Our inland commerce has been put to great inconvenience and expense by reason of the lowering of the water level of the Great Lakes.  This is an international problem on which competent engineers are making reports.  Out of their study it is expected that a feasible method will be developed for raising the level to provide relief for our commerce and supply water for drainage.  Whenever a practical plan is presented it ought to be speedily adopted.

RECLAMATION

It is increasingly evident that the Federal Government must in the future take a leading part in the impounding of water for conservation with incidental power for the development of the irrigable lands of the and region.  The unused waters of the West are found mainly in large rivers.  Works to store and distribute these have such magnitude and cost that they are not attractive to private enterprise.  Water is the irreplaceable natural resource.  Its precipitation can not be increased.  Its storage on the higher reaches of streams, to meet growing needs, to be used repeatedly as it flows toward the seas, is a practical and prudent business policy.

The United States promises to follow the course of older irrigation countries, where recent important irrigation developments have been carried out as national undertakings.  It is gratifying, therefore, that conditions on Federal reclamation projects have become satisfactory.  The gross value of crop, grown with water from project works increased from $110,000,000 in 1924 to $131,000,000 in 1925.  The adjustments made last year by Congress relieved irrigators from paying construction costs on unprofitable land, and by so doing inspired new hope and confidence in ability to meet the payments required.  Construction payments by water users last year were the largest in the history of the bureau.

The anticipated reclamation fund will be fully absorbed for a number of years in the completion of old projects and the construction of projects inaugurated in the past three years.  We should, however, continue to investigate and study the possibilities of a carefully planned development of promising projects, logically of governmental concern because of their physical magnitude, immense cost, and the interstate and international problems involved.  Only in this way may we be fully prepared to meet intelligently the needs of our fast-growing population in the years to come.

TRANSPORTATION

It would be difficult to conceive of any modern activity which contributes more to the necessities and conveniences of life than transportation.  Without it our present agricultural production and practically all of our commerce would be completely prostrated.  One of the large contributing causes to the present highly satisfactory state of our economic condition is the prompt and dependable service, surpassing all our previous