COMMERCIAL POSSIBILITIES OF SHALLOW STREAMS 



35 



rivers developed on such a plan. In one 

 year — in three years, at most — all of 

 your rivers could have been completely 

 developed for less than half of the 

 money it will cost to develop them, had 

 a big bond issue made the whole sum 

 available at the outset, so that work 

 could be carried on as any private en- 

 gineer and contractor would carry it on. 



Rome, now separated from the ocean 

 by the long, swift rapids of the Coosa, 

 would to-day be shipping and receiv- 

 ing over a magnificent channel, paying 

 for its own cost yearly in its water- 

 power, had the development of thi- 

 river been undertaken on a sane and 

 practical basis, on the same sort of a 

 basis that would underlie the construc- 

 tion of a railroad to parallel it. 



The Black Warrior, the Savannah — 

 all the rivers of the South — would to- 

 day be carrying large fleets and serv- 

 ing you with cheap freights, making 

 many interior points practically sea- 

 ports, if the money which is to be used 

 were used all at once, and the repay- 

 ment of it spread over as many years 

 as necessary by bonds. 



There will meet here in Washington. 

 the day after this convention closes, the 

 great Rivers and Harbors Congress, 

 which demands of the Federal Congres<^ 

 exactly this plan : that the issue of bonds 

 be made sufficient to take care at once 

 of all these projects : to build your 

 deep channels out of hand, so that the 

 use of them may go on, and the sav- 

 ing they effect may help to earn the 

 money which they cost. That will be 

 a sane and wise investment. The money 

 spent in the Rivers and Harbors bill is 

 almost invariably thrown away. 



Pending such action by Congress, I 

 cannot speak too strongly in favor of 

 another plan — that of going ahead and 

 improving your own rivers. Many of 

 you live in towns from loo to 150 miles 

 from the sea, on little rivers carrying 

 three to five feet of water, which the 

 Government has been patching up and 

 patching up without effect. Nearly all 

 of you live in states sufficiently pros- 

 perous, and in cities siifficiently rich, to 

 have issued bonds and completed that 

 work in any single year without feel- 

 ing materially the increase in your tax 



rate, and I believe that if our cities 

 and states would go ahead and appro- 

 priate the money and dig these channels 

 quickly, so that they get a return from 

 them that is commensurate with the ex- 

 penditure, Congress will be forced by 

 the public sentiment of the united Na- 

 tion to accept the completed work and 

 the task of retiring the bonds. The only 

 obstacle to river improvement in the 

 mind of a congressman that he dares 

 present to the public is the lack of ex- 

 isting traffic. Dig your rivers, make 

 your traffic, and Congress will pay your 

 bill. 



Your channels disposed of, then, you 

 are confronted with the problem of 

 docks and terminals, and in that rela- 

 tion I refer you to two shining ex- 

 amples, the only two I can cite in Amer- 

 ica, and both of them southern cities. 

 These are New Orleans and Mont- 

 gomery. New Orleans, the port of the 

 Mississippi, has prepared herself to be 

 that port. She has not yet erected, or 

 taken any steps toward erecting the 

 modern terminal machinery which, ac- 

 cording to European custom, the city it- 

 self must provide. She has left that to 

 the individual initiative, and I am happv 

 to say that the company which I rep- 

 resent proposes to spend $200,000 dur- 

 ing the coming year on the water-front 

 of New Orleans erecting such machin- 

 ery. But New Orleans has provided for 

 the reception of the boats of the Missis- 

 sippi, and of the ships from all lands 

 which come to her, a public wharf, or 

 dock, extending along the whole face 

 of the city. For twelve miles on each 

 bank of the river — twenty-four miles of 

 river frontage — New Orleans owns her 

 own shore line. On that shore line no 

 dock may be erected without her con- 

 sent. Three railway terminals stand 

 along it, maintained by the consent of 

 the public, but into each of these rail- 

 way terminals runs the track of the pub- 

 lic belt-line, in the favored position next 

 to the water-front. Along her water- 

 front New Orleans has built about four 

 miles of completed bulkhead ; some of 

 the finest piers in America, built of 

 creosoted timber and provided with fire- 

 proof steel sheds for the storage of 

 cargo. Any steamboat line, any tramp 



