Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1874-06-20
VOL. BANJO. 16O

and hononng both sections alike; proud
Of the achievements, the gIories, and
the heroism Of each and all, ask that
this great measure, the beginning Of a
mighty work, be passed unanimously,
as an offering at once of Justice and Of
love upon the sacred altar Of our COM
mon country. Pass it, and the exclama-
ton from every true American every
where, shall be: "We are brothers once
morew Pass this, and next year COM
mence also to improve the navigation
Of the Mississippi-which can easily be
dope-till the miebtiest steamers that
ploW the ocean can run from LIVERPOOL
to Memphis, right in the great heart Of
the south, giving US in the coming future
a foreign trade like that New York now
enjoys; and the west, the south, and the
great valley of the Mississippi, growing
into new greatness and power, with an
ever-inereasing prosperity, will feel that
at length their rights have been Justly re-
cognized, their wishes and interests
wisely consulted, and that the strong
arm of the national government is in
deed protection and blessing to
them.
GREAT CIVIL ENGINEERS NEEDED.
1t has been urged by some gentlemen
that the commission proposed should
consist of army engineers only; but this
would be neither wise nor expedient.
Some Of the great civil engineers of our
country, men of great and comm manding
eminence in their profession, should
have a place on this board. Men are
needed of the highest order Of talent,
men or Wfuc-aWuke, 1CtIVe, Inventive
intellect, and who possess a thorough
personal knowledge Of the Mississippi.
Men who have spent their lives in stu
dying and confning and guiding the
waters of the mighty river; men who
have spent a third of a century, and
some of them nearly forty years, in the
lAbOrs, studies, and constant practice of
civil engineering in protecting and re-
claiming the great lower delta; men
who, in the practice of their profession
as civil engineers, have reclaimed mill
lions Of acres, until as the fruits of their
lsbors and their toll, their study, their
long years of patient thought, their
science and skill and courage, they have
rescued from the waves thousands Of
vast sugar and cotton plantations and
beheld beautiful villages, towns, and
cities built on sites that but for them had
remained swamps and marshes for CEN
turies yet to come; such men surely
should have some recognition on the
board proposed. All the science in the
world cannot dispense with practical
knowledge and experience. New men
will be incompetent alone until they
have had many years of hard experience
in learning and mastering the mysteries
Of that awful IIver just as these men
have already done. No reading, no
mere book-learniLg can give men the
practical knowledge that in this case is
indispensably necessary. As well learn
to swim merely by reading on dry land;
as well learn to manage a ship at sea by
study in your closet, and then think
yourself a sailor; as well expect a man
TO discover the north pole by reading
Kane and Hall, and then staying st
home, as to expect men of mere learn
ing and science, without long practical
experience, to understand the Missis-
sippi OF to discover the best means of
eOnining its waters and Ieclaiming its
great delta to the uses of man.
ARMY OFFICERS NOT FITTED FOR THIS
WORK.
The great engineers of the world
are not the mere products of
schools. They cannot have too
much learning, of course; no man
can. Scientific training even in
our governmental schools is valuable,
but too often it fails utterly to produce
original thinkers. 1t makes of 8 mans
mind q mere reservoir instead of an
everything fountain. Its product too
often Is mere placid nud-puddle or q
simple duck-pond of knowledge, rather
than seethlDg volcano or thought and
intellectual energy. West Point will
never make great inventive engineer;
the Almighty alone can do that. The
other day a gentleman told the house
that any army officers would do for this
commission; that they all had studied
engineering Of some kind at West Point.
AS well tell US that any one Of the mid
dies who graduated at Annapolis was pei
fectly competent to take the place of Far
ragut at Fort Saint Phillip and Mobile,
or of Nelson at Ahoukir and Trafalgar!
AS well say that any graduate of West
Point could have filed the place of
Sherman or of Grant, of Johnson or Of
Lee in our late war, or could have shown
a Napoleon how to be a great general.
VAST IMPORTANCE OF THE WORK.
The reclamation of the delta of the
Mississippi is ia task as stupendous as the
greatest victories in war, and requires
the very highest trained talent, intel
leet, and genius. It requires great ex
perience and eonsummate knowledge Of
the river, its floods, its mysteries, and
its laws. Great rivers in heir courses
have their laws which they obey just as
much as the planets in their orbits; but
their dynamics and their laws are the
most obscure, the least know d, and the
most difficult Of all branches Of physical
science.
SPLENDID EXAMPLE.
The Soolina Pass commission, which
was appointed by the great govern
ments OF Europe few years ago to open
the Danube to the navigation of the
world, and which accomplished that
most difficult undertaking so splendidly
and with such brilliant success, was a
mixed commsssiOn-two army en-
gineers and two distinguished civil en-
gineers. We will do wisely to make q
similar selection, and of men equally
able and gifted. They have a great
work to do.
The telegraph from Canada informs
US that Mr.. Rays pony trotted eighty
one miles in eleven hours and twenty
minutes, in q continuous heat, on an
average of about eight and a half min
ures to the mile. Weston walked his
first hundred and fifteen miles on an
average of twelve minutes to the mile,
or less than one-third slower than the
Cait of fast trotter. The comparison
serves to show the pedestrians wonder
ful speed and endurance.