Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-09-03
IMPROVEMENTS.
What a Civil Engineer Thinks Of
the Lovoe Improvement
Proposition.

A paragraph in Saturdays LEDGER
has resulted in the following communi.
cation from a well known and competent
civil engineer, relative to the proposition
to change the river current at this point.
This is matter of vital Importance to
taxpayers;
EDIToRs LEDGER II is a notorious
fact that those who are preparing to be
bankrupts always live the fastest, pur-
chase the most they can on credit,
knowing that they never can, or rather
never will, pay for the same. 1t is
another fact equally as we'll known the
world over, that governments always
pay more for the same articles than
individuals, for the simple reason that
the money does not come from the
generally empty purses Of the Legislators
Both these facts are applicable to our
city. With debt Of some hundreds of
thousands hanging over the city, their
credit on the decline and their taxes
enormous, the city fathers are more Law
ish with the city paper than could pos
sibly be described / do not, nor do /
suppose any other citizen can, oppose
the spirit of improvement displayed by
the honorable board. No city ever
needed internal improvements more
than Memphis, and the zeal, energy and
perseverance, of this body is truly COM
mendabe, but at the same time they
should remember that only a small por-
ton of the vast amount of money used
comes from them. They should re-
member also that these are hard times
Ny object in making this communica-
ton is to express the feeling of many
citizens on the improvement on the east
bank of the Mississippi river, from the
mouth of Wolf river to Union street. /
see in your last issue an estimate of the
proposed work, which | think is quite
small. There may be a necessity for
some kind of work 10 be done to protect
the landing but the idea of putting such
an enormous quantity Of rock in the
middle of swift current, where it is
known that the sides and bottom are
both forever changing, is simply ridicu-
lous. By the sinking of an old steam
boat in the current of the river at
St. Louis, that city in short
time was threatened to be left by the
river entirely. This shows what n small
thing is necessary to change the
current even Of the great body of water
in the river.
1t appears to me that the City Fathers
would save. money for the city by buy
ing the steamer r. L. Lee or the Great
Republic and sinking it at point that
any engineer could find, so as to make
the angle of the current either at point
higher up or lower down than at the
present, thereby performing the same
thing in the end, and at very small ex-
pense, as if they were to make a stone
or even q cast iron bottom. Enough of
soundings have been made in the last
few weeks to fully determine the exact
channel and the angles made by it, and
few old barges sunk at the
right place would effectually remedy the
danger that is threatened. | think it
would be folly just now in the board to
attempt such an expensive work as the
one proposed, for it is almost an impos-
sibility for the payers to meet the
heavy demands made on them this year,
and next year it is thought the demand
will be greater than this.
For the present, Mr.. Editor, | will
close, hoping the board, when next it
meets, will put quietus on the fears of
many citizens by expressing its judgment
against damming up the river.
Respectfully, N. G. NEER.