, 1872-12-17

R1Yer and James River Canal. ou,uuu,uuU
and Taanesaee Rivers. -. ............. 100000
O. The construction Of canal from the
Mississippi over the mountains Of 49,.
10. Tie Improvement Of the Red, White,
Askansas, and ouchita Rivers. ......' so,ooo,ooo
sith these Sater routes: 2s,ese,9oe ee
Is. The Fox and Wisconsin Rivers Canal
&pegun) .....-........... 4U,uut,uV
Total Government aid wanted. .$a17, sec, 900
There are others mentioned, and the eventual
cost of these is, in come cases, perhaps UNDER
stated /; but what We have given will furnish
fair idea OF the general magnitude Of the scheme
which Congress- is expected to approve and
adopt. When it is remembered that there are at
at this time bills, passed by the Senate and
pending in the House, granting from 100, 100000
to 150, ,000, 900 acres Of public land to railroads
not yet begun, it will be- understood that the
Treasury is to be attacked by land and water,
and that the country, now taxed to the ex-
tzemeat point to pay off the..War debt, is to be
taxed in addition to pay the interest and p1inci-
pal upon several hundred millions Of bonds to
be issued to theao internal improvement COM
panies.
The argument in favor Of all these schemes is
precisely the same. There is not one word that
can be eaid for building the Fox d. Wisconsin
River Canal that does not apply equally to the
building Of the Kanawha l. James River Canal
in Virginia, nor for another river and canal
route through Georgia, nor for like improve-
mentg Of the rivers flowing into the Lower Mis-
sissippi River from the vest. The Ohio River
is an afflicted stream. It requires surgery. The
fact is, that it is q river that has ceased to be
nayigab1e above Louisville because Of want Of
water There are few weeks In the year when
it has water and then it is = torrent, carrying
everything before it, and sinking all the
craft that may be upon it. Cincin-
natl, which depends largely upon Pitts-
burgh for q supply OF coal. has frequently
been reduced to coal famine because there has
not been water enough in the river from June
to January to float down the coal boats. It is
impossible for Congress to enact that there shall
be at all times water enough in the Ohio River
to float steamboats,. The most that Congress- can
do is to dig out q bar, with certainty that
new bar OF equal size will form in 9 week
within half mile Of the site Of the old one.
Congress may expend money building wing
dams and other contrivances to keep the water
from spreading out over too wide surface but
experience has shown that all these things,
however costly, are useless in the end; they
cause new bars to form, and are themselves
= k1n
spree under the elation OF high water.
The only practical way to overcome the
chronic absence Of water is to put dams and
locks upon the river; and to this the people OF
the river towns above Cincinnati vehement1y
object. They protest against any toll-gates on
the s'natural highway" and, while they admit
the want Of water, they Reem to think it is
the business Of Congress to furnish the river
with water, no matter how it is done. To make
the Ohio River navigable for ordinary steam
boats from Louisville to Pittsburgh would
require an expenditure Of about two millions Of
dollars year; to be continued from now until the
year 1900, and by that time Congress would have
to sink we1ls and Keep pumps going night and
day to keep the river-bed moist.
The Kanawha River improvement is precisely
! work Of the same kind, only it is somewhat
shorter, and possibly little more e1pensivepro-
portionately. The canal part Of this scheme is
for canal from Lyken's Shoals, On the
Kanawha River, to Richmond, S95 miles long,
over and through the mountains Of Virginia,
and thence again by the James River to Hamp-
ton Roads, 1875 miles. The whole distance by
this route from Cairo to Hampton Roads is i, ,S45
miles.
Louisville to Portland, not quite three miles long.
This canal was built to enable vessels, at low
water, to get around the Falls OF the Ohio. Con-
gress built the canal originally. OF late years,
after importunate appeals, Congress- has e1-
pended 81, ,250, 900 enlarging the canal, and gave
its congent that, when the work Was
completed, it should be free to everybody except
toll Of cents Per ton to pay the expense Of
operating it. There is a debt Of about million
and quarter on the canal, which Congress is
also asked to pay. It has been just discovered
that the cost OF keeping this three miles Of canal
in repair and working 1t, will necessitate q toll
Of at least 80 cents per ton on steamboats,. An
average steamboat rates at 800 tons, and, con-
aequently, will have to pay s240 toll each time it
passes through the canal.
# the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers be converted
into s1ackwater streams, and the locks and
| dams be kept in repair, and the 400 miles Of
canal over the Virginia mountains hare to
be kept in like repair, with the small
! army Of lock-keepers from Cairo to Hampton
Roads, the toll On the Louisville Canal will
furnish an idea of what the cost will be Of run
ming steamboat from the one place to the
other. Boat and cargo together will not be
worth the aggregate tolls,
The President of the United States, in his
message, though he did not advise Congress to
! 7ote aid for this enormous and pzeposterom job,