National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1879-01-21
THE 1IIssISSEPpI RITER COMMIS-
STON.

]
SfON.
Facts Congressman Should Know Before
| Voting for this LcVoe job and Jetty Fraud.
| which, Like the "Siamese Twins" Appear
to be Inseparable aud Reminds one of tho
Fable Of the "spidor and the Fly"
! 1t will be so nice there is no hurry-no APP
preaching spring overflow, or probable yellow
fever Tho people can wait while the little
hatchet-grnding movement progresses, that
some easy.going individual, as in the famous
ietty commission. be enlisted to turn tho ham
die of the grind-stono that an adventurer may
be pensioned on the country while the chief
engineer Of the army, who has bestowed the
best labor of his life upon the problem of this
| river, can, like n bear in winter quarters,
quietly retire and suck his paw, should Con-
gross be so misled as to obey the mandates of
this iunta. In the face of tho fact that last
summer, under the order of the Secretary of
| War, the Chief of Engineers appointed COM
mission consisting of Generals Bernard, Wright,
| Tower, Simpson, Comstock and Major Sutor to
do the very thing that is now proposed to be
done by the newlanged commission.
| This work is nearly completed, and report
will probably DO made before tho end of the
present session of Congress. If these men arc
not Competent to do the work, who are?
The Secretary of War may rs well close his
Office and General Humphreys aud his assist
ants retire TO the shades of private life, pro-
vidca tho newspapers, in whose columns the
deep channel in the iettics are "nlways aud
only to be found" will permit them to go in
peace The dispatches that flashed over the
wires last spring, stating at whose instance
this commission bill was drawn, as well as the
COckrcll bill of the Senate at its last session,
points to the man to be the head and front Of
this important work. Under this new order of
things when the merits of this great mau may
be known as taken from the pen sketches of Joe
Brown, cX-mayor of St. Louis, together with
those Of John T. Maud Webb Samuel, and ID.
T. Rowland, his ictty partners, and that of the
article in the New York SUi on the 9th OF
Decemher,wi all these facts in justification of
such an appointment, ii may be urged that in
this man we have combined the elements of II
jctty engineer and bank fnancior, aud should
Uncle sam be short of cash the English holders
Of the st. Louis Bridge bonds" having full
confidence in tue man who knows how not TO
open aud improve tho navigation Of the Mis-.
sisSippi River" will come to our relief. Then
honest old Dom Pedro will doff his broad brim
and take Il big Whit from his long pipe and
smile on "Menor," while the Sultan, from the
window of his harGm, will look wistfully across
the Bosphorus aud gup down an extra cup of
"narcotized coffee"
! When with the brain of the sturdy old Flad
, to plan another bridge and the pen of Bailey
to cause ocean currents to flow where they
never did before, then may the Hellespont bo
: spanned and other marvellous things be per-
formed.
Then Gibson, behind his mud walls as high
as those of the HOangho in China, watching
, for and ready to kill the first old Daddy Craw-
fish that would dare bore through his levees,
would be happy, and as he magnes, the Mis-
, sissippi Valley would be prosperous with the
river improved from the mouth of the Illinois
to the head Of the Passes, with dredge-boat
digging away day and night on the bar to
r maintain q channel from twenty to twenty-five
+, feet, over which dugout ships of 900 or 1000
tons are pulled by tug boats, charging s. bale
freight on cotton to Liverpool when 1t is
c carried from the Atlantic ports, where they
n have thirty feet of water and 5000 ton ships,
for 50 bale and the same proportion all
other freight. Surely such statesmanship de-
y serves not only to be rewarded with high Office,
: but monuments rs lasting rs the mud wall he
4 would build to drown his neighbors should be
erected to his memory
g By that time the Hon. Mr.. Robertson will not
n bo so muddled that he cannot distinguish the
, difference between an outlet that carries water
from the river to tho gulf and crevas5e or
y sluce.way which returns water to the river,
Y and that after all, he may yet come to tho aid
: | otSIving the country by drawing tho water oil
and not banking it up. 1t makes no difference
e whether the plan be old or new, he must ad-
h init that, although these ideas may have
l. Hoated around in the minds Of mon like loose
rocks ION the mountain side) or trees in the
" forrest And rs the builder would take the
: rough stone or growing trees from which he
l. constructs his house or ship, have moulded
;r these facts into II system that cannot be re.
" tuted by honest arguments
], As for Mr.. Ellis, after citing him to pages llS
t, and 49,; Humphrics s. Abbotts as to the
is same facts, on pnge 3, my memorial under ln'
creased Currents as to tho great blundcr he
e made with regard to the fill below the Bonnet
d Carre crevasse, therci but little olso TO an.
" swcr,as he went over the same old humdrum OF
. fifty years ago. He reminds ME of man
= whom | once saw in New Orleans, where the
is cisterns arc all above the ground one OF these
e he was baliing out over the top with buckle t.
!, 1 said "Why don't you bore Il hole at the bot
II tom and let the water run out p The lacopic
? reply was, 81 have no time to try experiments
l. for l have always done it this way" So with
M these men, they would always levee and never
learn.
20 The vivid picture he drew as to the destruc
l. ton of water craft by crevasses is all true
enough; but had there never been levees Ia
raise the water many feet above the natural
~ bank there never could have been any Gre
h vases; and, although his statistics true aS
l. to the falling off in the fiat boat tonnage, hi:
. reasoning is all wrong; but, in order to give
10 him the full benefit Of his statements will
t. agree with him. In 1874 the engineers tell u
ID tho creVasses caused by the leYee system II
g., Arkansas and Missouri were too numerous t
- mention; that the aggregate area was 13l
Is miles, while there were forty-eght crevasse'
D. in Louisiana and Mississippi,
= Had the Red River shed been diverted from
', the Mississippi, as l propose, and the Lake
ID Borgne outlet been made, all these tcrribl,
c crevasses (the Bonnet Carre included) woulC
ar have been prevented, for tho water in the rive
would have been so lowered that there coulC
70 have been no discharge
Of Then should there be so much danger in th
single outlet at Lake Borgne as he imagines
certaiuy this one which is below New Or
leans, the terminus of all boat navigation
/, it could bo guarded more easy than could al
h- hundred outlets above, If this was done nc
Dy cording to the logs of the gentleman, the rive
or would swarm with his fayorite fiat boats Tn
-. reason fiat boats have so disappeared from tn
y river is steam boats and railroads "A cheape
ne and moro speedy mode of transportation, hay
a rendered them useless. But return to th
10 Lake Borgue outlet when properly made ther
30 will be no more danger from it than down tn
by river for it will be equally as nayigable an
of will add greatly to the commercial interes
-, eastward OF New Orleans. Then steamboat
- from Mobile aud elsewhere will be able to com
10 directly to the wharf of New Orleans free
in charge.
., The inuuiry of Mr. Townsend of New York