ATLANTIC DEEPER WATERWAYS 



ASSOCIATION 



THE first annual convention of the 

 Atlantic Deeper Waterways Asso- 

 ciation was held in Baltimore, 

 November 17 to 19, 1908. a large at- 

 tendance and intense interest marking 

 the gathering. Representatives were 

 present from all the Atlantic Coast 

 states, as well as from a number of 

 the inland states. The old officers were 

 reelected and strong resolutions were 

 adopted. The resolutions follow in 

 full: 



The Atlantic Deeper Waterways As- 

 sociation, at Baltimore, assembled in its 

 first annual convention, November 17 

 to 19, 1908, after full consideration and 

 discussion of the relation of waterways 

 to domestic commerce, and particularly 

 of the requirements of the commerce of 

 the 30,000,000 Americans living upon 

 the Atlantic seaboard, approves and 

 adopts the following resolutions : 



Resolved, That the business interests 

 of the seaboard population directly, and 

 of the entire nation indirectly, require 

 the removal, at the earliest possible mo- 

 ment, of the natural obstructions to a 

 free interior deep water route from 

 Massachusetts I 1 . ay to Key West along 

 the lines indicated by existing canals 

 and by surveys already made under the 

 auspices of the Government of the 

 United States. 



Resolved, That in the judgment of 

 the members of this association, and 

 of several of the foremost railway ex- 

 perts in the country, the construction of 

 this water highway can alone give 

 gravely necessary and permanent relief 

 to the business of transportation al- 

 ready hampered by insufficient facilities 

 and threatened with more serious ob- 

 struction in the early future. 



Resolved, That the evidence is con- 

 clusive that an interior deep water 

 channel along the coast will be likely 

 to repay even very large cost within a 



brief period by reducing the charge-- 

 for the movement of commodities. 



Resolved, That the canals should be 

 digged in any case by the Federal Gov- 

 ernment ; first, because the Government 

 alone has authority over navigable 

 water ; second, because all the canals 

 should be free, but chiefly because the 

 enterprise, planned in the interest of 

 peace, will have incalculable value for 

 the whole nation in case of war. 



Resolved, That in the opinion of this 

 association Congress should deal with 

 this problem as a permanent remu- 

 nerative national investment, and not 

 as a matter of making annual expendi- 

 tures, and in view of the need for the 

 earliest relief from the impending con- 

 gestion of railroad transportation, the 

 money required for deeper waterways 

 should be met by an issue of bonds. 



Resolved, That this association 

 warmly commends and asks the con- 

 tinuation and deepening of the water- 

 way from Norfolk to Beaufort Inlet, 

 N. C., now in process of construction 

 under an appropriation and project 

 heretofore adopted by Congress ; it asks 

 that Congress shall make the Delaware 

 and Chesapeake Canal the property of 

 the Federal Government and begin iN 

 reconstruction in accordance with the 

 recommendation of the Agnus Com- 

 mi<sion ; that surveys shall be made for 

 a canal from Heaufort south and from 

 the Delaware River to Xew York har- 

 bor; that the Hudson River shall be 

 deepened so as to meet in its upper 

 reaches the needs of the traffic upon 

 the improved Erie Canal ; and that all 

 necessary promotion shall be given to 

 the projects for opening a channel be- 

 tween Long I -land Sound and Massa- 

 chusetts Bay. 



Resolved, That this association 

 pledges itself finally and irrevocably to 

 the Atlantic Deeper Waterways scheme 



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