Semi-weekly herald., 1913-02-06
SINKING GOLD IN WATERWAYS,

In the Century magazine for Jam
uary is very Illuminating article
on the tens of millions of dollars that
have been wasted in appropriations
made by congress for the development
of impr acticable river and harbor prof
ects. II was written by Herbert Bruce
Fuller. The enormous expenditures on
waterways, without regard to the conf
mercial Importance of the ends to te
attained-here little and there a
little for the political benefit of con-
gressmen under the guise of the ''pdb-
lie welfare" and without the leasts re-
gard to any definite well-wrought-out
system of general value to the coun-
try-are freely exposed and comment
ed upon. The quotations following
are from the article or from the New
York Times editorial review Of it.
II is reported that the house COM
njttee on appropriations, with which
all such steals originate, has agreed
to authorize appropriations of s40,-
s00,056 don't forget the s56) this
year. The largest single item in the
bill is s6,0000O0 for the Mississippi
river from the Passes to st. Louis
Already the government has expended
in the Improvement of the Missis-
sippi river over $9O,0O0,000.
"On the two hundreds miles be-
tween the Missouri and the mouth OF
the Ohio we have spent $500, 900
Yet the traffic on this par of the
river, including that of St Louis, has
steadily decreased. In 1880 the guam
tity of freight shipped by wafer from
81. Louis was 1,O3S,0O0 tons; in 1900
IN fell to 245,000 tons; in 1911 it fell
to 191 1856 tons. The United State;
has spent more in improving this
stretch of the Mississippi river zoe
niiies-than the central government Of
Germany has spent for improving the
hnihe from Strasburg to the frontier
of Holland, about 255 II lies, on which
the annual traffic reaches the enor-
nous aggregate of 100000 tons, as
compared with the beggarly i9l, ,965
tons on this important stretch of The
Mississippi"
This statement illustrates in Il most
effective way the difference in our
methods of dealing with the devel-
cament of our waterways. In Ger
many, and in France and Belgium and
contiguous countries AS well, the wa
terways are improved for the b.aclit
of the people and the development Of
commerce, and not for the promotion
of the political fortune of the office
holding contingent, whose chief con-
CEN in such matters appears to be
personal and selfish rather than for
the general good.
So far over half billion dollars
has been spent in river and harbor
improvements in the United States,
and the work has been done with such
disregard of the economic value of the
improvements" that the annual ap-
preparation bill for this purpose has
become one of the recognized means
of soaking the treasury at WASH
ington. In the general river and har-
Dor bill of 1910, which called for $751;
100000, 296 out of the 39l congress
sional districts in the United States
received appropriations for this pur-
pose. The Big Sandy river and its
tributaries have cost the taxpayers
$780, 900. and "the annual traffic on
these streams, exclusive of timber,
amounts to 1000 TONS" "In interest
alone on it's investment" says Mr.
Fuller, "it costs the United States
$40 for every ton of freight carried
on these streams. Added to this is