2* 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



E. W. PKATT, JR., CROFTON, KY, DIRECTOB 



tion. [Here the speaker passed among the audi- 

 ence a sample of red gum.] We furthermore 

 found that an experiment had been made by 

 some of the railroad lines in Louisiana for iis 

 purpose. Those ties have been thoroughly tried, 

 laid in the ground and have given an average 

 service of nine years in the sod. Those are tu- 

 tors of the lasting quality of red gum. As to 

 finishing, etc., you know what this particular 

 wood is capable of. The small difficulties which 

 we meet in handling these wo. ids in the forests, 

 the question of insects 'getting into it and the 

 question of rot. I regard as pass.ng evils, nol 

 as anything derogatory to the lumber. 



If I had the time I would like to go into the 

 subject of the specific weights this is capable of 

 sustaining. We can stop strain and warp and 

 rot in the softer woods as easily as in some of 

 I he better woods for finishing purposes, because 

 there is nothing inherent in any wood fiber, and 

 I say this advisedly, which cannot be remedied in 

 some way or other. The evils that wood is 

 heir i" tin* due to the natural organic substances 

 therein. The disappearance of water at various 



liites from the w 1 makes it crack, split, warp, 



etc. The presence of these various organic sub 

 stances makes wood decay. We can remedy 

 these defects and bring out the character of 

 the-wood fiber which, in itself, may be a desir 

 able thing. 



I want to express my firm belief, and I don't 

 think 1 am overoptimistic, in the continued prog- 

 ress and continued development of every phase 

 oi the lumber industry, and specifically the hard- 

 wood business, provided we keep doing as all 

 of you have done in the past, and as I think all 

 of you mean to do — informing ourselves of these 

 qualities I have spoken of, and the way in which 

 those materials can be handled best _ Although 

 there is intense competition between these woods. 

 although we are blessed by great numbers, ea'ch 

 lias its place. I am sure that by concerted effort 

 that optimism which I am willing to confess 

 will "not he misplaced. I thank you, gentlemen. 

 [Applause.] 



In introducing the next speaker President 

 Wilms referred to his own address, in which, 

 he called attention to the importance of 

 waterways and drainage in the lower Mis 

 sissippi valley. lie said that while the sub- 

 ject might not be considered germane to 

 the lumber convention, he regarded it of 

 such manifest advantage to the lumber in- 

 dustry that he made no apology in calling 

 upon John A. Fox of Blytheville, Ark., as- 

 " sociate Becretary of the National Eivers 

 and Harbors Congress for an address on 

 this subject. Mr. Fox spoke without notes, 

 and the information he conveyed was a 

 revelation to the majority of those present. 

 At its conclusion he was heartily applauded. 

 Following is his speech,. in full: 



John A. Fox's Speech. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen — The engineer is 

 not usually gifted and versed in forensic elo- 



quence, having to deal usually with figures of 

 fact rather than figures of speech. So. if I 

 should not entertain you with that glorious 

 forensic ability. I hope you will pardon me. 



Lord Bacon once said, "There be three things 

 which make a people great and prosperous. They 

 be productive mines and fields and forests and 

 busy workshops, with easy means of transporta- 

 tion for man and things." I do not think that 

 this epigrammatic expression of the great phil- 

 osopher can be equalled anywhere and brought 

 home more closely than to the business in which 

 you gentlemen are engaged, because it comes 

 directly to your minds when you have the forest 

 at hand : your sawmills and your factories rep- 

 resent the workshops ; your wide operations in 

 getting your logs and the railroad facilities rep- 

 resent the means of transportation. It was ex- 

 tremely gratifying to me this morning to listen 

 to the address of your president and hear him 

 call attention to things which apparently are 

 not germane to this particular line of business, 

 hut in the advancement of this country and in 

 our great progress it is eminently proper that 



men ol your enpaeit\ no, I ol your menl lill.si 



ness ability should consider the questions that 

 pertain to the economics of the country, and it 

 is particularly gratifying that your president 

 called attention to matters of drainage, to the 

 protection of these lands and to the general im- 

 portance of your waterways. I thank you for 

 this opportunity of addressing you on this occa- 

 sion and I hope you will not feel that some 

 extraneous condition is being injected into your 

 particular work. 



Our country has advanced during the last 

 twenty-five years in strides that exceed all the 



W. II. HAWKINS, ASHLAND, EX, DIRECTOR 



dreams of the past dreamers. Our farms have 

 grown in value in the last twenty-five years 

 from $12,270,000,000 to $26,280,000,000. The 

 products of our farms have increased from 



$2,212,000,000 in 1880 to $6,412, 1,000 in 1!)05. 



