64 HAUPT— NATION AND THE WATERWAYS. [April 22, 



bia as far as Wallawalla, the Rio Grande, St. Lawrence and others, 

 as well as to the principal harbors of the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific 

 with the Great Lakes and the internal canals connecting these 

 trunk lines. 



All other waterways lying within or traversing the areas of the 

 several states, in whole or part, with local harbors, inlets, canals 

 or other improvements should be emancipated from the assumed 

 control of the government and be relegated to the states to develop 

 under their reserved rights by the granting of charters to locali- 

 ties or private corporations as formerly, but any state or corpora- 

 tion desiring government aid may apply to Congress and receive 

 such assistance as that body may deem justifiable, for the public 

 good, said appropriations to be returned to the national treasury 

 in due course as determined by the terms of the loan. 



Thus by mutual cooperation and consent the tributary avenues 

 of trade may be synchronously developed, as the trunk lines and 

 terminals are enlarged, to meet the rapidly expanding demands of 

 the country. Otherwise at the present rate it may require from 

 fifty to one hundred years to meet the present requirements, with 

 no prospect of overtaking those of the future for which the nation 

 must wait and pay the extra charges for overland carriage. The 

 engineering and administrative features of this pressing problem 

 must be deferred for lack of time and because they are subordinate 

 to the vital element of securing enabling legislation, involving as it 

 does a reorganization of the system of control. 



In the words of our immortal President Lincoln : 



" Let the nation take hold of the larger works, and the states the smaller 

 ones ; and thus, working in a meeting direction, discretely, but steadily and 

 firmly. What is made unequal in one place may be equalized in another, 

 extravagance avoided, and the whole country put on that career of prosperity 

 which shall correspond with its extent of territory, its natural resources, and 

 the intelligence and enterprise of its people." 



If this policy of cooperations were rightly carried out it would 

 conform to the fundamental conception of the framers of the Con- 

 stitution to establish a government "of the people, by the people and 

 for the people." 



