Since I have been President I have traveled in every State of this Union, but my traveling has been almost entirely on railroads, save now and then by wagon or on horseback. Now I have the chance to try traveling by river; to go down the greatest of our rivers, the Father of Waters. A good many years ago when I lived in the Northwest I traveled occasionally on the Upper Missouri and its tributaries; but then we went in a flatboat and did our own rowing and paddling and poling. Now I am to try a steamboat. I am a great believer in our railway system; and the fact that I am very firm in my belief as to the necessity of the Government exercising a proper supervision and control over the railroads does not in the least interfere with the other fact that I greatly admire the large majority of the men in all positions, from the top to the bottom, who build and run them. Yet, while of course I am anxious to see these men, and therefore the corporations they represent or serve, achieve the fullest measure of legitimate prosperity, nevertheless as this country grows I feel that we can not have too many highroads, and that in addition to the iron highroads of our railway system we should also utilize the great river highways which have been given us by nature. From a variety of causes these highways have in many parts of the country been almost abandoned. This is not healthy. Our people, and especially the representatives of the people in the National Congress, should give their most careful attention to this subject. We should be prepared to put the nation collectively back of the movement to improve them for the nation’s use. Our knowledge at this time is not such as to permit me to go into details, or to say definitely just what the nation should do; but most assuredly our great navigable rivers are national assets just as much as our great seacoast harbors. Exactly as it is for the interest of all the country that our great harbors should be fitted to receive in safety the largest vessels of the merchant fleets of the world, so by deepening and otherwise our rivers should be fitted to bear their part in the movement of our merchandise; and this is especially true of the Mississippi and its tributaries, which drain the immense and prosperous region which makes in very fact the heart of our nation; the basin of the Great Lakes being already united with the basin of the Mississippi, and both regions being identical in their products and interests. Waterways are peculiarly fitted for the transportation of the bulky commodities which come from the soil or under the soil; and no other part of our country is as fruitful as is this in such commodities.