Milford chronicle., 1929-11-15
NATIONAL NEWS OF INTEREST
TO EVERYBODY WHO READS
Written for This Paper by
FRANK p. LITSCHERT


An event of real and far reaching
Importance was celebrated recently
in the Ohio Valley. and this was the
opening up of navigation on the Ohio
River all the year round with a nine
foot stage of water. The United
States government has completed
this great work with the construc-
ton of a series of locks and dams
that assure a navigable river all the
year round. 1t has taken many
years to complete the job and an ex-
penditure of many hundreds of mil
lions of dollars.
Yet the average American who has
studied the subject will feel that the
result is we'll worth the time and ef-
fort. At that the completion of the
work on the Ohio is only the forging
of another link in the chain of our
inland waterways system which will
be of great Importance to us in the
years to come. President Hoover, in
his address at Louisville, well said:
with the completion of our national
job on the Ohio we can well turn our
minds toward the other great jobs in
waterway improvement which lie be-
fore us. The Ohio is but one seq
ment of the national inland water
ways with which providence has
blessed us. We have completed the
modernization of but one other of the
great segments of this systematic
lower Mississippi"
The President then went on to say
that he favored as a general and
broad policy "the undermining OF
every part Of our waterways which
will show economic justification in
aid to our farming and industries"
Mr.. Hoover expressed the belief that
a nine foot depth should be estab-
lished in our water trunk system,
and said that he believed the entire
Mississippi system should be COM
pleted within the next five years, so
that we shall have great north and
south trunk waterway entirely
across our country from the Gulf to
the northern boundaries, and great
east and west route half way across
the United States"
In conclusion the President said:
"To carry forward all these great
works is not a dream of the vision
aries-it is the march of the nation.
We are reopening the great trade
routes upon which our continent de-
veloped. This development is but an
Interpretation of the needs and pres
sures of population, of industry and
civilization. They are threads IN
that invisible web which knits our
national life. They are not local in
their benefits. They are universal in
promoting the prosperity of the ma
ton. 1t is our duty as statesmen to
respond to these needs, to direct
them with intelligence, with skill,
with economy, with courage.
ga nation makes no loss by devo-
tion of some of its current income
to the improvement of its estate.
That is an obligation we owe to our
children and our grandchildren.
do not measure the future of Amer
lea nterms of our lifetime. God
has truly blessed us with great re-
sources. 1t is our duty to make them
available to our people"
With this statement every thinking
American will be in agreement. Our
country is not yet fully developed.
AS it continues to fill up with popu-
lation and as our trade and industry
continue to increase it will be in
creasingly necessary that we have
fine inland waterways system deVel-
oped to help our railroads. There
should not of course be injurious
competition, but constructive CO.
operation between rail and water
lines. There is a great deal of heavy
freight, which does not require speed
in the handling, and which can be
moved on our rivers at greatly less
expense. The farmer, the manufac-
turer and the consumer will beneht
as a result. Nothing seems OF great
er importance this time than the
steady improvement of our great sys-
tenn of inland waterways to the point
where the traffic can move all the
year round.
Cn-q