Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-06-15
HOW MEMPHIS INTERESTS SUI
FER

The APPEAL has striven earnestly to
awaken the attention of the people of Mem
phis to the importance of obtaining aid from
congress for the purpose of improving the
Mississippi river, for with that river the for
tunes of this city are closely connected. 1t
was its situation on the river that made Mem
phis what it is, and it is to that situation that
its future prosperity must be owing-if it is
to prosper. We add the latter words with
reluctance, but if we allow opportunities for
prosperity to remain unused, or to be seized
10y others to their advantage and to our loss,
they are words that must be used. An oc-
currence in congress on Wednesday will show
the necessity for our remark. To explain this
occurrence, we must remind the reader that
the improvement of the Mississippi river
means two things-removal of Instructions
to navigation,i and protection of adjoining
lands from disastrous overflow. In the up
per portion of the river the former
improvement is the great object striven
for; in the lower portion, the
latter. Memphis is SO situated as to have
a strong interest in both. She desires the
protection of land from overflow as a neces-
sity of her cotton trade. She wishes naviga-
llOu " NC uuOUoIIuCJcO, 81 llldO ulLnOSb
possible advantage may be drawn from the
opening of the Mississippi to deep water
navigation by the jetties. She is concerned
in this latter subject because the more traffic
there is on the river, the more boats there
are passing up and down, the greater are her
opportunities of extending her trade and
communicating with the outside world at
large. In order that the required appropri-
ations should be obtained from congress, it
became desirable to have congressional ex-
animation of the river, that it might be pre-
cisely known what is required by the nature
of the case, and desirable for the welfare of
the people from the northern to the southern
cxtremities of the Mississippi valley. If
the present session Of congress had appoint
ed the required commission, the next
might have been in a situation to make
a grant for river Improvement, their own
commission having shown its Importance
and necessity. Ia the river and harbor bill
rs passed by the house, was included pro-
vision for the appointment of a Mississippi
river commission. That bill was before the
senate on Wednesday last, when the enemies
of grants for objects in this portion of the
COuulA1 OppOoCu IL OlAOuk hSIC
byItheIfriends of the measure, when they were
completely put to the route, and the measure
stricken from the bill by telegram from the
president of the Merchants exchange at st.
Louis. That telegram asked that the appro-
priation in the river and harbor bill might not
be prejudlced by pressing the commission
clause. Why was this done? 1t was done
because st. Louis wanted an appropriation
for a river improvement of its own, that for
1.-THE Cahokia dyke" To get this improve
ment st. Louis said, in effect-sacrifee the
prospect of improvements wanted elsewhere,
in order that we may the more easily get the
appropriation we want for ourselves. In this
way a measure in which Memphis, and every
plantation liable to overflow were strongly
concerned, was sacrificed for the advantage
of st. Louis. 1t is useless our blaming st. Louis
io- ths-she was looking to what she
considered her own interest, and had Mem
phis been equally attentive to her interests
st. Louis telegram would not have played
havoc with Memphis interests as it has done,
and rot for the first time. The error on our
parts, that as a city,we do not take the inter-
est we ought to do in public matters that con-
Germ US in an important degree. While we
are giving all our attention to some mere
squabble in congress or elsewhere, our COM
mercial rivals are.running with some solid ad-
vantage that was once our own. Every citi-
zen of Memphis should reflect that what con-
Germs the improvement of the river concerns
himself, for his profits as a capitalist,
or the return for his labor
as a workingman, are closely and in
separately connected with 1t. When congress
has before it such questions as that of
Wednesday last, it should be known there
that Memphis is watching what is
done with strict attention, and
it should be felt there that Memphis
influence is so sharing in the proceedings
that her interests cannot be sacrificed for
those of any other city with impunity. The
interest of Memphis in this question is equal
to that existing everywhere, and Memphis