was waged for pure drinking water, the women going to the polls and making a fight for the sand filtration plan. Sixtythree clubs have reported making sanitary and parking water fronts as their especial work with splendid results. Prizes have been offered in many states to school children for the best essay on "Inland Waterways." Over 5,000 children in one state have entered this contest. Placing conservation in the public schools has been accomplished in many states; in every state great work is being done along educational lines, with the hearty co-operation and support of the superintendents and teachers.

This subject has been given a place on one hundred and fifty programs of State, District and local meetings, and of various co-related organizations. Many speakers have addressed schools and club assemblies. The press has been most kind and courteous in every state in its co-operation with this Committee. One hundred and one different articles have been published in all the prominent newspapers throughout the states. The Waterway Committee of the General Federation, and in a number of the states, have sent delegates to the Waterway Conventions. There is scarcely a club in the Federation that has not given at least one number on its program, if not the entire program, to the conservation of our natural

resources.

Fifty thousand circulars and pamphlets have been sent from the Chairman's office and distributed throughout the states by the different chairmen. The great demand for Waterway literature from every quarter convinces us of the growing interest in this subject.

OUR NATIONAL WATERWAYS.

HON. JOSEPH E. RANSDELL, LOUISIANA.

MADAM PRESIDENT AND LADIES: Doubtless, many of you are asking right now, "What have we, as women, to do with transportation, anyway?"

I will show you very briefly that you are vitally and tremendously interested in anything that is going to cheapen transportation, and that nothing will cheapen it so much as the thorough improvement and wise development of the waterways of our republic.

Railways are artificial highways made by man. Waterways are the highways which the Creator constructed for His children out of the abundance of His loving heart, and we of the United States, my dear friends, have been sadly neglecting these God-made highways. Is water transportation cheaper than that by rail, and if so, how much cheaper? So much that I can hardly describe it to you. Let me give you one concrete instance. I would like to talk for two hours, but do not be uneasy, I will confine myself to the time limit.

You all are very much interested, I know, in iron and steel. This has been called the iron and steel age. In some form or other you use iron and steel every day of your lives. It enters into the common, every-day life of every one of us. Most of the iron and steel used in this country is made in Pittsburg.

Several years ago a delegation of Pittsburg citizens came before the Rivers and Harbors Committee of the Congress of the United States to ask an appropriation of several hundred thousand dollars to improve the locks and dams on the Monongahela River-a little stream that probably some of you have never heard about since you were school children. Congress has improved it at a cost of about six million dollars and now it carries a commerce of about ten million tons of coal a year. It is a very homely commodity for which this river is used. In this delegation was Mr. B. F. Jones, of Jones & Laughlin, large manufacturers of iron and steel. He testified before us that it was very necessary to keep the Monongahela River open, that we were all interested in it, the

whole American people as well as his own firm. He said, "I use about a million and a half tons of coal every year. It costs me three to four cents per ton to get that coal to my factories where the iron and steel are made; three to four cents when the Monongahela River is open, but when an accident happens to the locks, or when the winter freezes come on and prevent the passage of the boats, the railroads immediately raise the charge to forty-four cents per ton, an increase of 1100 to 1200 per cent."

Now, are you interested in that? Undoubtedly you are, because coal is one of the essential commodities of iron and steel, and if the manufacturers had to pay from eleven to twelve hundred per cent. more for their coal you would be obliged to pay much higher prices for the iron and steel that you use. That is one practical illustration, which I hope you will carry home with you.

What is our iron made of?

Let me give you another. Iron ore and coal form its two principle ingredients. We get the main portion of the iron ore from far off Minnesotathe Mesaba Range, at the head of Lake Superior. It is carried on the railroads a short distance from the mines to Duluth and there is loaded on vessels which carry it one thousand miles, by water, to the cities of Cleveland and Ashtabula at 80 cents per ton. From there it is carried by rail 135 miles to the factories at Pittsburg at 90 cents a ton, where the coal at 32 to 4 cents per ton freight cost is joined with the ore brought a thousand miles on the improved Lakes, and the junction makes the cheap steel and iron so necessary to our American life. That ore is carried a thousand miles by water for 80 cents per ton. If it were not for the improved waterway of the Great Lakes, it would cost several times 80 cents per ton to get this material by rail. Bear in mind that the boats carried it 1,000 miles for 80 cents, and that it cost 90 cents to go 135 miles to Pittsburg by rail. Think of that comparison. If there are any doubting Thomases among you, I invite you to investigate and you will find the Government reports bear out these statements.

On the great Ohio River that flows by this city, we have an immense commerce-over thirteen million tons a year. It is carried at rates from 1-10 to 1-11 of the rates actually paid

by rail. But you say, Mr. Ransdell, I live 500 miles away from any water course. How does that benefit me? In brief, anything beneficial to the American people, helps the proudest and the humblest citizen of the Republic. I am sure there are no unpatriotic women in this great Federation of Women's Clubs, but I will endeavor to show how it benefits each of you individually.

Don't you remember that in the fall of 1906 and early spring of 1907 there was terrible freight congestion over this land. The farmers out in Dakota were actually burning their barns and fences to keep warm, because they could get no coal. Why? There was such congestion on the railroads that the railroads could not deliver the coal out there. Bread was high because the railroads could not bring in the immense quantities of wheat which were piled up along the tracks throughout the West. Down in the Southland, where I live, hundreds of thousands of bales of cotton were injured because they could not be moved. In Southwestern Missouri and Northwestern Arkansas, where they raise the finest apples on earth, a large number of bushels were allowed to rot under the trees because cars could not be secured. Every portion of the republic suffered from that congestion, and every citizen felt its evil effects.

Are you interested in saving the lives of your husbands, your brothers, your sons, your sweethearts? Of course you are. The official statistics show that after the congestion ceased to some extent and traffic had diminished 15 per cent., there were 69 per cent. less fatal accidents on these railroads. Therefore, I take it, that it does interest you ladies to prevent congestion on the railroads, for during periods of congestion is the greatest danger of accident everywhere.

How will the waterways help that along? Why the waterways have been so sadly neglected that this magnificent river which flows by the doors of the city now entertaining us cannot carry a commerce on its bosom with any degree of certainty. I was here two years ago, and at that time there were only two feet of water on the bar here. The railroads can start out with a certainty of carrying their commerce from year's end to year's end. The rivers in an unimproved condition cannot be certain at all, and so people don't use