The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1914-12-09
LAWMAKERS DEFEND
HARBORS MEASURE
Burton's Speeches at Former
Conventions Are Read in Re-
ply to Charges.
Continued from First Page1

"a shrewd guess" that much of the
recent opposition TO RIVER and harbOr
Improvement was due to section eleven
i'm the panama canal act, which pro-
vided that no railroad could own stock
in a waterway or boat line in compe-
tition with railroads.
Heretofore the Government has
often improved q needed waterway and
the railroads have then been able To
manipulate il to their own advan-
tage," said he. This might be respOn-
sible for some of the opposition. But
l am proud to be able to say that dur
ing the eight years l served as a mi
nority member of the House Commit
tee on Rivers and Harbors. and of the
Senate Commerce Committee, or dur
ing the four years l have served as a
majority member of one or the other.
1 have never heard the words politics
or 'sectionalism uttered III the COM
mittee ROOM.
In the early part of his address Sena-
tor Ransdell said that the present
method of waterway legislation has
stood the acid test of time, and that
under il the country's worthy water
ways have been greatly improved. its
commerce fostered, and transportation
rates cheapened.
THE attacks on river and harbor
legislation are unfounded, practically
without merit, and many of them de-
void of even a vestige of truth said
Senator Ransdell. They are purely of
O destructive character and nothing
constructive is suggested. 1t is easy
to tear down but hard TO build up, and
these glib critics have not been able
to suggest a better system than the
one they so ruthlessly criticise.
Accusations Denied.
To assert that river and harbor bills
are full of pork" graft. and corrupt
items, is to charge that the United
States Engineer Corps If :he army
which numbers in It's ranks such men
as Goethals, the members of the Rivers
and Harbors Committee of the House.
and Commerce Committee Of the Sem
ate, and a majority OF the Senators
and Congressman WHO advocated end
voted for these measures, are guilty of
fraud. corruption graft. and plain steal
ing. Such a slanderous accusation is
Ease rs Satan.
Attacks were made on the last river
and harbor bill during the debate in
Congress, and particularly during the
recent campaign, on sectional AMI DO
litical grounds, and ii was freely
charged that favorieism had been shown
TO the South. These attacks are I'M
worthy of their authors. During my
sixteen years i'm Congress, in which time
I served on the Rivers and Harbors Com
mittee of the House, and The Commerce
Committee Of the Senate, both under
Republican and Democratic Administra-
tions, I can truthfully say that ! have
never known either sectionalism or pol
itics to enter into the making up OF a
river and harbor bill. 1t was always
our proud and just boast that each
project stood on his own merits, and
Republicans and Democrats, men from
the North, the South, the East. and
the West, Joined hands in shaping the
measure so as to get the best bill for
the entire country, regardless of the
claims OF any particular section"
The Senator concluded with ringing
the high principles under which II has
achieved so much success and TO insist