The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-09

Washington, February S.-(Special.)- Mayor c. w. Ashcraft of Florence made the principal speech yesterday before the hoard of review from the board of engi- neers to the rivers and harbors coni- mittee in advocacy of the development of Muscle Shoals. Mayor Ashcraft said
 ''Press reports from my section recently stated that was pursuing the subject of the development of Muscle Shoals with almost religious enthusiasm, which moves me to quote this Scripture, There Is that scattereth and yet increaseth; and there is that withhodeth more than is meet but it tendeth to poverty.
 Tn the study of the discussions on the subject of Muscle Shoals by the select committee from the Senate and by the army engineers assigned to investigate and report upon this work, 1 have been greatly impressed by the broad view taken of the ultimate possibilities and influences of this stupendous enterprise. Lieutenant Caples, in House document No. 7S1, says, These works must be con- sidered in the light of the greatest future needs, and not in the light of present re- ouirements. Wherever this has not been done the result has uniformly been that the old works have required removal and larger works have had to be built at great expense These works once installed may safely be said to be installed for all future time.' He also says, An exam nation shows that large commerce In bulky products may be expected when the navigation of the river is made profitable by Improvements
 .'Senator John T. Morgan, in Senate document No. &, discusses the great wealth of the watershed of the Tennessee river and its tributaries from the broad view of it's value to the entire nation. His discussion of the Tennessee river as a tributary to the Great Central bay, extending from Paducah by way of Cairo to St. Louis, Is a strong and far-reach ing conception of the magnitude of the value of the navigation of the Tennessee river as an artery of commerce leading to this important central bay. Senator Morgans report seems to have been in- spired with a prophetic vision of his coun- trys future greatness. But even in the light of this vision he got only a brief
 
 prophecy concerning the Tennessee water shed
 Your acting chief of engineers report, March 10, 1908, says: The completion of this project (referring to Muscle Shoals canaD will satisfy all existing require ments and must continue to do so until such time as the general improvement of the Tennessee river on a scale com mensurate with the future possibilities of through traffic, including coal, is deter mined on.
 "It has already come to pass that the immediate demands for even local trans portaton cannot be met, with conditions existing in the present canal at Muscle Shoals. The many locks, the narrow width. the shallow depth. the tortuous channel of the canal make navigation i'm possible as today demanded, for the req son that the time of passage through the canal is too slow for light craft, and craft of sufficient tonnage to justify slow passage cannot be accommodated in the canal
 "The development in the basin of the Tennessee and it's tributaries above Mus cle Shoals is beyond the belief of those not constantly in position to observe. Take, for instance, the one item of cotton in those counties In Alabama alone which border on the Tennessee river. This pro- duction has almost doubled since the re- ports herein referred to were written. In crease in other farm products throughout the basin of the Tennessee has been even more remarSa ble than cotton. Census fig ures bear out this statement The dem onstration work by the department Of agriculture in this section is only one year old, and the average crops of those adopt ing these methods more than ol1adrlIpIe I previous yields. The agricultural devel- opment of this section stagers the imag- ination with its possibilities.
 But developments in agriculture do not even lead in this section. While the Value of farm lands has more than quad rupled in the six years since Senator Morgan wrote his report, the development