EDITORIAL 



359 



lion dollars to get a boat-line on the 

 Missouri River, "1,550 miles from blue 

 water." The promoters of the enter- 

 prise plan to guard against the first of 

 the methods whereby Mississippi River 

 transportation was destroyed by secur- 

 ing pledges of patronage from shippers 

 before the boat-line begins operations. 

 To prevent the boat-line from falling 

 into hostile hands a clause in the char- 

 ter of the new company vests the voting 

 power in the board of directors, who, 

 it is said, will be free from railroad in- 

 fluence. 



Says a promoter of the enterprise : 



We will build steel-hull boats of light draft 

 that will carry the freight up and down the 

 Missouri River and later into the Gulf of 

 Mexico and through the Panama Canal to 

 the Pacific coast. 



The Government is now spending an ap- 

 propriation of $600,000 on the ]\Iissouri River 

 between the Mississippi and the Kaw. This 

 money is going into snagboats, lighthouses, 

 and channel improvement. We are going to 

 keep up the campaign for the improvement 

 of the river. The Government, under the con- 

 stitution, has control of the navigable streams 

 of the country, and it is a government's duty 

 to keep those streams in condition for traffic. 



St. Louis will profit almost as much by 

 the steamboat lines as Kansas City. 



Missouri for Waterways 



NOT only the city but the state is 

 pushing the waterways fight. Gov- 

 ernor Hadley has recently issued a state- 

 ment giving figures to show discrimina- 

 tion in the matter of railway rates, and 

 indicating that a certain railroad is en- 

 deavoring to block an investigation by 

 the Interstate Commerce Commission 

 into interstate rates in Missouri. Tele- 

 grams have been sent the Missouri sen- 

 ators asking them to protest against the 

 investigation. Governor Hadley states 

 that he has received several telephone 

 messages advising him that agents 

 along the line of the railway in question 

 went to shippers and requested them to 

 sign prepared telegrams protesting 

 against this investigation. 



The Missouri legislature is asking 

 Federal aid for the Missouri River. The 



House of Representatives, by a vote of 

 no to two, has recently adopted a joint 

 and concurrent resolution to this end. 

 The resolution recites : 



Whereas, the great rivers of Missouri, the 

 natural highways for commerce, if properly 

 cared for by the National Government, would 

 be the means of saving millions of dollars 

 in freight rates to the people of Missouri and 

 adjacent territory; and. 



Whereas, the appropriations that have been 

 made heretofore by Congress have been so 

 meager that the practical benefits arising from 

 such appropriations are undiscernible ; and. 



Whereas, the exigencies of the times re- 

 quire the National Government to take charge 

 of this matter; therefore, be it 



Resolved, That the United States senators 

 and members of Congress from Missouri 

 be urgently requested, one and all, to use 

 their utmost endeavors to secure sufficient 

 appropriations by the Federal Government 

 for the improvement, navigation, and main- 

 tenance of said rivers for the uses and pur- 

 poses of commerce. 



The House of Representatives fol- 

 lowed up this resolution by appropriat- 

 ing $5,000 for a waterways commission 

 to obtain data regarding navigable 

 rivers, overflowed lands, proposed 

 levees, and such information as will fa- 

 cilitate legislation to assist deep-water 

 projects. Members of the commission 

 are to be appointed by the governor. 



Regarding this action the Kansas 

 City Star says editorially : 



The action is in keeping with the progressive 

 and enterprising spirit of the times and is 

 in pursuance of the recommendations of the 

 National Rivers and Harbors Congress. 



The amazing thing is that members of 

 Congress should need the greatest reinforce- 

 ment that may be brought to bear on them 

 to take action in favor of waterways irn- 

 provement when the merits of the proposi- 

 tion are so manifest and overwhelming. It 

 is said that within a few years the railroads 

 of this country will spend $5,000,000,000 in 

 improvements in order to keep pace with the 

 country, and Mr. James J. Hill declares that 

 even with this expenditure the pace cannot 

 be kept. Yet the Government hesitates to 

 authorize the issuance of 500 millions in 

 bonds, at the rate of fifty millions a year, 

 to improve its inland waterways, when these 

 waterways, with only a small proportion of 

 their capacity in use, already carry nearly 

 one-third of the tonnage and at a cost of 

 about one twenty-third of the cost of rail 

 shipment. 