The production of iron has increased from 



3. 2 25, i tons in lssn to lt,.ihio,(ioo t,. U s in 



1905. The production of steel has increased 

 from 1,247,000 tons in 1SS0 to 23,023,000 tons 

 in 1905. The output of our coal mines has in- 

 creased from 71,000, 000 tons in 1880 to 392, (,- 



000 tons in 1905. The ton mileage of our rail 

 roads during the last fifteen years has grown 

 from S'.i.tioo. ooo. 000 ton miles to 187,000,000,00(1 

 ■ton miles in 1905. Keeping pace with this great 

 growth of our' country our railroad mileage, 

 which began in 1830 with but twenty-three niile^ 

 of road, in lsso was lso,.".5n miles and in 1905 

 more than 217,000 miles, and this year it is 

 reckoned at more than 223,000 miles. - 



Although keeping pace with this development 

 in our growth and in our railroad construction, 

 the government of this country has been ex- 

 tremely negligent with regard to its development 

 of those commercial highways which have fallen 

 to us as a heritage. In England, in 1890, water 

 transportation was the means of making Eng- 

 land supreme in her commercial relations with 

 the world, and England because of her canals 

 was held up to the world as the model nation, 

 and we emulating her great example began, in 

 1832, to construct in addition 103,000 miles of 

 navigable waterways, 16,800 miles of canals or 

 artificial waterways. The railroads, however, 

 coming as they did and helping to build up 

 the country more rapidly, tended to destroy the 

 great impetus that had been given to canaliza- 

 tion and waterway development, until today the 



waterways have practically gone into disuse. 

 This government in its magnificent development 

 and advance, while it has acquired territory in 

 the Philippines, Porto Rico and Cuba ; while it 

 has built a navy that now ranks third among 

 the nations of the world, and has expended over 

 $900,000,000 upon that enterprise, has expended 

 upon its magnificent waterways the meager sum 

 of $470,000,000 in all the United States, or 

 directly upon these internal water courses during 

 the history of this government we have spent 

 only a little oyer $207,000,000. 



How does that contrast with the magnificent 

 empire that today in Europe stands commercially 

 at the head of the nations of the world? Ger- 

 many, in 1871, recognized that her cities, being 

 far inland, she was at a disadvantage with 

 England, w'hose cities stood close to the coast. 

 Ellsbacher, who was appointed by the British 

 government to investigate conditions in Ger- 

 many in 1903 and report to the British parlia- 

 ment his success, returned and stated that Ger- 

 many's supremacy was due to her magnificent 

 system of waterways, connecting every city in 

 Germany with every other city ; that her manu- 

 facturing cities fifty to 300 miles inland from 

 the coast had been put into communication with 

 the seaboard, so that Germany could manufac- 

 ture her products and carry them out by ship 

 for export. He also ascertained that from 1875 

 to 1895 Germany had constructed 1,091 kilo- 

 meters of artificial canal, bringing the sea coast 

 inland ; had undertaken the construction of 

 3,752 miles of additional canals at a cost of 

 $250,000,000. lie also reported that while the 

 internal commerce of Germany had increased 

 from 410,000 tons per mile by rail to 590,000 

 tons in 1895, the internal commerce of her 

 waterways had increased from 208,000 tons per 

 mile to 790,000 tons. Or, in nther words, the 

 German waterways in their carriage of the com- 

 modities of Germany had exceeded the railroad 

 carriage 150 per cent. 



Now, while Germany striving to place herself 

 at the head of commercial nations is expending 

 these great amounts — and her territory is but 

 208,000 square miles, or 57,000 square miles 

 less than the state of Texas — and while in her 

 history she has expended $1,400,000,000 in de- 

 veloping her waterways and making communica- 

 tion possible with all parts of her country, this 

 magnificent government, with 3,000,000 square 

 miles, has spent the meager sum of $470,000,000, 

 or only half a billion, and France has spent 

 $1,200,000,000 on her 3.000 miles of waterways. 



Does it pay to construct these waterways and 

 is it possible to construct waterways that will 

 play a part in the commercial development of 

 our great nation? 



In the Mississippi valley alone — about which 

 Napoleon said "the nation that owns that val- 

 ley will be the nation that will rule the world" 

 there are 16,800 miles of waterways, 2,2oo 

 miles from St. Anthony's falls to the gulf. 940 

 miles from Pittsburg to Cairo, 2,680 miles from 

 Fort Benton to St. Louis, and on all of these 

 magnificent waterways the internal improve- 

 ments that have been made have hardly ex- 

 ceeded $1,000,000. On the Great Lakes there 

 has been expended $08,000,000 out of the total 

 of $470,000,000 that has been spent. As the 



result of the expenditure of that $68,000,1 



upon the Great Lakes alone a commerce has 

 developed since 1830 that has grown from 12,500 

 tons as measured at the Sault Ste. Marie canal 

 to 44.U70.000 tons as measured there in 1905 and 

 to 72,268,000 tons as is exemplified by the 



WILLIAM E. LITCHFIELD. BOSTON', DIREC- 

 TOR. 



