The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-01-17
1EE PROPOSED SHIP CANAL.


CRESCENT desired to disconnect the question
from the particular schemes which might be
proposed for the purpose of accomplishing
the object Our main point was to establish
the fact that such a canal is needed; that 1t
would be of vast importance to the commerce
of New Orleans; and that its construction
would remedy many of the most serious evils
by which We have been afflicted, and which
seem to be remediless in any other way. We
had supposed that project of this kind, at
least as to its general aspects, would meet
with favor, especially at the hands of those
who are perpetually suggesting small plans
of improvement, and of others who claim to
be especial guardians of the interests OF
the public. But the kind of opposition
with which the plan now before the
Legislature has met, shows that the
hostility thus exhibited applies, not to
the details of the enterprise merely but
to the whole idea of opening communica-
ton by this line, between the Mississippi
and the deep waters of the Gulf. Such hos
tility implies much more than is expressed
it implies, if not an incapacity to estimate
correctly the value of projected improve
ments, at least the influence of those very
interests which, in the shape of monopolies
of all kinds, have done so much to impair
the prosperity and retard the progress of New
Orleans. The proposition that such an enter
prise as that contemplated by the Ship Island
canal charter would be of vast benefit to this
city, is so clear as not to require argument
it is so clear, indeed, that the enemies of the
plan have attempted to lessen the force of
this indisputable truth, by mass of asser-
tons, some of which, even if trus, would not
affect the merits of the case, and others of
which are made with a most reckless disre-
gard of the yerifcations of testimony. Whenit
is broadly affirmed that the canal cannot be
made, we may just as broadly affirm that it
| can be made. The value of the assertion in
either case depends on scientific testi-
mopy. But we do assert that lower
Louisiana offers peculiar facilities for
canaling, and that afirmations to the con-
trary are at variance with notorious facts.
| The question of obtaining deep water in the
shoals of Lake Borgne is to be settled by the
surveys and reports of competent engineers,
and not by the declarations of anonymous
newspaper correspondents and non-profes-
sional critics. One o. our contemporaries
maintains that if the canal be eficacious for
drainage purposes, it will be useless for navi-
cation. But if 1T accomplished the drainage
purpose in contemplation, why should the
company not be paid for doing the work?
Whether or not it will accomplish this pur-
pose is also a question for candid and scien-
tifc inquiry, and not for the decision of unin-
structed persons But it is not true that
using the canal as a drainage conduit will
| destroy it for purposes of navigation. Science
and skill are perfectly competent to reconcile
any seeming conflict of this kind, and to
/ solve problems far more difficult than this.
1t may be that the effect of using
the canal in this way would entail
additional expense on the company;
but effective drainage necessarily costs
money and the drainage question is, in
its last expression, simply question of ex-
pense. Just such is the question of construc-
ting ship canal The Canal Company pro-
poses to combine and reconcile these two
questions. The Picayune, with an air of
superior wisdom, declares that it cannot be
done; and attempts very absurdly to reduce
the proposition to an absurdity. We declare
that it can be done; and our assertion is
worth quite as much as that of the Picayune
Another objection made by the Picayune is
that the charter of the new company does not
limit the rates of toll This is urged as if it
were an insurmountable objection. But the
fact is that the charter of the Mississippi and
Bayou Bienvenu Company contains no such
restriction, nor does that of the project
known ss the Stuart Canal, whilst the limit
in the charter of the Lake Borgne Navigation
Company, of the Orleans Navigation Company
and of the Canal and Banking Company is
fixed so high as to be, practically, imperative.