For many years our country has been employed in plans and M for the
development of our intracoastal and inland waterways. This work along our
coast is an important adjunct to our commerce. It will be carried on,
together with the further opening up of our harbors, as our resources
permit. The Government made an agreement during the war to take over the
Cape Cod Canal, under which the owners made valuable concessions. This
pledged faith of the Government ought to be redeemed.
Two other main fields are under consideration. One is the Great Lakes and
St. Lawrence, including the Erie Canal. This includes stabilizing the lake
level, and is both a waterway and power project. A joint commission of the
United States and Canada is working on plans and surveys which will not be
completed until next April. No final determination can be made, apparently,
except under treaty as to the participation of both countries. The other is
the Mississippi River stem. This is almost entirely devoted to navigation.
Work on the Ohio River will be completed in about three years. A modern
channel connecting Chicago, New Orleans, Kansas City, and Pittsburgh should
be laid out and work on the tributaries prosecuted. Some work is being done
of a preparatory nature along the Missouri, and large expenditures are
being made yearly in the lower reaches of the Mississippi and its
tributaries which contribute both to flood control and navigation.
Preliminary measures are being taken on the Colorado River project, which
is exceedingly important for flood control, irrigation, power development,
and water supply to the area concerned. It would seem to be very doubtful,
however, whether it is practical to secure affirmative action of the
Congress, except under a Joint agreement of the several States.
The Government has already expended large sums upon scientific research and
engineering investigation in promotion of this Colorado River project. The
actual progress has been retarded for many years by differences among the
seven States in the basin over their relative water rights and among
different groups as to methods. In an attempt to settle the primary
difficulty of the water rights, Congress authorized the Colorado River
Commission which agreed on November 24, 1922, upon an interstate compact to
settle these rights, subject to the ratification of the State legislatures
and Congress. All seven States except Arizona at one time ratified, the
Arizona Legislature making certain reservations which failed to meet the
approval of the governor. Subsequently an attempt was made to establish the
compact upon a six-State basis, but in this case California imposed
reservations. There appears to be no division of opinion upon the major
principles of the compact, but difficulty in separating contentions to
methods of development from the discussion of it. It is imperative that
flood control be undertaken for California and Arizona. preparation made
for irrigation, for power, and for domestic water.
Some or all of these questions are combined in every proposed development.
The Federal Government is interested in some of these phases, State
governments and municipalities and irrigation districts in others, and
private corporations in still others. Because of all this difference of
view it is most desirable that Congress should consider the creation of
some agency that will be able to determine methods of improvement solely
upon economic and engineering facts, that would be authorized to negotiate
and settle, subject to the approval of Congress, the participation, rights,
and obligations of each group in any particular works. Only by some such
method can early construction be secured.