Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-04-06
SUCCESS OF THE EADs JETrIEs.

Every bold, original protector of vast en-
terprises must expect detraction, and it is no
surprising that the brave, plucky and per
sistent Captain James B. Eads has been 81
often despatched with abuse and ridIeule
Never was a man pursued with more ma
Lightly; but he has calmly worked on, unit
his scientific enterprise has become an accom-
plished fact. He has solved the problem
which has been paralyzing our best energies
for many years. E. V. Smalley, in recen
letter from New Orleans, says he counted ''or
the river in front of the city, one hundred
and twenty large square rugged sailing YES
sells and eighteen ocean steamers, fully four
ffths of them from foreign ports There
are now regular lines plying between New
Orleans and Liverpool, Bremen, Havana,
Galveston, Vera Cruz and New York, while
frequent trips are made by other steamers
and vessels to many foreign ports. Form
erly all vessels drawing over seventeen feet
were liable to be stuck for days at Southwest
Pass. In the one item of cotton freights the
saving is one dollar bale, which in a single
year amounts to nearly the entire cost of the
.JelIltS. NOM IuteC biALPiC ldClS LuuSG COuul
for more than any number of official shout
der shrugs, or of contemptuous sneers from
ill-natured earpers." In the face of such in
formation, concurrent and oft repeated, from
reliable, disinterested sources, Captain Eads
is still held up by INSCRIPTIONS newspapers
as a fraud and humbug. The recent Off
cial survey, made by sworn officers, shows a
twenty-five foot channel through the entire
length of the jetties. This is more than the
protector and contractor is required to do by
law. By act of congress, as shown by the
Philadelphia Press, which regards the jet
ties as a success, it was provided that as soon
as a channel twenty-five feet deep and not
less than two hundred feet in width should
be obtained. there should be paid to Captain
Eads five hundred thousand dollars; a like
amount to be paid on twenty-six foot deep
channel with width as above; FIVE hundred
thousand dollars for thirty foot deep chan
mel without regard to width, and, thereafter,
one million dollars to be paid in ten or TWEEN
ty years on the maintenance of a channel
twenty-six feet deep. throughout not less
than two hundred feet at the bottom, with a
central depth of thirty feet without regard to
width. This colossal and magnificent enter
prise, of such great In portance not alone to
New Orleans and the Mississippi valley, but
to the whole country as well, has been at
tended from its very inception by doubts,
sneers, misglvings in official quarters, and by
predictions of total failure from all sorts of
people. The Cincinnati Commercial has been
Its most prominent and persistent enemy,
and even now denounces the whole scheme
as fraud; but all the facts, the admissions
of the engineers once bitterly opposed to the
project, and the jubilant congratulations of
the New Orleans press, are opposed to such
a sweeping charge. Distinguished engineers
from our own and from foreign coun-
tries have visited New Orleans
to study the lefty system, and
all, so far as we have heard, pronounce it g.
OrnIIanI SUCCESS, ana Ou0 that, py very
expenditure, can be regularly main
taiDed. At present all the other passes to the
gulf are utterly abandoned but this South, or
lefty pass. The government dredges which
used to be scraping at the mud banks ard
deposits the year round, have long since
ceased to work, and heavily laden ocean
steamers of over three thousand tons burden
pass out ami across the bar without impedi-
ment. 1t should be remembered that this
South pass was one of the worst and most
shallow passes, the government not permit
ing Captain Eads to try an experiment. on
he Southwest pass, for fear of damaging that
'nly practicable ship entrance. That pass,
although the best, had only a few feet of
water on its bar at low tide, while the jetty |
pass has now twenty-seven and half feet at |
iood tide, and is navigabe for ships and |
teamers of the largest burden.