Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-11-10
CONDITION OF rHK LEvER.

GuMUllluN VI AAG L6NhA.
The Mayor and General Council
would be edited by a visit to the leyee.
Yesterday evening would have been a
favorable time to witness the embarrass'
ments of our local trade and hear a few
choice remarks from the river men. The
scene beggared description. No land
ing on the Arkansas and White rivers is
in a worse condition. The mud and
sIush was almost impossible, and is still
there a disgrace to the city aud a monu-
ment to somebody's inefieiency and
mismanagement. The large revenue
derived from wharfage, instead of being
applied to the protection and repair OF
the wharf, has been diverted to some
other purpose, contrary, as we believe,
10 the letter and spirit Of the law. The
repairs should have been made last sum
mer, when it could have been done at
comparatively a small outlay. Now it
will cost FIVE times as much. The
stones are rapidly tumbling into the
river. This could have been prevented
il the work had been done in time at a
cost perhaps of not more than two hum
dred dollars. Now it win cost nearer
three thousand dollars. Last winter
when the LEDGER and other papers
pointed to the condition Of the levee the
Mayor, when approached on the
subject, agreed to use his inhu-
enee to have il repaired and placed
10 a proper condition when sum-
mer weather would render it cheap
and practicable. If he made such an
effort he failed, and it certainly took him
until the month Of November to recon-
mend that the wharfage should be set
apart to the repair and protection of the
wharf and levee, when such an ordinance
had been in existence since September,
1874, and had received his approval.
Whatever his intentions were, and nj
doubt they were good, he has failed to do
anything except to confess his ignorance
Of an important ordinance and to per-
NIT a large amount Of the wharfage to be
misapplied. But the Mayor had many
things to do and to hsrrsss him; he gives
very close attention to his duties gene
rally and we may presume that this was
an oversight and not intentional. But
we cannot, with the lights before us, say
as much for the landing committee.
This was their special busisess and upon
their action depended the best interests
of the city. Yet their %culpable neglect
and incompetency cost the merchants in
losses in goods damaged by being rolled
through the mud, and the river men in
extra labor, not less than twenty-five
hundred dollars yesterday, possibly much
more. Drays could not venture below
the crown Of the 'leyee. Eight or ten
men we're required to let down large
casks and in some instances sacks Of cot
ton seed we're thrown down in the mud,
and of course lost, to make the way at
all passable. Even then the barrels and
casks, when taken aboard, we're coated
with two or three inches Of municipal
mud. 1t is estimated that not lees than
one thousand sacks Of seed we're thus
used last evening to make roadWays to
the boats going out. Common sense
would teach that no wharfage should be
collected from steamboats, except what
is necessary to keep the levee in repair,
and should be strictly applied to that
purpose. A decision to this effect was
rendered in the John Cannon case. We
are glad that the steamboatmen, even at
this late day, have eDjoined the city from
miaapplying the wharf money, and hope
that they will make a fight for their
rights. Every merchant who receives or
ships a single package Of freight onee a
year by river is directly interested in
this question. They can perhaps best
protect themselves by uniting with the
river men and making this a test issue
in the coming city election. Let them
see to it that the men they support for
the General Council, as well as their
candidate for Mayor, are sound on the
wharf question. The river trade is too
important to be crippled for the want Of
a little executive ability and business
judgment in those who are elected to
serve the public. We shall stir this sub.
{. ject further and deeper.