The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-05-24
SATURDAY EvEN'G. MAY "a, 1878
River and Canal improvements.


of Congressman present, it considers as in v
dicating the probable course of the next S
Congress on the subject Of cheap transpor- h
tation. 1t says that out of the one hum +
bred Congressman present at the conven- I
ton. only six were from the eastern states, 1
as if that were a serious objection to the /
deliberations Of that body. 1t says, also,
that all the western states, except Texas,
are more or less interested in the {
proposed scheme of river and canal
navigation but it insists that the real
project which should have been considered,
was the deepening and making more
permanent channel in the Mississippi
river to the Gulf of Mexico. This pro-
ject, it says, might be regarded as a
legitimate work of the government, since
that river is great national water-course,
or an outlet to the sea of an immense
and populous territory, which could alone
Justify the expenditure of millions Of dol
lars in the alleged interest of commerce.
Here is the old and absurd
theory on which we have had
50 much hair-spltting in the past,
that Congress can make no appropriation
for internal improvements, except on navi-
gable lakes or rivers draining the waters,
as well as commerce, of two or more sepa-
rate states. In other words, Congress
might make an appropriation to improve
the navigation of the Connecticut river,
4
which drains. the waters, and might
be made to drain the commerce,
of four separate states, but could
make no such Appropriation for
the James rivera much finer and more
navigable stream-because it is confined to
the watershed of single state. 1t is
needless to explode any such hair-splitting
nonsense as this. The time has gone by
for these nice theoretical distinctions to
take any greater hold upon the statesman
ship Of the country than upon the popular
mind which has always received them with
a keen sense of the ridiculous.
The Post says that just now Virginia
is very DESTROYS that the government shall
dig canal for her from the Ohio to Rich
mond," and Jugs in what it calls Other
similar "log-rolling schemes" the cost Of
which will amount to hundreds OF millions
of dollars before they can be completed
1t seems not to have occurred to our very
fair and impartial metropolitan contempt.
rary, while assailing the canal project OF
Virginia, to state the additional little fact
Ia very insignificant one, perhaps, nits owr
estmaton) that considerably over two hun
bred miles of our proposed canal has beer
completed, and that the proposition made
to the government is coupled with the ofie1
by the state to turn over the entire owner
ship and management of the property Il
the party completing it.
While The Post proposes to give up al
these" cheap transportation projects, ant
20 in for the proposed canal from Fort st
Phillip to the Gulf as the only feasible
one yet presented, it loses sight of sev
eral important propositions, which hav
been maintained within the past few year
in its own columns. 1t knows there is
loss of some twenty or twenty-five pc
cent. in nearly all the agricultural product
of the West, occasioned by heat in shippin
from st. Louis by way of New Orlear
and the Gulf, and that without any inter
mediate line of transit, New York an
Philadelphia will always have precisely thi
per cent. of advantage over the chief ship
ping port Of the south. The opposition {
The Post to the great Virginia water lin
has this significance, therefore, that it
not without motive which may be COZ
sidered quite as commendable as its pr,
sent championship Of New Orleans int
rests is noteworthy. 1t says that if
loaded ship could not come up or 60 o,
through the Narrows, or if Hell Gate Wei
impossible without Gghterage, it wou
hardly thank convention in New YorI
in conjunction with urging the necessal
and practicable work at those points,
waste its time in talking of getting to Il
sea by canal through the Delaware Ga
or one to Boston through the Hoos
Mountain.
This ridiculous objection comes with
exceeding i'll grace from leading M
York journal, whose city and state have e
pended millions upon millions OF dollars
similar s. log.roling schemes" and viii
are now proposing still larger expenditur
in furtherance of like scheme which h
ten times the ''log-rolling" elements in
and will involve ten times the expenditr
in its completion, that the James River a
Kanawha canal can possibly involve
cost. We refer, of course, to the t.
hundred million project of a 81
canal from Troy to Tict
deroga, Rouses' Point to the St. La
renee, and up the grand shutes or rap
of that river; then from Lewiston to La
Erie, overcoming the mighty barriers
Niagara, to say nothing of the constan
increasing difficulties of the st. Clair q
its shoal water lake.
OF course, it will be for the interest
New York, to have complete monop'
in cheap transportation, and equally for
interest of her grain brokers ;
four-gambling operators that IL