102 Fortieth Annual Meeting 



except, perhaps, the Nile. Four thousand miles long. 

 It is difficult to realize that the Ohio, the Tennessee, the 

 Arkansas, tht Red, and other tributaries that seem so 

 small beside the Mississippi, each greatly exceeds a 

 thousand miles, and all are navigable through an im- 

 portant part of their length. The Arkansas alone is 

 2000 miles long. It is also difficult to realize that many 

 of these Mississippi tributaries are longer than the 

 greatest rivers of our Atlantic slope. The Hudson, the 

 Delaware, the Susquehanna, the Connecticut. the 

 Potomac, the Savannah are small by comparison, being 

 only from 300 to 400 miles long. 



The Mississippi system covers two-fifths of the 

 United States. The region is the heart and soul of the 

 nation's prosperity. With its agricultural development, 

 the United States became independent of the rest of the 

 world. Half of our population is in the States touched 

 by the navigable portions of the Mississippi system. 



Who would realize from a glance at the map of Texas 

 that the Brazos, flowing into the Gulf, is 1000 miles long, 

 and navigable in the rainy season for 300 miles? But, 

 then, Texas is of greater extent than most of us realize, 

 being larger than either Germany or France. 



A deep waterway from the Great Lakes to the Gulf 

 of Mexico would be of tremendous importance to the 

 economic progress of the country. Its construction is 

 inevitable. The gradual improvement and utilization of 

 all our waterways is inevitable, since the product of our 

 farms alone amounts to seven and one-half billions of 

 dollars a year. In extent and distribution of navigable 

 rivers and lakes, the United States is better endowed by 

 nature than most other countries, yet the rivers are 

 less used. 



Tlie neglect of our rivers has led to a national burden; 

 the responsibility rests largely on inimical railway 

 traffic interests, yet greatly on apathetic policy on the 

 part of states and nation. While navigation is the 



