Show failure to develop inland waterways reduces volume of our foreign trade by SENATOR JOSEPH I 1 E RANSDELL of ct Loui Louia altu ui j we lire can never reach ilia comple test development of nil all our resources unless wo we have available ilia alio cheapest possible transportation and one might as well deny tho ilia correctness of the multiplication table as to deny that a completely improved and thoroughly equipped waterway can furnish transportation more cheaply than any other method known to man there are enormous resources in the ilia united states which will never be developed until thoy they have water transportation i available because they cannot stand tho ilia cost of transportation either cither by road or by rail and there is food for serious thought in the fact that during every one of the twenty years ending with 1913 the foreign commerce of germany a country much smaller than the united states with less wealth much less population and vastly inferior resources exceeded the foreign commerce of the iho united states by hundreds of millions of dollars and the excess steadily growing greater na as ilia years went by in a country the farthest point of which is only as far from a great seaport as pittsburgh is from now york tho the farseeing statesmen of germany have thought it wise to develop an intricate network of connecting waterways in order that cheap transportation should enable tho the development of tile resources of every part of ilia empire in this country practically tho the whole interior of ilia continent i is s today dependent upon rail transportation and the failure to develop our waterways will not only limit the total amount of foreign trade which wo we can secure in competition with nations better supplied with transportation facilities but will have a tendency to concentrate all manufacturing for export at points on or near the seacoast to tho ilia detriment of the ilia interior of the country |