Every river is a unit from
its source to its mouth. If it is to be given its highest usefulness to
all the people, and serve them for all the uses they can make of it, it
must be developed with that idea clearly in mind. To develop a river for
navigation alone, or power alone, or irrigation alone, is often like
using a sheep for mutton, or a steer for beef, and throwing away the
leather and the wool. A river is a unit, but its uses are many, and with
our present knowledge there can be no excuse for sacrificing one use to
another if both can be subserved.
A progressive plan for the development of our waterways is essential.
Pending the completion of that plan, which should neither be weakened by
excessive haste nor drowned in excessive deliberation, work should
proceed at once on some of the greater projects which we know already
will be essential under any plan that may be devised. First and
foremost of these by unanimous consent is the improvement of the
Mississippi River. A comprehensive and progressive plan of the kind we
need can be made in one way only, and that is by a commission of the
best men in the United States appointed directly by the President of the
United States.
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