ANNUAL REPORT—MISCELLANEOUS. 
Si 
Canal of New York and all other water communication. The 
Fox and Wisconsin river improvement should be pushed forward 
to an early completion, thereby creating additional transportation 
facilities, and opening up to a vast area of northwestern country 
another competing line for the commerce of this rich and valuable 
district of country. 
This Fox and Wisconsin River Improvement has been assumed 
by the General Government, and while I have never had much 
faith in the practicability of making these rivers navigable, to the 
extent of doing the vast carrying business of the northwest which 
would naturally seek this channel to the seaboard, yet those hav¬ 
ing this important work in charge inform me that they have the 
utmost confidence in the feasibility of the river improvement plan 
—that it is entirely practical and will prove a success. My plan 
would be, to so improve the river that vessels of light draft could 
pass, to aid in the building of a canal. I would then build a canal 
broader and deeper than the Erie; have the capacity sufficient, 
and the work of such permanent character, that steamers of such 
size and power as would be ample to tow throughout its entire 
length barges and other freight boats without hindrance or delay. 
Suppose it cost the General Government ten millions of dollars. 
As vast as is this amount, it is but a trifling sum when compared 
to the profits which would accrue to both producer and consumer 
within a brief period of time, as a result of this great National 
Highway. While I would urge upon Congress and our state 
legislatures to do all in. their power that is legitimate and right, to 
afford additional railway facilities; to limit their tariffs to a reason¬ 
able interest upon the labor and capital invested and honestly 
utilized in their proper operation, yet at the same time I would 
ask these representative men of the states and nation to investi¬ 
gate the great question of transportation by water. I believe that 
the opening of great water routes between the Mississippi River 
and the Atlantic would come nearer solving the problem of cheap 
transportation than all other ideas which have been advanced. 
These water lines would ever be in competition with other sys¬ 
tems of commerce, while railways will never be competing lines, 
build as many of them as you will, except you construct and op- 
