The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-11-18
CONGRESS URGED TO APPROP RIATE FOR WATER WAY
Inner Trade Route Advocated As Easiest Way to Cut
 Shipping Costs.

| Iantfc Coast, featured the opening or | the convention of the Atlantic Deeper l Waterways sociation here to-day. 1 The urgent need for the -improYement 1 of inner trade route along the coast was emphasized and recent de- structivey coastal St tor11ass were pointed out as an. argument.
 1 The convention is the sixth that the l association has held Delegates are ! in attendance from all the states along | the eastern coast of the United 1 States, all of them pointing out the economic need for the inland water. | route. Immediately after the invo- | walton by Rev. William A. Hobson 1 the delegates were welcomed to the 1 city by Mayor Van c. Swearingen and to the state by Governor Park Tram mel Responses by Governor Charles R. Miller of Delaware, and Lieut. Governor Frank B. Howe, of Vermont were on the program.
 Sessions covering four days are ex- pected to bring many speakers to show the urgent need for an fmne-- l diate appropriation to complete the work already undertaken both by the federal government and the several states. As revenue producing and trade carrying project the Atlantic inland waterway was contrasted with many of the western river projects to the disadvantage of the latter. Representative J. Hampton Moore, of Pennsylvania, president of the as | sociation, presided and read his an nual report. He declared the area to be aided by the improved water transportation facilities contained 40, per cent. of the entire population of the United States and 50 per cent of all the wage earnerS.
 President Moore pointed to the fact that the four ports, to be touched by the proposed waterway, collected IfnJ1r- Of Sfo n q that through them passed most of the | import and export business of the country. This small territory, conn ] prising the original thirteen states, and which, he said, was barely more than thumb-marlx on the map of the 1 United States, produced 53 per cent. l of all the manufactures and 50 per cent of all the coal in the country. Those facts, he pointed out, should be taken into consideration by Con gress in making the next appro pria- | ton for river and harbor improve ments. He declared that the Allan i tic seaboard was more worthy of con lsideration by Congress than all the other parts of the United States com bined.
 As tending to show how the lack of adequate transportation increased the cost of living in the Eastern States. | President Moore said: Ei
 ''The problem confronting the own CTS of neglected eastern lands is chiefly the problem of transportation. It is the problem of the producer to get to market, a problem resulting from the concentration of population and business activity along the lines of 1 the railroads, while vast stretches of ] country have suffered abandonment 1 because the waterways that have for nerly served them well, were not kept up to modern standard
 President Moore declared railways in the eastern states needed relief from the congested conditions that made the rapid delivery Of freight an inpCssibility. Conditions are such,s he said, that it was a common occurrence fer a car of freight to re- Lquire more than a week to travel less I than fifty miles,
 ''If it takes five days to ship freight from Philad eIphia to Chester, a dis i tance of 12 miles, or 6 days to Tren- ton,s 34 miles, or 13 days to New York, 90 miles, as was recently demon strat- ed,> it is evident that the railroads need relief. It takes an hour. and d
 half only to ship from PhiIadeI phia to Chester by water, 4 hours to Trenton
 and overnight to New York;,
 The early com pletion of the. Pana-
 ma Canal and the consequent shorter
 distance between the Atlantic and
 Pacific Coasts also was used effec-
 lively to-day as an argument for the l jAAPAONoHlenL OI Ine Atlantic. Coast
 waterway, together with the project of
 a similar nature from Florida to Gal
 weston along the Gulf of Mexico,
 It was declared that the smaller
 coastwise craft could with greater
 safety use the inland waterway along
 the east and south coasts to reach the
 canal than to take the more hazar-
 dous Journey on the high seas.s;
 Frequent devastating storms along
 the southeastern coast of the United
 States also were pointed to as argu-
 mentS for the improved waterway
 Statistics were quoted to show the tre-
 mendous loss of life and property, the
 greater portion of which, the Various
 speakers declared, could be saved
 were safer passage for small vessels
 provided.
 The record is too strong for even
 the sophisticated to countera ct,'' de
 clared President Moore in his ad-
 dress. Let me repeat it again-the
 toll of the sea along the Atlantic
 Coast in the ten years from 1900 to
 1910 was 2,2OO lives. The disasters
 numbered 5,70O, Involving a proper
 ty loss in excess of $4O,COO,OOO That
 loss with a few paltry millions added
 would have been sufficient to link up
 Jacksonville with Cape Cod, in accord | ance with the recommendations of the
 army engineers
 There is another phase of. this | question to which I shall briefly re-
 fer" continued President Moore con-
 trasting the value of Panama Cana
 and Atlantic Coast waterway projects
 We are approaching the completion
 of the Panama Canal, the greatest o1
 modern waterways, and glorious proof of American skill in engin eering g The estimated cost of the Canal is
 S4O0, 100000. The benefits of our en-
 terprfse in this tremendous undertak-
 ing will accrue largely to Great Brit
 ain and Germany, who are our iprin-
 c1pal international competitors fol
 South American trade.
 We have not made our vast ex l pendftutret on the Isthmus without 2 corresponding decrease in the supply
 Of funds available for river and har- . Dor Improvements at home, (to this extent have we yielded OUT necessi.