224 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



attention of the whole people, was almost a local one, confined to arid 

 America and western America. But we got the attention of the people 

 of the United States to that. We showed the merchants of Chicago 

 and New York that they were interested. Much more should we be 

 able to show the men of commerce in the East and the Mississippi 

 Valley that they will be interested in this broader plan of proper storage 

 for the purpose of irrigation, of deepening the waterways and of reclaim- 

 ing the vast fertile acres of swamp land which are now of service to no 

 one. 



This is a gigantic problem, but one which may well command the 

 great energies of the American people. The lands subject to flood, as 

 you know, are the most fertile lands that exist anywhere. From the 

 nature of the case they are lands situated near to natural waterways 

 where transportation will be cheap. 



There are two main things essential to the development of a country. 

 The first is an abundance of fertile land, to be had cheap. The second 

 is cheap and abundant transportation. A thing that has already inter- 

 ested this Convention in the previous sessions this year is the question, 

 "What can we do to secure better transportation?" You have been 

 told by officials who know, that you can not have that better transpor- 

 tation because the present railway systems are gorged with traffic. 

 That is not so alone on the lines of the Southern Pacific leading east 

 and south, but on their connecting lines as well, as is well shown by 

 the waybills received after our cars of fruit have gone to Boston and New 

 York and elsewhere; those Eastern connecting lines are also gorged 

 with traffic. J. J. Hill, than whom there is no better authority, has 

 said that the transportation companies would need to spend billions of 

 dollars in the immediate future in order to provide railway facilities 

 sufficient to carry this vast product which these prosperous years have 

 brought to this country. We know it is utterly impossible to so expand 

 railway construction in a few years. Roads could not be built, even if 

 the money were provided to build them. Consequently, the problem 

 comes up to us of doing what other nations, in Europe and other places, 

 have done, namely, improve our waterways, thereby making it possible 

 to convey the heavy traffic in which time is not necessarily a matter of 

 importance, and let the traffic like fruit and other perishable products 

 and general merchandise go by the railways. 



Now, in this proposition which is submitted to the American people, 

 you have exactly that element, the improvement of the waterways, as 

 the principal question, the principal thing sought, and that is immi- 

 nent. It is not a thing to be postponed, even for a single year. I see 

 that already a measure has been introduced in Congress looking toward 

 the beginning of this great undertaking. The waters of the East lead- 

 ing to the Gulf of Mexico, the waters leading into the Mississippi River, 



