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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 



telligent regulation of the relations be- 

 tween rail and water traffic. "When this is 

 done the railways and waterways will 

 assist instead of injuring each other. 

 Both will benefit, but the chief benefit will 

 accrue to the people in general through 

 quicker and cheaper transportation. 



The report rests throughout on the fun- 

 damental conception that every waterway 

 should be made to serve the people as 

 largely and in as many different ways as 

 possible. It is poor business to develop a 

 river for navigation in such a way as to 

 prevent its use for power, when by a little 

 foresight it could be made to serve both 

 purposes. We can not afford needlessly 

 to sacrifice power to irrigation, or irriga- 

 tion to domestic water-supply, when by 

 taking thought we may have all three. 

 Every stream should be used to the utmost. 

 No stream can be so used unless such use 

 is planned for in advance. When such 

 plans are made we shall find that, instead 

 of interfering, one use can often be made 

 to assist another. Each river system, from 

 its headwaters in the forest to its mouth on 

 the coast, is a single unit and should be 

 treated as such. Navigation of the lower 

 reaches of a stream can not be fully de- 

 veloped without the control of floods and 

 low waters by storage and drainage. 

 Navigable channels are directly concerned 

 with the protection of source waters, and 

 with soil erosion which takes the materials 

 for bars and shoals from the richest por- 

 tions of our farms. The uses of a stream 

 for dorhestic and municipal water-supply, 

 for power and in many cases for irriga- 

 tion, must also be taken into full account. 



The development of our inland water- 

 ways will have results far beyond the im- 

 mediate gain to commerce. Deep channels 

 along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and 

 from the Gulf to the Great Lakes will 

 have high value for the national defense. 

 The use of water power will measurably 



relieve the drain upon our diminishing 

 supplies of coal, and transportation by 

 water instead of rail only will tend to con- 

 serve our iron. Forest protection, without 

 which river improvement can not be per- 

 manent, will at the same time help to post- 

 pone the threatened timber famine, and 

 will secure us against a total dearth of 

 timber by providing for the perpetuation 

 of the remaining woodlands. Irrigation 

 will create the means of livelihood for 

 millions of people, and supplies of pure 

 water will powerfully promote the public 

 health. If the policy of waterway im- 

 provement here recommended is carried 

 out, it will affect for good every citizen of 

 the republic. The national government 

 must play the leading part in securing the 

 largest possible use of our waterways; 

 other agencies can assist, and should assist, 

 but the work is essentially national in its 

 scope. 



The various uses of waterways axe now 

 dealt with by Bureaus scattered through 

 four federal departments. At present, 

 therefore, it is not possible to deal with a 

 river system as a single problem. But the 

 commission here recommends a policy 

 under which all the commercial and in- 

 dustrial uses of the waterways may be 

 developed at the same time. To that end, 

 congress should provide some administra- 

 tive machinery for coordinating the work 

 of the various departments so far as it 

 relates to waterways. Otherwise there will 

 not only be delay, but the people as a 

 whole will fail to get from our streams the 

 benefits to which they are justly entitled. 



The commission recognizes that the cost 

 of improving our inland waterways will 

 be large, but far less than would be re- 

 quired to relieve the congestion of traffic 

 by railway extension. The benefits of such 

 improvement will be large also, and they 

 will touch the daily life of our people at 

 every point, uniting the interests of all 



