52 



CONSERX'ATIOX 



as we can safely and sanely do the 

 work, the work that is necessary to 

 carry on our great internal commerce 

 and foreign commerce, I have no doubt 

 that, conservatively speaking, we will 

 have expended from $15,000,000,000 to 

 $20,000,000,000. 



"Now, nobody here wants Congress 

 in the next sixty days to commit this 

 country to an expenditure of $20,000,- 

 000,000, and for this purpose to issue 

 bonds. I am always in favor of the 

 United States paying its debts, and if 

 it is necessary for its great work in 

 peace or war, I stand ready to say. 

 Issue bonds. But expenditures must 

 be safe and sane. I would not want 

 to do this work or any other work, 

 except as it can be sanely done." 



Speaker Cannon said that, after all, 

 legislation was a matter of compromise. 

 He said he believed ultimately there 

 would be a fourteen foot channel from 

 Chicago to St. Louis, and personally 

 he favored it. But, he said, when ac- 

 tion was taken to consummate this proj- 

 ect, there would be gentlemen here 

 with "flaming brands to get something 

 for the Ohio River, and some to get 

 something for the Missouri," and for 

 other projects. 



"I am not saying that these improve- 

 ments ought not to be made. I am say- 

 ing that we would not be practical, 

 safe and sane to embark upon them 

 now. 



"I am not ready to do so. I want 

 to be entirely frank with you. If it 

 were possible, and I do not regard it 

 possible, that the rivers and harbors 

 committee, and we have to follow the 

 lead of the rivers and harbors com- 

 mittee, should report a bill to Congress 

 providing that there should be issued 

 bonds for the next ten years, year by 

 year, to meet the expenses of these 

 projected improvements, I would not 

 vote for it " 



Following Speaker Cannon's ad- 

 dress, Senor Joachim Nabuco, ambas- 

 sador from Brazil, spoke to the Con- 

 gress. Other speakers at the session 

 were : Secretary of the Interior Gar- 

 field, James W. Van Cleave, president 

 of the National Manufacturers" Asso- 



ciation; Hon. J. A. Ockerson, of 

 the Mississippi River Commission; 

 James Rawlins, representing the Com- 

 mercial Travelers of America ; Calvin 

 Tompkins, of the New York Board of 

 Trade ; Frederick Skene, state engineer 

 of New York ; Gov. Charles S. 

 Deneen, of Illinois; Representative J. 

 T. Lloyd, of Missouri ; Senator Robert 

 L. Owen, of Oklahoma ; Col. C. P. 

 Goodyear, of Georgia, and others. 



The report of the committee on 

 resolutions, in its report, made a num- 

 ber of strong recommendations, all of 

 which were adopted by the Congress 

 at the session of December 12. 



These resolutions provide, first, for 

 a bond issue of $500,000,000 for the 

 improvement of the interior waterways 

 of the United States, to be issued on 

 the same lines as those of the Panama 

 Canal bonds, the money to be available 

 when necessity demands. 



Second, they call upon Congress for 

 immediate action in the way of appro- 

 priations to complete certain work al- 

 ready begun, and to inaugurate new- 

 work as recommended by the board of 

 army engineers. Third, they demand 

 a liberal appropriation for continuing 

 contracts on rivers and harbors during 

 the present session of Congress. 



The resolutions then empower the 

 appointment of a committee of Con- 

 grress to draft bills for introduction, 

 first, to provide for a bond issue, and, 

 second, for a commission to study wa- 

 terway conditions abroad, in order that 

 the very best plans for foreign water- 

 way improvements may be used by the 

 United States in its treatment of its 

 own waterways. 



The following officers were elected, 

 most of them being reelections : 



President, Joseph E. Ransdell, of 

 Louisiana : secretary and treasurer, J. 

 F. Elli.son, of Cincinnati. Directors: 

 Atlantic seaboard, William H. Lincoln, 

 Boston, Mass. ; Olin J. Stephens, New 

 York; J. Hampton Moore, Philadel- 

 phia ; Frank D. La Lanne, Philadel- 

 phia ; Rufus K. Wood, Baltimore, and 

 Herbert C. Warren, New Haven, 

 Conn. South Atlantic Seaboard, D. U. 



