The Weekly Intelligencer

RIVER IMPROVEMENT CONVENTION

Twelve states were represented at the River Improvement Convention at Kansas City this week. These were Missouri, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana.

The president of the convention was Governor Thayer, of Nebraska, and the delegates are representative men of all branches of trade and commerce, with the addition of a number of bright politicians. One of the leading spirits of the convention was a prominent railway official, whose interest in the convention indicates that the improvement of the river will have the support of some of the railroads.

The convention took a decided stand for an independent appropriation for the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and the resolutions include a demand that the appropriation for the improvement of the Missouri river be distinctly granted for the benefit of navigation, not for the protection of railroad bridges or other private property.

President Putnam, of the Commercial club, sounded the key note in his address upon calling the convention to order. He was not there to estimate what the cost of improving the river would be; that was not the question for either the convention or congress to decide. The river could be made navigable, and as the commerce of the country demanded that it be improved, it was the duty of Congress to improve it, and go at the work systematically, and at once.