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Show 393 In the following year, President Roosevelt reiterated most of the foregoing considerations when he vetoed a similar bill grant- ing broad rights for nonfederal development on the James River.27 Inland Waterways Commission.-Events of the next few years reflect President Theodore Roosevelt's dynamic influ- ence on conservation. In March 1907, he had appointed the Inland Waterways Commission, whose assignment was "to evolve a comprehensive plan designed for benefit of the entire country."28 This Commission's 1908 Preliminary Report was concerned principally with inland waterways, but devoted much attention to the need for multiple use and comprehensive plan- ning, saying, among other things: M The control of waterways on which successful navi- gation depends is so intimately connected with the pre- vention of floods and low waters, and works designed for these purposes; with the protection and reclamation of overflow lands, and works designed therefor; with the safeguarding of banks and maintenance of channels, and works employed therein; with the purification and clarification of water supply, and works designed there- for in conjunction with interstate commerce; with con- trol and utilization of power developed in connection with works for the improvement of navigation; with the standardizing of methods and facilities and the co- ordinating of waterway and railway instrumentalities; and throughout the larger area of the country with rec- lamation by irrigation and drainage, and works de- signed primarily for these purposes-that local and special questions concerning the control of waterways should be treated as a general question, of national extent, while local or special projects should be con- 2TH. Doe. No. 1350, 60th Cong., 2d sess.; 43 Cong Rec. 978-980 (1909). 28 Sen. Doc. No. 325, 60th Cong., 1st sess., p. iii (1908). Members of the Commission were: Theodore B. Burton, Chairman, J. H. Bankhead, Alex- ander Mackenzie, W. J. McGee, F. H. Newell, Francis C. Newlands, Gifford Pinchot, Herbert Knox Smith, and William Warner. 89 Id. pp. 22-23. |