TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING 



77 



the lumber thereon commercially valuable, 

 two or three thousand feet of commercial 

 timber at least in that time, and trees rapid- 

 ly growing, so that I would say at the end 

 of fifteen or twenty years more the land will 

 be very valuable. The contrast was pain- 

 ful to that a short distance beyond, where 

 you could see a rabbit run for 300 to 400 

 yards through the woods from the train 

 window; where there was not a vestige of 

 anything left, not a sapling as big as my 

 arm — nothing ! The land was completely 

 denuded of every kind of tree or life of that 

 sort. 



I would like to see laws passed in Louis- 

 iana, and in all the States where they can 

 be passed, similar to the law in Maine, 

 where I am told men are obliged to leave 

 trees below a certain size. You gentlemen 

 are so much more familiar with that than I 

 am that I will not attempt to refer to it; 

 but I sincerely hope that something of that 

 kind can be done in those States of the 

 Union which still have a large heritage of 

 timber wealth. I would like to see the 

 Congress of the United States pass the laws 

 which you gentlemen are urging so strongly 

 to protect the headwaters of our streams, 

 and I pledge you all the support that I in 

 my hi^mble way, as a Member of Congress, 

 can give you. 



Just what the connection is between 

 forests and navigable waters, I am not going 

 to try to say. The doctors differ so much 

 upon this subject that it does not seem to 

 me it would be fitting in a layman to at- 

 tempt to pass thereon. But I am convinced 

 that there is a most intimate connection and 

 relationship between the forests at our head- 

 waters and the waters themselves, and feel- 

 ing that I would like to see our Govern- 

 ment, I repeat, do what you gentlemen want 

 them to do in the protection of those 

 forests, and I would like to see every State 

 in the Union pass similiar laws. 



You are connected with one great branch 

 of the conservation movement and I with 

 another, and I shall now attempt to say 

 something about that with which I am a 

 little familiar, the navigable waterways ' 

 the country. Many of you have heard, 

 doubtless, of the National Rivers and Har- 

 bors Congress, an organization created in 

 the city of Baltimore in 1901, for the pur- 

 pose of arousing a public sentiment through- 

 out this nation in favor of a broad, liberal, 

 comprehensive policy for improving the 

 waterways of the country, to the end that 

 transportation charges may be cheapened, 

 and that there may not be the fierce con- 

 gestion in the movement of freight such as 

 has existed in this country within the past 

 two years. This organization since that 

 time has acquired a great many members in 

 every part of the country and has become, 

 I may say, a living force. At that time 

 waterways were not properly treated. We 

 were treated as orphan children by the 



3 



American Congress. The other great ap- 

 propriation bills, for instance, such as those 

 for the army, the navy, the pensions, the 

 post office, the executive, legislative and 

 judicial department, and others of that 

 character, were passed every year, were on 

 an annual basis, and carried very large 

 sums. The bills for improving the water- 

 ways were passed every three years and 

 carried small sums. When it was necessary 

 for Congress to economize, no man ever 

 thought of suggesting that we should leave 

 off one or two battleships or pay smaller 

 pensions or diminish our army or pay 

 smaller salaries to the various officers of 

 the Government and members of the legis- 

 lative bodies ; but it was always said, "Oh, 

 leave off the waterways ; they can get along 

 without any improvements ; they do not do 

 much good, anyway." That was the senti- 

 ment ,and our magnificent rivers have been 

 so neglected that we have actually less com- 

 merce on them to-day than we had fifty 

 years ago. 



Now that is a very unnatural state of 

 affairs. It should never have been allowed 

 to grow up, and the only way it can be 

 accounted for, is the fact that in the rapid 

 growth of our Americanism, in our rapid 

 movement to the far West, in our attempt 

 to grow with speed such as pleases Ameri- 

 cans, we have forgotten these waterways. 

 We thought that movements by river were 

 too slow, that the iron horse was the only 

 thing that culd keep up with the rapidly 

 moving American. We neglected our rivers, 

 and it is only within a few years that we 

 have begun to see the fruits of our neglect. 

 Ought we neglect all of them? No! There 

 is one great system of waterways in this 

 conutry which have been well improved — 

 the great lakes — and bear this in mind, my 

 friends, when I speak of the great lakes; 

 not only are they magnificent watercourses, 

 not only do they bear a great commerce, 

 greater than any system of waters on earth, 

 but they are railroad terminals. They con- 

 nect with and are a part of the magnificent 

 railroad system of this country. It is a 

 fact that many of the lines on the lakes are 

 owned, operated and controlled by the rail- 

 roads and in connection with the railroads. 



Another fact I wish to call to your at- 

 tention in this connection is that while we 

 have been neglecting the internal rivers, we 

 have not neglected the harbors of the sea- 

 boards. The harbors were also railroad 

 terminals. Proper attention has been paid 

 to most of them. Now they may have been 

 purely an accident, but I wish in passing at 

 any rate to make the point. 



What has been the result of the splendid 

 improvement of the great lakes? The com- 

 merce of those lakes is accurately kept by 

 the United States Engineer Corps. In 1907, 

 according to the reports of these engineers, 

 there passed through the Sault Ste. Marie 

 Canal, which, as you know, is that 



