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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 689 



lack of adequate transportation facilities, 

 and unless a beginning is made promptly 

 we shall suffer still more heavily in the 

 future. 



Being without funds or an expert staff, 

 the commission has confined itself to prin- 

 ciples affecting the whole problem and the 

 entire country. Its report is a plea, in the 

 light of actual facts, for simplicity and 

 directness in dealing with the gTeat prob- 

 lem of our inland waterways in the interest 

 of the people. It submits no specific plans 

 or recommendations concerning even the 

 most important projects. The first of 

 these, of course, concerns the Mississippi 

 and its tributaries, whose commercial de- 

 velopment will directly affect half our 

 people. The Mississippi should be made a 

 loop of the sea and work upon it should be 

 begun at the earliest possible moment. 

 Only less important is the Atlantic inner 

 passages, parts of which are already under 

 way. The inner passages along the Gulf 

 coast should be extended and connected 

 with the Atlantic waters. The need for 

 the developing of the Pacific coast rivers 

 is not less pressing. Our people are 

 united in support of the immediate adop- 

 tion of a progressive policy of inland 

 waterway development. 



Hitherto our national policy of inland 

 waterway development has been largely 

 negative. No single agency has been re- 

 sponsible under the congress for making 

 the best use of our rivers, or for exercising 

 foresight in their development. In the ab- 

 sence of a comprehensive plan, the only 

 safe policy was one of repression and 

 procrastination. Frequent changes of 

 plan and piecemeal execution of projects 

 have still further hampered improvement. 

 A channel is no deeper than its shallowest 

 reach, and to improve a river short of the 

 point of effective navigability is a sheer 

 waste of all it costs. In spite of large 

 appropriations for their improvement, our 



rivers are less serviceable for interstate 

 commerce to-day than they were half a 

 century ago, and in spite of the vast in- 

 crease in our population and commerce 

 they are on the whole less used. 



The first condition of successful develop- 

 ment of our waterways is a definite and 

 progressive policy. The second is a con- 

 crete general plan, prepared by the best 

 experts available, covering every use to 

 which our streams can be put. We shall 

 not succeed until the responsibility for 

 administering the policy and executing 

 and extending the plan is definitely laid 

 on one man or group of men who can be 

 held accountable. Every portion of the 

 general plan should consider and so far 

 as practicable secure to the people the 

 use of water for power, irrigation and 

 domestic supply as well as for navigation. 

 No project should be begun until the 

 funds necessary to complete it promptly 

 are provided, and no plan once under way 

 should be changed except for grave rea- 

 sons. Work once begun should be prose- 

 cuted steadily and vigoi'ously to comple- 

 tion. We must make sure that projects 

 are not undertaken except for sound busi- 

 ness reasons, and that the best modern 

 business methods are applied in executing 

 them. The decision to undertake any 

 project should rest on actual need ascer- 

 tained by investigation and judgment of 

 experts and on its relation to great river 

 system* 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 inci- 

 dental 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 



