Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-09-08
ROOSEVELT URGES
FEDERAL CONTROL
OVER MISSISSIPPI
Tells Audience He Would Develop
River With 'BIackmail' Of
fered Colombia
SecciaI TO The Telegraph

New Orleans, Sept. s. Colonel
Theodore Roosevelt delivered pub
lie address in the Opera House here
last night, in which he urged that
this government, instead of paying
$25, ,00O. 900 blackmail to alien wrong
doers and their heirs" as proposed in
the dispute with Colombia over the
Panama Canal property, should use
that s25, 100000 and the plant of the
Panama Canal, and as many scores Of
millions extra as are necessary, to take
control of the Mississippi and to de-
velop all its possibilities of usefulness
from the headwater to the delta"
Colonel Roosevelt made a particular
point of the flood problem, which he
said must be met not only by levees
but by great storage reservoirs up
stream, which would not only stop
the floods, but serve we'll for irrigation
purposes. He reminded his hearers
that he had been an advocate of Fed
eral control of the river for Il long
time.
"I insisted upon it when | was Pres
ident," he said but neither Of the old
parties adopted 1t. 1t is only the Pro-
pressive party that has seen the need
of such a far-reaching, constructive
policy"
Regarding State ownership of pub
lie utilities, the Colonel said
"One of the reasons why I do not
believe in State ownership where 1t is
possible to substitute for 1t supervision
and regulation by the State is be-
cause in actual experience it has prov
ed SC very difficult to combine eff
cheney in service rendered and self
support in business undertaken by the
State"
Decries Sugar Tariff
He told his audience that the people
Iof Louisiana were among those hard
est hit by the backward and reaction
AIRY policy" which the government had
adopted as regards the tariff He as
the trusts and reduce the cost of liv-
ing had not been realized. He took
up in detail the matter of sugar with
which Louisiana Is closely identified.
The removal of duty on this commo-
dity, he said. had been a big con-
tributing cause to the present high
prices for sugar, not only seriously
ing damage upon the whole public
"Germany's great economic devel-
opment during the forty-three years
precedi this lamentable war" he
said, had been due largely to the in
telligent use of a tariff commission.
He said what was needed in this coun-
try was "a government commission
with power to tell honest business men
from the beginning what 1t is right
for them to do and what it is wrong
for them to do. and power to super
wise from the beginning the steps
taken in bringing about a combina-
ton so as to be sure that it is useful
and not harmful to the public at
large.
This is exactly what the Progress
sive party in Its platform advocated.
Under such a commission, when
the price of foodstuffs leaped in the
cities of the northwest, the govern
ment would have been able to COOP
crate with the business men. big and
small, who wanted to meet the crisis
in intelligent fashion and to protect
both themselves and the public;
whereas at the present day the gov
ernment can do almost nothing.
"Our people must realize that the
world has grown beyond the fintlock
musket stage in government and busi-
ness no less than in war. To try to pre-
vent all combination is simply foolish
Honest business men, and especially
honest small business men, have ex-
actly the same right to combine that
honest wage-workers and honest
farmers have to combine. In all cases,
as regards wage-workers, farmers and
business men alike, the combination
should be supervised and controlled
by the government so as to make it
subservient and not hostile to the pub
lie good; and In the case of big bust
ness the necessity for such supervis-
ion and control is far greater than in
tho caaa Of small huSiOeSS