The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-02-15
WHEREFORE THIS PERsECUTION2

The spectacle which fs now presented liz
| New York, OF an American constituency pro.
| testing against and declining an appropria.
| tion from Congress, is certainly without q
precedent In the history OF this country, and
only serves to illustrate the phenomenal par.
TALLY and lack OF discrimination evinced by
Congress In the distribution OF Its favors.
While New Orleans gets but 100000 on an
elaborate and costly survey made by the
most eminent engineers. civil and military,
OF this country, which certities that not
less than $450.OO0 u absolutely necessary to
render her harbor safe for shipping and to
protect the city itself from imminent and
daily increasing danger OF submersion at the
expense Of great loss OF property and, per-
haps, of life, there Is already S250.0OO In the
United States treasury to the credit Of New
York for the Improvement of her harbor ap-
propriated by the last Congress, which has
not been used because the property-hoders
affected by the proposed work refuse to allow
1t to go on. This Is incredible, still it Is none
the less true. Nor Is this all OF 1t. Congress
even proposes to make an additional appropri-
alton for the same work conditioned on the con-
sent Of the parties interested being obtained.
This project In which Congress has mani
tested such an exuberent and misplaced en-
thusiasm, is nothing else than the conversion
Of the Spuyten-Duyvil, o miserable little
sewer OF a creek connecting the Hudson and
Harlem rivers, into ship canal. The en-
gineer who made the survey OF the proposed
work estimated that its completion would
cost not less than five millions OF dollars, and
the sole purpose Of 1t Is to save some ten
miles In the approaches to New York har-
Dor. Last year S250,OoO was appropriated
by Congress to inaugurate the work, but 1t
has not been expended because of the oppos-
tion OF the property owners along the banks OF
the creek. This sum Is still In the treasury
awaiting the compliance Of the property
holders with the conditions upon which the
grant was made, and the New York papers
are soundly berating their obst.nacy, which
Is defeating the liberal intentions" Of Con-
gress. We certainly are not opposed to the
judicious and liberal expenditure of the pub
lie money In New York harbor, but when the
people most interested In the proposed i'm
provements do not want them, and will not
have them, we see no sense or reason In pur-
suing them with such relentless importunacy.
This Is not right at all, and we beech Con-
gress to stop Its prosecutions and allow the
dwellers by Spuyten-Duyvil creek forest In
peace. What have these poor, unhappy crea-
lures done to provoke such persecution
We think we can suggest o plan that will
relieve all parties. Give the SpuytenDuyvol
folks touch up In the line OF the Department
OF Justice. and let New Orleans have their
surplus appropriation. Too much pudding
will choke dog and this S250,O0O that Spuy-
ten-Duyvel don't want. added to what every
fourth rate harbor In the South has been
allowed, would carry out the recommended
tions OF the engineers, and render the harbor
of New Orleans safe, both for shipping and
the property that Is In jeopardy by reason Of
its present insecurity.