New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-11-18
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER

packed at the same time, more than
100000 Add to this the manufactures of
the four chief cities of the valley, st Louis,
Cincinnati, Chicago and Louisville, $780,
600 600; add to this the amount Of coal,
iron, lead. copper, SALT lumber, cotton and
tobacco; this, the product OF an empire
little longer under mans culture than half
a century, is but the earnest sf the great
bulk of values soon to come with the
rapidly increasing population and the won
derfully multiplying and improving appli-
ances that the genius of man is originating
for the creation OF wealth.
In handling and distributing values, such
as sugar, cotton, rice and tobacco, the levee
question, especially to Louisiana, and
largely to Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee
and portions OF Missouri, IS a question o.
vital Importance. The great Father OF
Waters, that has borne upon his bosom The
fertilizing elements that in the course Of
time have been deposited aud made the
alluvium that constitutes our most fruitful
heritage, sometimes wastes as lavishiy as
he bestows. The floods sweep away the
fruits of the husbandman's labor. Men
will not plant where they can not gather,
nor SOW where they can Lou reap; security
to the products of their labor must be
9tforded to stimulate the laDOrer to work.
How will you protect these fertile lands
lrom overflow.
The expedient of cut offs has long since
been abandoned, and the highest engineer
ing authorities have decided that an ade-
quate and complete system OF levees will
alone meet this want, and afford the pro-
lection sought.
The individual States are not able to bear
the burdens of building aud maintaining
levees necessary for the protection OF their
prfyr
rate form, under State charters, can not be
trusted with a work of such magnitude as
is required, nor would it be able, without
crushing exactions upon the people, to bear
the heavy burden of expense that the man
agement of the levees would involve. The
cost of construction and maintenance is so
great and the importance OF the interest so
grave that the work attalns national pro-
portions, and will never be adequately and
satisfactorily executed except by the gen.
eral government, or under its supervision.
We should therefore urge Congress to
nationalize in some form the leyees OF the
Mississippi and its tributaries.
Protection secured to the products of the
valley from overflow, the next question of
Importance is to find an outlet from this
inland sea to the gulf, and thence to the
ducts.
| adopted to remove the distractions at the
mouth of the river, but dredging has been
mainly relied upon, and the national gov
ernment has annually for some time made
appropriations to that end. And 1t is due
| to the present competent management OF
| the federal dredges at the passes of the Mis-
| sissippi river to say that the result of
| dredging this season has given great salts
faction to the commercial community. and
I.t.: ,.ly-r mt 40 al
mands of commerce than in any year pre-
| vious to it's adoption; but the system is de-
fective and incapable of giving the depth
| of water demanded for a prosperous com
merce. Besides, it is expensive and con-
tinuous, depending upon a constantly re-
curing appropriation of public money, and
said appropriation, III its turn, depending
upon varying public opinion and a chang
| ing majority in the national Congress.
These seventeen million people of the
valley. with their thousands of millions of
annual products, demand an outlet com
| mensurate and assured that no political
| com blnations can disturb; and such ar
| outlet in the judgment OF the most accom-
plished engineers of the United States is
| 10 be found by an artificial channel or ship
canal from the Mississippi river, at or near
Fort st. Philip, and running thence six or
! seven miles to Breton island sound.
| Canals as means of efficient and cheap
| transportation are neither new nor expert
| mental. The Chinese, more than thou
| sand years ago, conceived and executed a
| system of canals many hundreds of miles
| in length, and the same are in successful
| operation to this day. Holland adopted the
system in the twelfth century: and owes its
| prosperity to the same. In the fifteenth
| century was constructed in Lombardy a
| canal that made the LON bards a CONNER
cal people. England, in E55, built her
| first canal, and has at present more than
two thousand miles of canals in successful
operation. France, under Louis XIV, pro-
jected and carried out the great enterprise
| of connecting the waters of the Bay of
Biscay with the Mediterranean. and this
canal, several hundred miles in length, is
one of the most successful works of its
kinds. The Suez canal, lately constructed
under French and Egyptian auspices, at a
cost between eighty and ninety millions of
dollars. is one OF the grandest enterprises
of the age, furnishing water communication
by direct lne OF less than a hundred
miles between Europe and Asia, which had
previously been separated by fifteen thou
sand miles. The Erie canal, Chesapeake
and Ohio, and the James River and Kama
Wha canals in the United States, aggre-
eating more than thousand miles, and
constructed at the expense of more than
hundred millions of dollars, abundantly at
test the success and utility OF canals as
cheap and reliable highway of traffic.
The Fort st. Philip project is not new
scheme. having been a matter Of 1nvestiga-
tion and survey since 1881 to the present
time, surveys and estimates having been
made during that period by both the United
States and the State of Louisiana looking
to its construction, and the estimates of
cost ranging from $4,000, 900 to $4,000, ,0OO
The public mind, no less than the public
needs, demands outlets for the constantly
increasing values of the fertile lands of the
Mississippi and its tributaries to the gulf and
to the Atlantic. New York, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, Norfolk and Savannah have pro-
jected systems by which they propose to
meet the demands for cheap freight, de-
pending for the completion of the lines of
transportation to these terminal points
upon ombination of the upper lakes with
canals completed partially or in full, or IN
combination with railroads, minor rivers
and projected canals to the Atlantic sea-
board. New Orleans and Louisiana present
the Mississippi river, supplemented by the
Fort st. Philip canal as a cheap highway OF
traffic, in some sort competitor of the
routes indicated, but having independent
merits that demand and justify national
aid, even If each of the other routes should
receive the same.
ConSTess lS direduy laVOrdDiy cousluoI-
ing this project, and with united and earn
est cooperation on our part the work Will
be done. hen we have given protection
and security by a perfected system OF
levees, aud afforded access to the markets
OF the world for our products by securing
an outlet through the designated canal,
that the full benefits of commerce will ac-
crue TO us, the present oppressive tariffs
imposed upon American industries in our
nearest markets, Cuba and South Amer
lean countries should be removed. To
this end existing treaties should be revised
by Congress and action taken to secure