Some Desirable Governmental Policies for River Improvement

In the United States the development of our natural resources, unparalleled elsewhere in the world, has been largely stimulated by an enormous railway expansion. With us, as with other nations, the principle of governmental aid to transportation lines was early, recognized as a means of accelerating commercial growth. were the river improvements, the need for which was forced upon the attention of the public through the impetus given river commerce by the successful operation of boats propelled by steam. In the period of time that has since intervened, our interior rivers, as means of communication, have passed through many vicissitudes. Since the days before the railways, when they were important lines of transportation and were filled with vessels and freight, their fortunes have gradually changed. Their importance has often dwindled, and their usefulness has been reduced, until now the longest river in the world, the one having in its present condition perhaps a greater transporting power than any other, is flowing almost idly into the Gulf of Mexico. And this has occurred, notwithstanding the fact that this river passes through a country not excelled anywhere for the fertility of its soil and the industry and energy of its people.