The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1926-01-14
HUGHES TELLS WHY THE WATERWAYS
PROJECT IS A NECESSITY AND WHAT
ISBEINC DONE TO PUT IT THROUGH
Address al Session of TrStae Farm Congress Gives
Complete Story Of the Great Lakes-St Lawrence
Waterways Proposal and Its Benefits

The principal address at last nights
session Of the 9th annual Tri-Statc
Farm Congress. now meeting 'in. Far
go, was delivered by Hugh j. Hughes
assistant to Executive Director Chas
r. Craig Of the Great Lakcs-St. Law
renee TidcWatcr association. Mr.
Hughes was formerly director of mar
kets in Minnesota, was at one time
editor Of Farm, Stock and Home, an
agricultural magazine, and before
that was connected with the North
Dakota Arricultural college at Fargo
Mr.. INCHES told Of fi,c progress
being made toward bringing ocean
shipping to the Great Lakes, and his
talk gave complete stWy Of the
st. Lawrence movement and the pres
cnt plans. Parts Of it arc reprinted
herewith:
"Thc Great lakes SO. Lawrence
Tidcwatcr association, which have
the honor to represent, IS the voice
Of twcnty-0ne states speaking to one
common purpose; to-wit. that they
desire that the Great Lakes be opened
to the commerce Of the world and
that the ports of the Great Lakes be
made scaports from which the prod
ucts of this region may move in open
and fair competition with the prod
ucts Of ali other continents.
/ States Officially Represented.
"The Great LakeS-St. Lawrence
Tidewater association is an organiZa-
ton of sovereign states, stretching
unbroken from Missouri on the south
to North Dakota on the north, and
from West Virginia to the Pacific
coast. These states have declared
themselves mep,hers of the assocla-
ton by official acts, and the govern
ing body Of the association is made
up of legally constituted commissions
within each of these twenty-one
states. Every dollar of money that
is expended by the association is tax
payers money that has been duly
levied and apportioned by the states
to the end of securing the st. Law
renee ship channel from the Great
Lakes to the ocean.
1.-The twenty-One sovereign states
that constitute the Great Lakes-St
Lawrence Tidewatcr association rep
resent population Of nearly forty
five million people producing fully
seventy per cent Of the agricultural
wealth OF the nation, Al per cent of
its manufactured wealth. originating
ADOuL Al per cent u us eApOELS, re-
ceiving and distributing about AZ per
cent Of its imports and possessing
nearly forty five per cent of the total
wealth Of the nation.
The Time Has Come.
"That these forty-five million peo-
pie in the person Of their state legis-
laturcs and executives should COM
binc for one common purpose needs
word of Explanation, and that ex-
PLANTATION is this The time has como
in the economic history Of the nation
when this vast marooncd area must
have more direct and cheaper connec-
ton with the markets Of the world.
For one hundred years we have been
moving forward and taking possession
of a continent. Just a.century ago
the great tides If immigration swept
across the Allcghcnics and down into
the Ohio Valley .poured across the
state Of New York and up the Great
Lakes, and began Il march that has
ended only in our own time at The
crest OF the Rockies.
"In tina: brief interval of time we
have added a continent to the world
We have placed under production the
richest belt Of agricultural land to
be found in the world and we have
moved inland from the sea II thous-
and miles. and more. cutting our trails
before JUS and building our roads be
hind.