I907.1 HAUPT— TRANSPORTATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 181 



at mean low water, nor is the harbor at its mouth a satisfactory 

 refuge for large vessels. The great harbor of New York has but 

 30-feet at low water and vessels are obliged to await the tides to 

 cross the bar while all the large dredging contractors have with- 

 drawn their plants from the works. 



In short it is hopeless to look for relief from this source, for 

 the entire works of the country, and it is essential that the states 

 should again resume their sovereignties and authorize corporations 

 to make the much needed improvements within their borders and 

 also compel the surrender of long time leases where the traffic has 

 been withdrawn, so that manufacturers and others may again re- 

 ceive fuel and raw-material at water rates and with much greater 

 dispatch. 



One firm in the Pittsburg district thus saves nearly $1,000,000 

 annually on its coal bill alone because of the ^lonongahela River 

 rates by water. 



The Internal Improvement Commission of Illinois closes a very 



strong appeal for the opening of the lakes and gulf w^aterway in 



these practical and timely words : 



" There is every reason for the State of Illinois to earnestly lead in the 

 promotion of a National Waterway policy, and there is also reason for her 

 to set an example to sister states in a domestic waterway development. When 

 the United States has adopted a systematic policy, we must expect the national 

 function to be restricted to the broad outlines and arteries of a system and 

 that local waterways and ports will be relegated to the states. Meantime 

 it may be worth while to consider whether the state of Illinois, should not 

 undertake the development of the route through the state, receiving from the 

 United States such subsidy as it may choose to give. There may be hidden 

 wisdom in such self-reliance as has marked the state of New York, and it 

 may be that the influence of two such states will be sufficient to lead the 

 Federal government into a National Waterway policy." 



The committee might have added that Massachusetts, New York, 

 Pennsylvania and Ohio are also moving along the same lines in the 

 inauguration of their great works independently of government aid 

 and, in some cases, exercising the right to collect tolls from the 

 trade, as on all railroad-transportation routes under corporate 

 control. 



Twenty-two years ago it was reported to Congress that '' The 

 manifest destiny of the country points unerringly to the emancipa- 

 tion of the waterways as the next great work, not of war but of 

 peace." Why is it not yet accomplished? 



