New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-04-02
NOTES FROM WASHINGTON.

neers has made his customary yearly call on congress
for money TO be spent by the officers OF his corps 10 I'M
proving harbors and rivers. Last year he got but
g. for these purposes but this year he thinks That
s. 200 will be indispensable. He gives list OF ~
harbors at each OF which he proposes to spend sum
varying from $4,000 to 100000 Thirty-fve OF these
harbors are on the Northern Lakes and only
six the seaboard, land most OF them are
places OF importance, whose entire commerce wou
not amount in 50 years TO as much as IL VIII
into harbors the shallow creeks on wch
they built. Little villages composed OF dozeh
houses. tavern, grocery, and saw'm, want sooO"
100000 ditch and dredge bars, and bulid
cribs wharves and PIERS to enable half dozen scows 10
come in during the load with boards or cord
wood. Big Sodus New.York. wants $4,000. and Llttie
Sodus SIS Ocutt EewYork comes In for 5000" ana
Dunkirk for 100000 Maumee Bay, Ohio, wants sl2ocoo
and Conneaut, which collects SIS year from customs
and has spent more than $4,000 Of funds to
make harbor where nature never intended there shoud
be one can get along this year with only $1,000 -Four
teen villages in Michigan. whose combined commerce
does not equal the business OF respectable NewYork
dry goods store put down for sums amounting 10
from $4,000 to 100000 each. The names OF many OF
them-sueh as Aux Beco Sues. Black Lake, saugatuek
Manstee, and Pent Water-were probably never dis
covered on the map Ivy the most diligent student OF
geography. sheboygan, Wisconsin, is to be given $1,000
Mantowoc 81. 600; and Superior City, $4,000
No one would object $4,000 being spent on harbor
at Manisee Mich the Engineer recommends, II the
citizens OF Manstee would spend it themselves but why
should the Government tax people who have no more
interest il than they have in the affairs OF Patagonia
to pay this harbor No doubt the Engineer is right
when he says that $4,000 "could be pr0htaby spent
upon harbor OF Saugatuck; but proftaby to whom
Certainly to nobody except the people who live In that
obscure village Why then should the farmers of ILL
nois the OF and the merchants OF
NewYork be made to contribute to build pier to enable
who sawmills In Saugauck to ship their lumber
TO greater profit 1t woud assuredy be nice thing Tor
Eagle Harbor II the Government would spend sOCOOO
there as is contemplated but the people of Kansas or
California might reasonably object to being called upon
for any part OF the money.
But It is not for harbors alone that money Is wanted
There are rivers and plenty of them too to straghen
and Deepen clear Of snags to bridge, to "examlne
and survey and for these purposes Few millions moro
are TO be taken from the National Treasury. For Des
Moines Rapids 81 100000 wanted; for Rock Island p
ids s3OOOO the Upper Mississippi $1,000 and Tor the
mouth OF the Mississippi s36jOOO Illinois River Is 10 re-
ceiye 100000 Wisconsin River, slljOOG Ohio River.
$3.50 OOO Missouri and Arkansas Rivers. $4,000 And 80
it goes through long list coming down at last to such
insignificant streams Au Sable River, for which $4,000
Is TO be appropriated and Sac0 River which Is to have
100000
the Chief OF Engineers finds still other means OF
spending money lie has miscellaneous st, including
snagboats and apparatus. s2 OOo Rock Island bridge
examinations and surveys Oh the Atlantic coast
10000 on the Pacific, $4,000; Western rivers, si21
900 aud the lakes, $4,000 1t may be proper tha'
the Government should pay for pulling out the snags
which obstruct navigation in the Western rivers but
is not easy to Of swelling the long report OF
the Chief Engineer with pages OF tables showing the
length of every snag circumference at the top and al
the butt the kind of wood its weight, and the exact time
It was pulled up IL less time had been spent IN measur
ing the snags and calculating their weight, and more IL
pulling them up, the officers IN charge might nave
managed with less money But these engineer onicer'
are nothing IL not accurate and perhaps would be
great pity deprive the country OF so much valuable In
formation about how many inches these snags measured
around the butts.
As for the surveys OF the lakes believe there is nc
greater humbug connected with the public service These
| examinations and surveys" have been going on for
more than twenty years and will never be completed as
long Congress be persuaded to appropriate money
to continue Them The engineer in charge the past year
laInents he obliged to get along with SO small
force had two shore parties. slI asro
nomical parties and parties. He gives the re-
su Of work done by these parties in one hundred
pages at the end Of the ChiefEngineers report which
probably will be read by fifty people. little sur
yeying has been done in Lake SUPERIOR and
We are informed exactly how many times each party
pointed their theodollte and their soundnglead;
pressure" and the daily evaporation at various
places and great many tedious tables exhibiting the
pulsatIons" Of ST. Clair River, the "mean observed
yeloc,,es" at different depths IN the Niagara
and st. Lawrence Rivers, computed by different
formulas, the "co-eficent OF meters" whatever
that may mean and elaborate calculations TO get at the
number Of cubic feet of discharged by Niagara
River when the wind blew in different directions For
all this learned rubbish of possible value to any one
II we except the little surveying DONE the people had to
nav 500 COO I'm addition the salaries Of the officers who
supernended the work. and during the next year they
are to pay $i59O00 to enable these gentlemen to go on
with their useless figuring 1t is by no means disagree
able occupation to spend the Summer fishing and hunt
ing on the Upper Lakes. and the Winter at Detroit doing
little algebra TO find how fast the water runs down
stream when the wind blows up and just as long Con-
gress will money TO pay men for doing this work
there will always be plenty OF It to be done. Like the
boundary Commission that sat for twenty In Wash
ington to where the line ought to run between
Oregon and British Columbia. the engineer officers Will
never get the lakes surveyed until Congress stops the
appropriation.
HAS BEEN DONE AND WHAT 1T is PROPOSED
TO DO-THE NORTH AND THE SoUTH-A
RAILWAY TO MEXICO.
WASHINGTON, March 21.-The road builders
are here in great force with enreates for help was
when Buchanan struggling for power that the poll
cians both parties gave their assent TO the pocy OF
| Pacific Railway DO you remember how boldly the Re.
pubcans made 1t cardinal political point in their plat
FORM and with what unanimty they pressed upon the
country the necessity OF binding the two seasf The
Democrats under the lead Of Mason and slidel and
soue regarded every proposal for railways as another
addition TO the power OF the North so IN the Democratic
platform there ouspoken expression OF approval
Of the proposed road to the Pacific It necessary to
have votes In California and at the same
time not to drive votes from him in Virginia lmmedi.
atey before the election, time for circulation on the
Pacific Coast but In time to return to the Atlantic
| States Mr. Buchanan wrote letter warmly urging a
Pacific Railway. Men smiled at the shrewdness OF the
| old p0tcian.