Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1925-02-07


markets of the world an average of
1O0,000,00O bushels of wheat each
year since the plan to improve the
Missouri river was first made four
teen years ago in 1910. That would
make the stupendous total of 1,4OO,-
100000 bushels that has been ship
ped out by Kansas wheat farmers
during the fourteen years we have
been patiently waiting for Congress
to furnish the money to improve this
great water highway. 1t would have
cost not to exceed $20,000,000 to i'm
prove the river to a permanent depth
of six feet, but it has cost the wheat
farmers of Kansas more than $780,
100000 not to improve the Missouri
river as was recommended by the En-
gineers Corps"
In the Fall of 1920 crops were good,
the demand was urgent, and prices
were high, but the railroads could
not furnish cars and the crops re-
manned unmarketed until the demand
had been supplied from other sources
and prices had been cut in half. For
a month or two, as was stated by
Hon. Walter S. Dickey, of Kansas
City the farmers of the West were
losing $100,000,000 day. Possibly,
even if the rivers had been improved,
they could not have carried all the
grain, but they certainly could have
carried enough to provide reasonable
prosperity for the farmers of the
West instead of the widespread disas-
ter that actually happened.
Cutting the cost of transportation
in two would, in effect, move the
great West half way to the seaboard
make it only half as far to the
markets in which it's products must
be sold and it's supplies are bought.
The cheapest Of all transportation is
water transportation - and nothing
would do more for the permanent re-
lief of agriculture than pushing the
improvement and the use of the wat
erways to the farthest limit that can
be justified when cost of construction
is balanced against benefits produced.
Before the railway came, the great
cities of the world were all located
upon navigable waterways-and, since
the railway came, the great cities of
the world have continued to be locat-
cd upon navigable waterways, just as
they were for thousands of years be-
fore the railway was dreamed of.
There are only three cities in the
United States with population of
more than 100000, all of which are
on navigable water. There are twelve
with population of more than $780,
00O-and every one of these is also
upon navigable water. There are rs
cities with a population of more than
100000, and all but two are situated
upon waterways. The proportion of
inland towns increases rapidly as we
go down the population scale, for out
of the 70 cities in the United States
which have a population of 100000
or more, there are II in which the
whistle of a steamboat is never heard.
Search where you will throughout
the world and you will find the same
thing true. The largest cities, the
densest populations, the greatest de-
velopment of industry and commerce
are to be found in those regions
which are most abundantly supplied
with transportation facilities and
especially with waterways. This is
not an accident; the two facts stand
related as cause and effect. The most
potent, dynamic and resistless factor
in the growth of cities, the develop
ment of states and the prosperity of
nations is economy of transportation
and the cheapest of all transporta-
ton is water transportation.
Filling the West with factories and
cities would benefit the farmer not
only by increasing the number of
consumers of farm products, but also
by allowing him to raise crops which
are of much greater value per acre
but which cannot be shipped to dis
tant points. There are truck-farmers
near Paris whose average return is
$1,000 per acre per year.
Always and everywhere the great
est development of industry and the
greatest value per acre of agricultur
al production are found upon, or close
by, a waterway--ocean, lake or river
Things usually either get better OF
worse; they seldom or never stnd still
Failure to improve and use the water
ways is more apt to be followed by 9
drift toward disaster than by pro.
gress toward prosperity, for, as the