The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-04-14
fmE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
A strong Argument Ios iGs Improve
nient.

| nsenf.
The st. Louis Republican says: The
New York Times is very much disturbed
by the rumor that an application will be
made to congress during the present ses-
sion "to clear the Mississippi of snags
| and deepen the channel" The Times is
even more worried by the fact that
' there is a strong lobby ready, at no
tice, to push plan for the building of
the Mississippi levees at the expense OF
the federal government"
Now while it is the plain duty of con-
gress, in view of the financial condition of
the country, to make none but absolutely
! necessary appropriations, and to cut these
down to the lowest possible figure, we
fail to see why the improvement of the
Mississippi and the protection of its
banks should be regarded as something
| entirely outside of the congressional line
of operation. One would think, from
| the tone of the eastern press on the sub
iect, that the Mississippi was a stream of
| the same size as the Hudson, Connect
| cut or Delaware, flowing through bar
ran waste peopled only by tribes of wan
| dering savages and a few frontiersmen ;;
and that any money spent upon it might,
with equal propriety, be invested in a
soap mine. 1t would not be difficult to
show that the United States could better
afford to lose the Hudson, the Connecti-
cut, the Delaware, and twenty more like
them, than to have the waters of the
Mississippi reduced to half their original
volume. There is neither common sense
nor common justice in the opposition
which newspapers and politicians on the
Atlantic slope continually make to any
and all demands for the improvement of
the Mississippi by the general govern
ment.
Jefferson thought he had immOrtaiized
himself and the administration, and con-
ferred an inestimable benefit on the re-
public. by purchasing the Louisiana ter
ritory for the sake of the mighty river
which ran through it; and Lincoln
thought the north ought to fight forever
rather than the Mississippi should not
"how uhvexed to the sea" If the states
which lie along the banks of this great
watery highway attempted TO Use it as
their own private and exclusive proper
ty the whole east would burst into
flame but when these states ask the
real owner of the property to properly
improve and protect it, the whole east
unites in ridiculing the request and Sc
curing its denial. We should be glad
to know why the same arguments which
are brought forward to induce con-
gress to vote appropriations to the har-
bors of New York, Boston and San
Francisco, will not apply with equal
force to the proposition for "cleaning the
Mississippi of snags and deepening the
channel" We should be glad to know
why, when millions upon millions of dol
lars have been expended in fortifying the
Atlantic and Pacific coasts against an
enemy who never comes, that the gov
ernment has not cent to give toward
the erection of those barriers in the lower
Mississippi valley which will shut out
from the most fertile region in the world
an enemy liable to come every season.
The Mississippi could be walled in with
granite from Memphis 10 New Orleans
for what it cost to build the forts upon
our marine frontier, and a thorough sys-
fem of levees would save enough money
in twenty years to build two forts for
every one we have now.
As was remarked at the outset, con-
gress must practice the strictest economy
until the hard times are tided over, but
whenever the country is fairly on its legs
again we trust the western and southern
senators and representatives will form an
offensive and defensive alliance for the
purpose of giving the Mississippi its due.
1t is the main artery of the continent,
and it has been treated rs if it was Il
mud puddle, which a single hot day
would dry up. 1t is time this sort OF
foolishness had an end but it never will !
end until the west and south are leagued |
AGAINST II