ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT AT ST. LOUIS, MISSOURIOCTOBER 2, 1907

WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1907

[3]

It is a very real pleasure to addressthis body of citizens of Missouri here inthe great city of St. Louis. I have oftenvisited St. Louis before, but always byrail. Now I am visiting it in the courseof a trip by water, a trip on the greatnatural highway which runs past yourvery doors—a highway once so important,[4]now almost abandoned, which Ihope this nation will see not only restoredto all its former usefulness, but given afar greater degree of usefulness to correspondwith the extraordinary growth inwealth and population of the MississippiValley. We have lived in an era ofphenomenal railroad building. As routesfor merchandise, the iron highways havecompletely supplanted the old wagonroads, and under their competition theimportance of the water highways has[5]been much diminished. The growth ofthe railway system has been rapid allover the world, but nowhere so rapid asin the United States. Accompanying thisthere has grown in the United Statesa tendency toward the practically completeabandonment of the system ofwater transportation. Such a tendency iscertainly not healthy and I am convincedthat it will not be permanent. There aremany classes of commodities, especiallythose which are perishable in their nature[6]and where the value is high relatively tothe bulk, which will always be carried byrail. But bulky commodities which arenot of a perishable nature will always bespecially suited for the conditions of watertransport. To illustrate the truth of thisstatement it would only be necessary topoint to the use of the canal system inmany countries of the Old World; but itcan be illustrated even better by what hashappened nearer home. The Great Lakesoffer a prime example of the importance[7]of a good water highway for mercantiletraffic. As the line of traffic runs throughlakes, the conditions are in some respectsdifferent from what must obtain on eventhe most important river. Nevertheless,it is well to remember that a very largepart of this traffic is conditioned upon anartificial waterway, a canal—the famousSoo. The commerce that passes throughthe Soo far surpasses in bulk and in valuethat of the Suez Canal.