The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-11-15
ICHAMP CLARK BEFORE TRANS.
MISSISSIPPI CONGRESS

to a science. They use all the timber
they need for their rapidly growing
population but so perfect is their syn
TEN for conserving old trees and plant
ng new ones that they have as much
standing timber and of a better aver
age quality than in the days of rhc
Great Elector Whether our people
would submit to such strict regila-
tions on this subject so vital to oar
future welfare is proDlematical, but
the necessity is upon us to act AM
the quicker the better for all con-
cerned. Delay is not only dangerous;
it is ruinous.
Everybody admits the crying neCes-
sity for good wagon roads. A great
writer, Frank G. Carpenter, recently
declared that our bad roads cost the
| American people eight hundred million
dollars per annum, which sum nearly
equals our annual appropriation bills
an, exceeds me .le half OF the vau-
! alto nof the imperial commonwealth
of Missouri for taxing purposes. Bad
wagon roads are the greatest, the most
| remarkable and the least justifiable of
men. Even the ancient Romans We're
ahead of us in the matter of roads.
Their armies advancing into the coun-
| try built rock roads wherever it was
feasible ctnturies before McAdam
gave his name to a system of road
building and to the dictionaries of the
world. People living in the hill coun-
| try where rock and gravel are abund-
ant have absolutely no tenable excuse
for bad roads and the man who will
invent or discover a good material for
road building in the reckless and
gravelless stretches of prairie will de-
serve a monument as tall as Washing
tons and will deserve to rank as a
scientist with Isaac Newton, the dis
coverer of the law of gravity; with
Lord Bacon, the father of inductive
philosophy, and with Benjamin Frank
lin, the captor of lightning. My district
contains more rock and gravel roads
than any other congressional district
in Missouri and the mileage is being
gradually but constantly increased In
deed, there is a great awakening all
over Missouri on this subject. People
are concluding that good roads are
paying investments and are realizing
their prime Importance. Again, the
question arises: Whose duty is it to
build good wagon roads? The aGvo-
Gates of good roads are dividing into
two warning camps as betweXt the
federal and state governments and in
the meantime the appalling waste Of
had roads continues. Good roads can
be built only with good money. and
the people furnish the money, whether
to the federal or state government,
but there can be no doubt that a way
will he found. We have found one
way in the Ninth Congressional Dis
trict of Missouri. and that is to build
the roads ourselves without aid from
either the federal or state govern
ment.
To my certain knowledge the Trans
MISSISSIPPI Commercial Congress and
the Deep WatrVays Association have
been talking river improvements for
twenty years. ] was vice president
for Missouri of the Trans Miss issipi
Commercial Congress at Denver in
1891. At that time irrigation and river
Improvement We're the reGounding
themes Of every tongue. The great ir-
rigation scheme is being worked out
rapidly to truitiOn, but the river I'M
provement scheme is still in the con
versaiional and oratorical state, not
withstand,ng the fact that in 1891
there were a thousand men interested
in water transportation whore was
was one interested in irrigation. In
fact, very citizen of the republic is
interested in water transportation.
Ny own district il chiefly in the point
betwiXt the Mississippi and the Mis-
souIi and has in il the mouths of four
other rivers nGyigable by act of Con
ggess. love to call it "the great Meso-
pctamian district of the Western
World IN The very nature OF things
favor river improvement, not only
for the Mississippi and the Missouri,
but for all our navigable streams. |
want to see a comprehensive system
attic and adequate plan worked out
and entered upon at once and carried
to completion as speedily as possible.
In my judgment the day for talking
about river improvement has passed
and the day for honest, sensible, 7er-