THE LAKES-TO-GULF CONVENTION AT CHICAGO 



603 



man, Mr. Alexander Y. Scott, of 

 Mississippi. It was accorded a most 

 favorable reception, many of the para- 

 graphs being roundly applauded ; and 

 after brief expressions of commenda- 

 tion it was unanimously adopted. After 

 authorizing the President to appoint a 

 committee of fifty to lay the resolutions 

 formally before the President of the 

 United States, the Vice-president and 

 the Speaker of the House of Repre- 

 sentatives, the convention adjourned, 

 to reassemble in New Orleans in No- 

 vember, 1909. 



During the afternoon the delegates 

 were accorded a unique treat by the 

 members and friends of the Chicago 

 Association of Commerce, in the form 

 of an automobile ride of forty miles 

 along the lake front and through the 

 leading parks and business districts of 

 the city — the unique character of the 

 event lying in the fact that there were 

 1,000 automobiles in the procession, 

 forming a line some five miles long. 



The address of President Kavanaugh 

 follows in full: 



A paramount issue confronts the people of 

 the United States. In technical English this 

 issue may be expressed in the question: 

 "Shall our Natural Resources be Conserved 

 and Developed?" With equal truth, this issue 

 may be expressed in the broader question : 

 "Shall our National Prosperity be Promoted 

 and Perpetuated?" For the conservation 

 and development of our natural resources 

 equals the promotion and perpetuation of 

 our National prosperity. 



It is a noteworthy fact that this issue has 

 become paramount since the creation, two 

 years ago, of this, the Lakes-to-the-Gulf 

 Deep Waterway Association, whose princi- 

 pal object is the development of those great 

 natural resources, the Mississippi and its 

 tributaries. 



Other organizations of citizens have helped 

 to raise this issue. Much has been done by 

 dififerent river improvement associations of 

 the interior and the Pacific coast ; by the 

 Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association, 

 created a year ago, along lines similar to 

 those of this association ; bv the Trans- 

 Mississippi Congress, the National Irrigation 

 Congress, the Upper Mississippi River Asso- 

 ciation, the Missouri River Improvement 

 Association, the Ohio River Improvement 

 Association, the Arkansas and Red Rivers 

 Improvement Associations, and especially by 

 the National Rivers and Harbors Congress, 

 whose field is the entire country. We dis- 

 parage no other organization, no other move- 



ment. All are needed, and we cordially in- 

 vite cooperation. Yet it is a fact that this 

 association was more largely instrumental 

 than any other in securing for the great 

 policy of waterway improvement the un- 

 qualified support of the National administra- 

 tion, and the equally vigorous support of all 

 the leading political parties. Hence this asso- 

 ciation may fairly claim a large measure of 

 the credit for that paramount issue which has 

 arisen for decision by the American people. 



The field of this association is a favorable 

 one. Occupying the very heart of the coun- 

 try, it has become so rapidly the real center 

 of the country's growth, activity, wealth, and 

 power, that many have failed to follow its 

 progress. In area, it is one-half the United 

 States; in number of states, it exceeds a 

 score, including all those commonwealths 

 which are richest in agricultural and mineral 

 output; in population it has grown more rap- 

 idly than any other section of the country, 

 until to-day in the states drained in whole or 

 in part by the Mississippi with its tributa- 

 ries and by the other rivers flowing into the 

 Gulf on the south or the Great Lakes on 

 the north, live fully one-half of the citizens 

 of the Nation ; and reckoned by the propor- 

 tion of free holders and independent produ- 

 cers, it includes much more than one-half of 

 the Nation's effective population. The time 

 has come for these citizens, the bone and 

 sinew, the brain and intelligence of the 

 Nation, to speak for themselves, for their in- 

 terests, for their posterity, for the Fate of 

 the Nation, yea, that of civilization and en- 

 lightenment, rests in the hands of the sturdy 

 sons of this, the Great Mississippi Valley. 



The Interior Empire is drained by the 

 greatest river of the Continent, one of the 

 greatest in the world, the mighty Father of 

 Waters, which, with its tributaries, reaches 

 from our Northern boundary to our Southern 

 limits, and from the Alleghany Mountains on 

 the East to the Rocky Mountains on the 

 West. 



In early days, settlement of the Great Val- 

 ley was rendered possible by navigation of 

 the main river, the Ohio, and other tributa- 

 ries. At a later time, the Missouri, Arkansas, 

 Red, White, and other rivers opened the way 

 to settlement and development of the vast 

 area, stretching to the foothills of the Rocky 

 Mountains. So long as pioneer conditions 

 continued, all the larger rivers were freely 

 navigated, albeit with the difficulty which 

 pioneers expect to overcome, and which they 

 have the heart and the strength to overcome 

 — else they would not be pioneers. Half a 

 century ago, even one-third of a century 

 ago, the Mississippi and its mighty affluents 

 carried steam packets, barges, and other 

 water craft in hundreds. The rivers were 

 the chief theater of activity throughout the 

 interior ; they made our commerce and pro- 

 duction ; they brought culture ; they made our 

 Nation. Then the reaction came. When the 

 pioneers tired of striving against obstructions. 



