THE 

 POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY A 



APRIL, 1908 





OUK INLAND WATERWAYS 



BY W J McGEE, LL.D. 



U. S. INLAND WATERWAYS COMMISSIONER (SECRETARY OF THE COMMISSION) 



WE are in the throes of our second waterway agitation. The 

 movement extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from 

 the Great Lakes to the Gulf, and involves every state and territory. 

 The first agitation followed hard on the Revolution, and in far-reaching 

 effect shared with the Declaration of Independence the distinction of 

 opening the most important era in American history ; the present agita- 

 tion seems to promise a peaceful yet potent revolution in our material 

 progress and in appreciation of the fundamental elements of national 

 character and strength. 



The Early Agitation and its Results 



When the American colonies revolted against a tax imposed by a 

 foreign monarchy the pendulum of feeling swung far toward purely 

 local self-government throughout independent states. Yet within five 

 years after the states were established and loosely confederated, ques- 

 tions of interstate relations arose; and when George Washington and 

 others foresaw the increasing importance of commerce, and sought to 

 develop the requisite facilities in connection with the typical interstate 

 Potomac River, they induced Virginia and Maryland jointly to create 

 a commission to devise plans of procedure. This was our original 

 Inland Waterways Commission, the prototype, too, of the Interstate 

 Commerce Commission; it represented the first recurrent swing of the 

 pendulum toward interdependent organization. The commissioners 

 met at Alexandria in March, 1785, and adjourned to Mount Vernon 

 as Washington's guests. Obstacles arose, especially in the prevailing 

 sentiment for supreme state autonomy ; and with the view of increasing 



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