Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1911-10-13
10000 EXPECTED
At WATERWAY meet
Association Wants Great Inland
system From Lakes to Gulf

Association Wants Great Inland
System From Lakes to Gulf
Chicago, ILL.,, Oct. 11.-Prepared
to renew it's fight for stupendous
inland waterway system from Lake
Michigan through the Mississippi
River to the Gulf of Mexico, the
Lakes-to-the-Gulf Deep Waterway
Association will begin it's sixth an
nual congress in Chicago tomorrow
with what promises to be a record
breaking attendance. Secretary
Thomas H. LOvelace of the assOcia-
ton is in receipt of advices indicat-
ng that nearly 10000 delegates and
visitors will attend the gathering.
Every State in the Mississippi Valley
and most of the middle western
Jtates, it is announced, will be rep
esented by large delegations, includ-
ng governors and other State Off
Gals and committees representing
the legislatures, aside from the rep
resentatives of numerous CONNER
cial and industrial organizations
which have committed themselves in
favor of the great waterway project.
Western and northwestern States
touching navigable tributaries of the
H. Aldrich of Nebraska, Joseph M.
Carey of Wyoming, E. F. Noel of
Mississippi also will be we'll repre-
scented. The gulf States and the
southwest, including Texas and Ok
lahoma, have shown marked in
crease of interest in the project.
Among the governors who have
promised to attend the congress are
John Burke of North Dakota, Char
les S. Osborn of Michigan, Chester
Mississippi, Augustus E. Wilson of
Kentucky, c. l.. Blease of South
Carolina, B. F. Carroll of Iowa, En-
NETT O'Neal of Alabama, J. Y. San
ders of Louisiana, Herbert S. Hadley
of Missouri, and Charles S. Deneen
of Illinois. A special invitation has
been extended to Canada to partici-
pate in the congress and it is expect
ed that several public officials of the
Dominion and some of the CONNER
cial organizations will be repre-
scented.
At the initial session to be held in
the Auditorium tomorrow the open
ing address will be delivered by w.
K. Kavanaugh of st. Louis, the pres
ident of the congress. Among
other notable speakers to be heard
during the three days sessions are
Secretary of the interior w. L. Fish
er, former Governor David P. Francis
of Missouri, Governor Judson Har-
mon of Ohio, Congressman Under
wood of Alabama, former Governor
Joseph W. Folk of Missouri, Con-
gresham Joseph G. Cannon of Him
OILS, and o. P. Austin, chief of the
Bureau of Statistics of the Depart
ment of Commerce and Labor.
The most important work of the
meeting will hinge on resolutions
and committee appointments, and it
is proposed to organize an executive
committee which cannot fail to COM
mand the attention of Congress in
the matter of deep waterways. The
lakes-to-the-gulf project Is the larg-
est and most important scheme for
an inland waterway that has ever
been proposed in this country and
would benefit directly more than
one-third of the States of the Union.
An initial minimum of IA feet depth
is advocated for the Mississippi River
and it's tributaries. with an indorsed
desire for a final depth of "a feet.
The association wishes to furnish
the central part of the United States
with waterway which will enable
the movement of the largest freight
and passenger vessels to serve the
expanse from the Rocky Mountains
to the Alleghanies, 2,765,OOO square
miles. The region is among the
most productive in the world, and.
with water transportation to COM
pete with rail, it will have the ad-
vantage of uneQualed facilities.
The Illinois and Mississippi rivers
will be the main arteries of the pro-
posed system, with the tributaries
as laterals. In general, the plans
provide for great system of water
ways to connect all interior States,
with outlets on the great lakes and
the Gulf of Mexico.