Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-05-30
an IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION.
The Mississippi River and the Mississippi
Valley-What Can be Done to Preserve II,


valley-What Can be Done to Preserve II.
To the Editor of the Globe.
The improvement of the Mississippi rivel
by the national government appears to bt
hopeless. For twenty years the pitiful con
gressional appropriations, excepting, perhaps
those to Eads, have injured rather thar
benefited navigation. Twenty years ago the
levee at st. Paul was crowded all during the
season by the largest steamers. Look at il
now, smothered with railroad tracks, and al
most inaccessible both by land and water
Then there were daily departures and arrivals
from and to the Minnesota river and Min
neapolis. Now the boats creep up to st
Paul and down again with the greatest diff
Guilty, and it is becoming question as to
how soon, under the present system, the
Mississippi river will become forever closed
to navigation-a kind of mare clGusuan, q
dried up river, an outrage upon the people,
a black monument of Congressional parsi-
mony and national crime.
From 1892, when Jefferson demanded of
Spain the free navigation of this great river
down to the present moment, the material
prosperity of every inch of territory on its
banks, and far reaching into the interior, the
growth of commemorative and the develop
ment of all industries have depended and
do now depend on its uninterrupted naviga-
bility, not only as political right but as a
physical fact.
Shall the Mississippi cease to be navi-
gable river? This is the question for the
people of twelve States to answer, for the
people of the whole country to consider.
| hoe, and will n
nothing but temporize, and piddle, and
ton land mental impotency. 1t
is no wonder people begin to
want strong government. We
need a strong government, not strong in the
despotism of hated one man power, but
government strong in wisdom, in impartial
justice to all sections of the country; gov
eminent that, while it maintains an army of
lszzaroni in custom houses, will not only
blast the submerged rocks out of the East
river at New York, but remove every OBJ
structioa to the free navigation of the Mis-
sissippi, flowing SO grandly through the har-
vest granary of the world.
But this Is not the worst. By the criminal
acquiescence of the government, the river,
in some localities, is actually being filled up
by private individuals and by corporations.
No act of congress is necessary to prevent
this. It is a national crime. We have United
States courts and United States ATTORNEYS.
Have these ministerial officers no other duty
than to prevent Indians from drinking whis-
ky? Let them prosecute these parties as
they prosecute trespassers on the public
domain. Why not? Is the one a less crime
than the other? The HolIanders who made
the river Scheldt mine of countless wealth.
and the half civilized Lombards of the
twelfth century who developed into free
commonwealths, would put to shame a
government careful of nothing save to enrich
the hungry, Office seeking wolves of party.
Is there a remedy? Is there no way to
raise the money? Money is what is needed.
With the money, every rock can be removed
at the rapids and the channel deepened TO
float the largest ships, and levees constructed
to prevent overfows and the river, from Itas-
ca TO the gulf, restored to what it was when
God gave it to the continent, as the most
magnificent highway of commerce on earth.
do not propose to discuss any particular
plan to accomplish the results. The reser
voir system seems to me to be good to GER
tain extent, and it looks unfair to condemn
it as speculation. It is not
new idea. Witness the great artificial res
ervo!rs of Europe for similar purposes. and
the diplomatic De Lesseps propose an i'm
mense one on the Isthmrs to retain the COL
lected waters of the Chtgres. These are
questions for engineers and men of science
to whom the entire work of improvement
should be entrusted.
How can the money be raisedp
A corporation. as in the case of
for instance, "The Mississippi
Rive Navigation or Transportation Com
pany, would be impracticable, because the
river cannot be owned as private property.
But cannot the cities along its banks from
Minneapolis to New Orleans, unite to appro-
PIRATE part of the money, and then demand
of Congress sufficient amount to complete
the work Thoroughly? Let the cities or
States along the Mississippi thus raise saw
six millions, and then demand of Congress
another six millions or twelve, to complete
the work. Why may not the cities under
take this grand enterprise? 1t is wonderful
to contemplate the achievements of enter
prisiDg, public-spirlted Municipalities. The
student of history is familiar with those
grand free cities of Lombardy, that rose
from semi-civilized communities to the level
of the ancient republics, and, long after
Italy had fallen like star from heaven,
shed over her blue sky glorious halo of lib
erty. Look at Paris rising from the village
of Charlemagne, on the sluggish waters of
the Seine, to become the fairy
bazaar of the earth, and to paw off,
as if by enchantment, large proportion of
an immense war debt for the credit and ma
tionality of France. And there is Amster
dam, with its canals running through all
Holland, and cutting through the sand
mountains of the North sea, connecting har-
bors and docks, with its breakwater extend
ing far out into the ocean, and even now
building grand union railroad depot upon
land over which once flowed the chan
mel of the Zuyder-Zee. But We
need not go farther than Chicago and New
York. Where can we find more generous,
public spirited, and enterprising municipal
than in much plundered and much abused
New York city, the metropolis of America
I cite these examples. They show what
municipalities can do. To prevent the per-
manent closing of the Mississippi, immediate
action is necessary. It is in vain to appeal
to Congress through individuals. There must
be organized effort. Cities, States and
communities must unite, and demand as a
right what they have heretofore asked as
favor. They have voted money to rail
roads. Congress has loaned one hundred