012 



CONSERVATION 



once begun should be prosecuted steadily and 

 vigorously to completion. We must make 

 sure that projects are not undertaken ex- 

 cept for sound business reasons, and that 

 the best modern business methods are ap- 

 plied in executing them. The decision to 

 undertake any project should rest on actual 

 need, ascertained by investigation and judg- 

 ment of experts, and on its relations to great 

 river systems or to the general plan, and 

 never on mere clamor. 



The improvement of our inland water- 

 ways can and should be made to pay 

 for itself so far as practicable from the 

 incidental proceeds from water-power and 

 other uses. Navigation should, of course, 

 be free. But the greatest return will come 

 from the increased commerce, growth and 

 prosperity of our people. For this we have 

 already waited too long. Adequate funds 

 should' be provided, by bond issue, if neces- 

 sary, and the work should be delayed no 

 longer. 



In his recent address to the Lakes- 

 to-the-Gulf Convention, held in Chica- 

 go early this month, Hon. Win. H. 

 Taft said : 



A plan should not be adopted until fully 

 confirmed by expert opinion and careful in- 

 vestigation, but when it is adopted, when its 

 utility is made certain, then it is neither 

 economy to the Government in the matter of 

 expenditure nor is it a benefit to the people 

 to delay the furnishing as rapidly as it can be 

 economically expended of the full amount 

 of money needed to make the improvement 

 a useful and completed thing. 



The achievement of these great ends can- 

 not, however, be worked out through Con- 

 gress without a radical departure from the 

 course of procedure heretofore employed. 

 No projects should be approved without the 

 most careful consideration as to their feasi- 

 bili.y and usefulness. When the execution of 

 an approved project has once been deter- 

 mined on, it should be carried to completion 

 as rapidly as possible, so that the people's 

 investment may be made to bring returns at 

 the earliest possible moment. 



During my term as Secretary of War, I 

 had occasion to appoint, under the provi- 

 sions of an act of Congress, a board of 

 engineers to examine and report upon the 

 Ohio River improvements, both upon a six 

 and a nine foot basis, and upon its feasi- 

 bility and advisability. The board, after a 

 thorough examination, unqualifiedly reported 

 that the improvement be made to a depth 

 of nine feet. One-fifth of the work has been 

 done under previous reports and approvals, 

 but the rate, of progress was such that one- 

 half a century would not see Jts completion. 



A policy which brooks such delay is waste- 

 ful, if nothing worse. 



You will observe, therefore, that 

 measured by all the principles of the 



new policy, the Ohio River project is 

 ripe for such action by Congress as will 

 provide all the funds necessary for it^ 

 completion as rapidly as the work can 

 be prosecuted. A stage of nine feet 

 cannot be provided from Pittsburg to 

 Cairo, except by the construction of all 

 the dams. The engineers have stated 

 that all the dams can be put under con- 

 struction at the same time. The corps 

 of engineers should be increased by 

 additions from civil life, or the whole 

 work placed in the hands of a special 

 commission, in which the corps of en- 

 gineers shall be represented. The Pana- 

 ma Canal will be completed in 1915. 

 The Ohio River can be completed at 

 the same time. The cry "From Pitts- 

 burg to Panama" should become a real- 

 ity. 



The delays thus far may be charged 

 to official waste, but henceforth such 

 delays will be a crime ! The work 

 should be completed or abandoned. 

 Congress, in its wisdom, may do either. 

 The latter course would cause such a 

 public uprising in protest as was never 

 heard of before. The commerce of the 

 country is clamoring for more trans- 

 portation facilities. 



Major Sibcrt indicated the commer- 

 cial importance of the Ohio if made 

 practically available for navigation, out- 

 lined the methods and policies of the 

 corps of engineers and illustrated the 

 dilatory progress. The lock at Davis 

 Island was finished in 1885; the first 

 appropriation for the second lock built 

 was made in 1902, seventeen years after 

 the completion of the first ; while the 

 Isthmian Canal should be completed in 

 less than seven years. He discussed 

 adversely the relations between forests 

 and river improvement, bringing out 

 the well-known fact that flood-heights 

 do not sensibly increase with deforesta- 

 tion, and questioning the feasibility and 

 desirability of flood prevention by means 

 of reservoirs ; all under the conven- 

 tional policy of restricting river im- 

 provement to engineering works and ig- 

 noring the general control of the water, 

 the regulation of regimen, the adjust- 

 ment of terminals, etc. After referring 

 favorably to a recent article by Col. 



