ILLINOIS RIVER, ILL., AND THE ABSTRACTION OF HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON RIVERS AND HARBORS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SIXTY-NINTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON THE SUBJECT OF THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE ILLINOIS RIVER, ILL., CONTENTS Page Letter of Mr. M. G. Barnes to Maj. Rufus W. Putnam, Feb. 15, 100 Telegrams and letters filed with the committee_- 108-112 Permits issued by the Secretaries of War to the Sanitary District of 201 United States Supreme Court decision in The Sanitary District of 206 ILLINOIS RIVER, ILL., AND ABSTRACTION OF WATER FROM LAKE MICHIGAN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Thursday, February 11, 1926. The CHAIRMAN (Hon. S. Wallace Dempsey). Mr. Chalmers, you have a delegation here who wish to be heard? Mr. CHALMERS. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Will you introduce them? Mr. CHALMERS. The delegation is headed by Mr. William George Bruce, of Milwaukee. He brings to Washington resolutions adopted at a recent convention in Detroit, and I think Mr. Bruce, as chairman of the delegation, will be glad to present the matter to the committee. STATEMENT OF WILLIAM GEORGE BRUCE, PRESIDENT GREAT LAKES HARBORS ASSOCIATION Mr. BRUCE. Mr. Chairman, and gentlemen, we are going to be very brief. I had the honor to appear before this committee last year, and it is rather pleasant to see so many familiar faces, the faces of men I had the pleasure of meeting during the hearing on the Chicago water diversion. The Great Lakes Harbors Association had a meeting at Detroit about a month ago. It was attended by about 300 delegates, made up largely of representatives of municipalities on the Great Lakes and commercial organizations. Out of that convention, which was largely a protest meeting against the Chicago water diversion, out of that came the formation of a committee, a committee that was to present the resolutions of protest to the heads of the Government here, and to your committee. We presented our protests, resolutions, to the President on yesterday, appeared before the Secretary of Commerce also yesterday, and this morning before the Secretary of State. Now, we want to present these resolutions to the committee here. There is little to be added. The preamble makes very clear upon what we base our protest, and the protest and resolutions themselves are very brief. As I stated, beyond presenting them to this committee, I doubt whether there is anything more to add, unless the committee desire to ask questions, and if they do we would be glad to answer them to the best of our ability. The CHAIRMAN. Suppose you present your resolutions, Mr. Bruce? Mr. BRUCE. Would you like me to read them? The CHAIRMAN. Yes; I think the committee would be glad to hear them. Mr. MANSFIELD. We would like to hear this preamble, anyhow. (Mr. Bruce read the protest and preamble, as follows:) THE VOICE OF PROTEST The following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted by the Great Lakes Harbors Association, in convention assembled at Detroit, Mich., 1 |