The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1925-10-20
HOOVER URGES
HUGE SYSTEM
OF WATERWAYS
With Population Increasing
Rapidly, Inland Waterways
Are Necessary
TALKS AT KANSAS CITY
Visualizes Mississippi System
as 5000 Miles of
Waterways

Kansas City, Oct. 20. H) With
population increase of 4o,ooo,ooo
likely in the next twenty-five years,
Secretary Hoover declared in an ad-
dress to civic and agricultural assoc
ciations here last night that the
time is ripe for the United States TO
embark upon the creation of a gig
antic system Of inland Waterways
Building should be done not on
"collection of disconnected local RI
Yer and lake projects" he said. 'bu.
! upon works that will be Segments IN
the end of continental systcms.'
! For generations. the Secretary
! pointed out. 1--WE have driven our en-
crgies in the development of land.
Today we must speed the develop
I ment Of our water in its aid to the
| land-powcr. irrigation, and above
all, transportation.
| Many Causes Involved
! "Thc new setting in which we find
ourselves develops from many
J causes.
"First. we have made great ad-
vances in methods of river improve
ment and canal construction. With
! the depths Of water which We can
now provide We can bring to bear
great improvement in design and tn"
! size of water craft, in methods Of
propulsion, and in loading and dis
charging cargoes. These inventions
and improvements restore to the wa
terways the position of being again
the most economical transport for
many kinds of goods, which advan-
tage they lost to the railways in
times when they could carry boats
of only three feet of draft.
"Second-Our agriculture and in
dustries are based on higher stand
ards of living than those Of foreign
comeptitors, and if we would main
tain these standards we must secure
the cheapest form of transportation
Of agricultural and industrial pro-
ducts both to domestic and world
markets.
"Third--Wc must face the provi-
sion of our transportation for the
nation. Only quarter of a century
hence we must serve an increased
40,oOo.OO0 in population. and their
traffic will increase faster than
great gateways of our railways al
congestion. We shall need vast ex-
pansion by rail and water and the
capital cost Of this expansion in
these regions will be less by water
than by rail.
"FOurth-Because we will have
full employment for both railways
and waterways we can now quit the
destructive battle between water
borne and rail service for an era of
mutual coordination.
"Fifth-We must find some nat
ural curb upon further conges-
tion of population in the great ur-
ban centers through greater diffu-
sion of our people throughout the
country, and our waterways offer a
positive contribution to this accom-
pl;shment.
"Sixth-We have today behind US
a long suspension Of national pro-
jects due to the war and it's after
math. We have recovered degree
of economic strength that makes it
possible for us to undertake any
justifiable task Of national develop
ment.
"Seventh-Most important of all,
we must envisage our inland water
ways as great unified transportation
| systems, not as isolated units. We
must conceive and attack their CON
struction as a connected whole. not
as collection Of disconnected local
river and lake Improvement projects,
as has been our habit in the past
Every great transportation system,
| whether rail- or water, or highway,
must consist of main trunk lines
between great centers of population
and industry. with collateral feeders
of gathering and distribution SER
vice.
"Eighth-The topography of our
country, the present and future nee
essities of our population, the de-
velopment we have already accomp-
lished, and above all the goodness
OF Providence in our natural water
channels clearly define for US two
such major inland waterway sys-
TENS. the Mississippi System and the
Great Lakes System.
Great Waterway System
81 visualize the Mississippi sys-
tenn as 5000 miles of connected wa
terways--a transportation system of
which some 3,1OO miles are trunk
lines and 5000 miles Of laterals.
That is, main north-south trunk
line l,50O miles in length, reaching
from New Orlea ms to Chicago and
there connecting with the Great
Lakes system, and crossing this. a
great east-west trunk line 1900 miles
in length, from above Pittsburgh
through Cairo to Kansas City. Over
a large part of these main stems we
can maintain nine feet of depth. In
addition to these main turks, we
must diligently improve feeders
through the Tennessee. the Cumber-
land, the Arkansas, the Upper Miss
issippi, the Upper Missouri, the
Monangahela, the Allegheny and
other streams to workable depth for
modern craft. It will serve the vast
heart of American agriculture and
will place great commercial and in
dustrial cities with upward of 7,OOO,-
600 people in the cheapest of COM
munication with each other and it
will contribute to the cheaper trans
portaton of agricultural and bulk
commodities over great hinterland
OF states"
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