The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-08-01
RIVER NAVIGATION PASSING AWAY"

That radical ideas are essentially destructive
and dangerous, whether they relate to tie po-
litcal affairs or to the material interests Of
the country, is strikingly shown by speech
of Senator Pomeroy, of Kansas, on bill to
regulate the bridging of the Ohio river. The
press of Western cities, which have grown to
their present proportions by reason mainly of
interior navigation, stand aghaseat the avowed
readiness of this radical legislator to destroy,
by act Of Congress, the peculiar sources of
their greatness. He declared, for example
While would not iDjure the navigation of the
river yet the navigation Of all rivers Is passing
away. The steamboat business belongs TO the
day of the buried past II is an sntediuvian that
Ia ks about il. We have killed Oh nearly all the
steam boats on our rivers by building railroads up
and down their banks. Ii is the great interest Of
artificial commerce, that is commerce made by
railroads, of which am speaking and do not
believe we have any right to cruelty that interest
for the benefit Of any other. and especially for
the benefit of an interest which is passing away.
few years from now and the steamboat bust
ness IN this country on the rivers will hardly be
recognized OF heard Of, except, perhaps, as float
ing down rivers heavy articles that cannot easily
be handled in railroad cars or by railroad trains
In mental organization a true radical,
Senator Pomeroy, it is evident, cannot get into
one idea at one time on any subject. His
single idea, in this instance, is the growth
and the destiny of the railway interest. By
a lunatic inversion of facts, he contends that
this interest is threatened with crucifxion by
those who object to arming it with the means
of crucifying all rival interests. Predicting
that the navigation of rivers viii, in the course
of time, become obsolete, he proposes to
choke all such channels of commerce at once
with the iron hgaments of railway monopoly.
The argument proceeds in one of those
vicious circles in which knayish sophists and
foppish twaddlers delight to travel and, of
course, their only followers are idiots. Sena-
tor Pomeroy's prediction is the only ground
of his policy, and the contemplated accom-
plishment of his policy is the only ground of
his prediction. 1t would be perfectly safe to
say that ".the navigation of all rivers is pass
ing away" if the commerce of the country
were prepared to consent to the blockade of
all rivers in order that railways might monopo-
lie commercial transportation and hold pro-
duces and consumers at their mercy in re-
spect to freights. So it would be perfectly
safe to say that, hereafter, there will be no
natural supply of water for the people of this
city, if a water works company were author
lied to break all private cisterns, fill up all
private wells, and force everybody to take
the companys water on its own terms, or
perish with drought.
What would Senator Pomeroy think Of
proposition to abandon railway enterprise on
the ground that they will at length be super
seeded by @ronautic means of transportation?
No doubt it would sound quite shocking. In
that wilderness of disordered thought which
he fancies is progress, he has got no further
than the notion of the paramount destiny of
railways. But let him take another step, and
he will find just as much reason for pronounc-
ing " Carthage est delenda," as the fiat against
railway enterprise deduced from the pros
pective utilization of balloons for commercial
purposes, as to pronounce a like doom against
the navigation of rivers because of an antici-
pated absorption of all river trade by rail-
roads.
IN assuming an actual decline III trahsp66rtaa-
ton by our great rivers. Perhaps at no for
mer time did this bear so large a proportion
to the total commerce of the country. And
if Mr.. Pomeroy and the other radicals of Con-
gress would only allow the return of CONNER
cial prosperity, the development of interior
navigation would be equally rapid and benef-
cent. The belief that science has reached its
limit in respect to improved methods of water
transportation is that of one-idead, crazy and
pernicious class of theorists and reformers.
The art of navigation is, indeed, in its infancy.
1t has an undiscovered world of improvement
before it, as future results will assuredly
prove. And, meanwhile, navigable rivers,
free to all, are the natural highways of COM
merce, and the natural allies of the people,
consumers andproducers, in the endless strug-
gle which they are called to make against
schemes of monopoly; and it will be disas-
trous day for them if they ever discard this in
estimable alliance and trust to the mercies of
gigantic league of railway kings and princes.