a pretty clear idea of the needs of every To- cality.
 Senator Lorimer of Illinois has been for many years an active advocate of ship channel from Chicago to the Gulf of Mexico MT. Lorimer is impa- tient of delay. There are other mem- bers of the commission who may be said to occupy the middle ground in the matter at stake. It is expected that before long the commission will make it's report.
 Merit Board Wants Home.
 As the country has been told re- gently, it is probable that congress will investigate the entire civil serv- ice system of the government with view of having both the letter and spirit of the law apply to promo HAD LIFE OF VICISSITUDES