dvising
river improvement as a means of relieving the congestion of freight.
This situation has led to a revival of interest in the deep waterway
from the Lakes to the Gulf which has been talked and written about for
nearly three-quarters of a century.

[Illustration]
Photograph by Clinedinst.
Shoshone Project. Wyoming Park wagon road,
showing wonderful tunnelling work on the new
wagon road from Cody, Wyo., to the
National Park via the Shoshone Dam.

[1907]

[Illustration]
Truckee-Carson reclamation project.
Diversion dam and gates at heading of main canal.

Concerted action was not taken until 1907, when the Lakes to the Gulf
Deep Waterways Association was formed at St. Louis, having for its
object the deepening of the water-way between Lake Michigan and the
Gulf. The proposal to construct a canal by the way of the Illinois River
to the Mississippi, large enough to carry ships, was declared feasible
by government engineers and a route was surveyed. President Roosevelt
endorsed the scheme. In his message to Congress, December 3, 1907, he
said: "From the Great Lakes to the mouth of the Mississippi there should
be a deep water-way, with deep water-ways leading from it to the East
and the West. Such a water-way would practically mean the extension of
our coast line into the very heart of our country. It would be of
incalculable benefit to our people. If begun at once it can be carried
through in time appreciably to relieve the congestion of our great
freight-carrying lines of railroad. The work should be systematically
and continuously carried forward in accordance with some well-conceived
plan . . . . Moreover, the development of our water-ways involves many
other important water problems, all of which should be considered as
part of the same general scheme."

He appointed an Inland Waterways Commission which was to outline a
comprehensive scheme of development along the various lines indicated.
Their leading recommendation had to do with the proposal for a deep
water-way from Chicago to New Orleans. The completion of the drainage
canal by the city of Chicago, at a cost of $55,000,000, really created a
deep waterway for forty miles along the intended route. It was reported
to Congress by a special board of surveyors that the continuation of
such a water-way to St. Louis would cost $31,000,000.

[Illustration: Nine men seated at a conference table.]
Inland Waterways Commission.

The legislature of