The Congress in its last session authorized the general improvements
necessary to provide the Mississippi waterway system with better
transportation. Stabilization of the levels of the Great Lakes and their
opening to the sea by an effective shipway remain to be considered. Since
the last session the Board of Engineers of the War Department has made a
report on the proposal for a canal through the State of New York, and the
Joint Board of Engineers, representing Canada and the United States, has
finished a report on the St. Lawrence River. Both of these boards conclude
that the St. Lawrence project is cheaper, affords a more expeditious method
of placing western products in European markets, and will cost less to
operate. The State Department has requested the Canadian Government to
negotiate treaties necessary to provide for this improvement. It will also
be necessary to secure an agreement with Canada to put in works necessary
to prevent fluctuation in the levels of the Great Lakes.
Legislation is desirable for the construction of a dam at Boulder Canyon on
the Colorado River, primarily as a method of flood control and irrigation.
A secondary result would be a considerable power development and a source
of domestic water supply for southern California. Flood control is clearly
a national problem, and water supply is a Government problem, but every
other possibility should be exhausted before the Federal Government becomes
engaged in the power business. The States which are interested ought to
reach mutual agreement. This project is in reality their work. If they wish
the Federal Government to undertake it, they should not hesitate to make
the necessary concessions to each other. This subject is fully discussed in
the annual report of the Secretary of the Interior. The Columbia River
Basin project is being studied and will be one to be considered at some
future time.
The Inland Waterways Corporation is proving successful and especially
beneficial to agriculture. A survey is being made to determine its future
needs. It has never been contemplated that if inland rivers were opened to
navigation it would then be necessary for the Federal Government to provide
the navigation. Such a request is very nearly the equivalent of a
declaration that their navigation is not profitable, that the commodities
which they are to carry can be taken at a cheaper rate by some other
method, in which case the hundreds of millions of dollars proposed to be
expended for opening rivers to navigation would be not only wasted, but
would entail further constant expenditures to carry the commodities of
private persons for less than cost.
The policy is well established that the Government should open public
highways on land and on water, but for use of the public in their private
capacity. It has put on some demonstration barge lines, but always with the
expectation that if they prove profitable they would pass into private
hands and if they do not prove profitable they will be withdrawn. The
problems of transportation over inland waterways should be taken up by
private enterprise, so that the public will have the advantage of
competition in service. It is expected that some of our lines can be sold,
some more demonstration work done, and that with the completion of the Ohio
project a policy of private operation can be fully developed.