Sacramento daily record-union., 1881-02-14
is by holding back the coarser material in the rivers
and huidinp fikes m their hanks

man build his own levee." We say that every man
should build his own levees, but he should not be
compelled to dig out the channels Of the rivers and
we say furthermore, that if all the money that has
heretofore been expended for the purpose of protec
ton in building dikes and evees in the rivers of this
State Aad been wisely expended-had been justly
laid out under State dictatorship, that but little
of the damage which has been done by the present
food would have been experienced by the people.
But what the people doing upon the rivers
here :! They are simply carrying en- guerrilla war
fare against the floods. They fight each other in
the leyee districts In the county OF Sutter there
four or five different organizations called levee
districts. Each district gets up its own plans, it
builds Its own leyees it determines what dimensions
those levees shall be, and the result is zigZag
course Of leyees all up and down the Yuba river
And the same state OF things exists along the Sac
ramento river: There is no system about
it. Thsre is no uniformity about it.
You may follow the line of levee along the river
down for any two miles and all at once the levee
jumps off and goes in another direction according
TO the will and caprice of any particular evee dis
trict.
Now, then, any one can see that the rectification
of the river channels of this State cannot be sue
cessfully performed under any such system as that
What we need, Mr.. Pres dent, is head We say
that the State ought to take hold of this The river
channels OF the State belong to the State They do
not belong to the people who live upon their banks
and if the State OF California allows its channels
be filed up the result Of carrying on any indus
try the State ought to bear the expenses of the rec
ifcation of those channels and not the people who
live upon their borders.
Now, then, here is one OF the works OF this Com.
mission This is one of the plans from the office of
the State Engineer OF this State that there should
be State direction of this work that levees should
be properly constructed; that they should be uni
form; that they should be straight; and by that
strengthening, and by that uniformity, and by that
only can the rectcation of these river channels be
accomplished. Now, then, tn s is portion OF the
work which this State Dictatorship has been carry
ing on in the past year in the time that they have
hold hnnlr
bris from the mines and mountains, they have also
been building levees according to this idea have
announcedof- Strengthening the river channels
themselves enabling the rivers to produce larger
carrying capacity, that they might ScOur out and
deepen the channel.
Now then this is certainly wise plan. II seems to
me that such plan as this ought to commend itself
to every Senator upon this floor 1t is certainly the
plan which the Directors have attempted TO carry
out Now then, the charge made, Mr.. Presi-
dent, some time ago that this work was not being
faithfully performed, that there some dis
honesty some where-some dishonesty in the matter
of allowi contracts, and in other respects-and
upon those charges an investigation was had by the
proper committee Of tnis body. And what was the
result Of th,t investigation? We say, and the re-
port of that committee say-and it is a unanimous
report that the parties who made these charges
did not find i'll that investigation, or i'll the report,
a color of a foundation for them-not color. The
testimony of the Directors, the testimony of the
gineers, the testimony of every man almost who
testified before that body, was that this work had
been prose -uted with aIthuness and with honesty.
Now | want to refer, Mr.. President, to one phase
of that examination. 1t was said upon this floor by
one OF the Senators, that he heard certain things
which ought to be made the foundation for an in
vestlgation. AS | said few days ago, he did not
make any charges himself upon his own response.
bty but he said upon this floor that he had heard
charges made and that was the basis OF investi-
CATION which cost this State hundreds of dollars and
amounted to nothing except to vindicate the charac
ter and the work of that dictatorship: Now, then,
what did the committee develop? 1t developed this
fact that one certain man, whose name L cannot
recall, told that Senator that something was wrong
and when this gentleman was put upon the stand he
testified that he knew nothing about it. but that
some one else had told him. Well, that was good
starter, certainly. And the gentleman who gave
him the Information was summoned before that
commteee and what was his testimony? He said
" Yes, told him these things. told him that l.
too thought that one contract had been let out too
high, perhaps" and he gave his reasons This mat
ter fully ventilated during the investigation by
the committee, and Mr.. Mike Bryte, the gentleman
that refer to, present at this Investigation.
He heard all of the testimony, and when finally the
examination had been concluded he got up before
the Directors who were present there and exoner-
ated them from any bame or lack of wisdom or
honesty in the matter. He says, " Gentlemen, am
satisfied about this matter. / was mistaken.
think that the Directors have doue the best that
they could" Now, then, that was all that these
charges ever amounted to But, Mr.. President
expect it will be charged upon this floor, before this
sioners did not do their duty in the matter OF let
ting contracts and that is in the matter OF contracts
which were let for work done upon the Sacramento
river In respect to that simply wish to this in
advance-and challenge contradiction of what |
say and appeal to the written testimony which was
taken before that committee and which the friends
of this repeal measure refused to have printed that
the people of this State might read it for themselves
i say that appeal to the testimony which is now
before this body, as to the truth OF what ] say |
say expect it will be charged that there was unfair
ness upon the part OF the d rectors in letting
out contracts for work upon the Sacramento
river. Now / say that the testimony in
this case shows that there no unfaness
that the contracts advertised and the propo-
sails duly received, according to law; that the
parties up to the Capitol, where the meeting
OF the Directors was held; that everyone was in.
vted to bid ;-that the people from the Sacramento
river living adjacent to the point where this work
was performed were there that only one bid was
put in that that put in at the request of these
very people, they refusing to lid and asking that
the contract might be let to Rideout
and Binney, of the city of Marysville, and that
these partes Rideout and Binney, would sub-let to
them. Now, then, that the testimony in regard
to that. The Commissioners stated that they were
anxious to get bids from anybody and from all
sources and invite the attention OF Senators and
the people of this State to the testimony of Mr..
Searls one of the Directors who testified in regard
to the OF their letting contracts for all of
the work that had been done by the Commission.
Now, then, let me say that the Commission acted
charge will be made that they did not say it will
be char ed that this Commission, in the letting
of any other contract in the prosecution of all this
work, acted with any unfairness at all. And say
that the charge ought not to be made that in this
instance the Directors acted with any unairness or
that there was dishonesty. l do not believe that
any Senator upon this floor seriously be-
leves that any member of this Board
of Directors, in the prosecution of his
duties under this law, has acted dishonesty or even
unwisely. But why do you want to change the
Board OF Directors Is it for the possibility that the
Board of Directors may not carry out the proper
plan in the rectcation of the channels of the river
and in holding back of this debris l say that the
only answer to that is that the Board OF Directors
have nothing to do with the plans. All of the plans
for the work to be done in reference TO this matter
emanate from source-from the office of the
State Engineer-who tells them where the works
shall be done; and their functions require only that
they see that the work is done according to the pro-
visions of the law which created their office. So
that it cannot be charged that the Directors will not
carry out plan that plan, for every plan that
is carried out can be carried out by this Board OF
Directors, has to come from the office of the
State Engineer himself, and not from themselves
Now, then, we say that this law ought not to be
repealed the ground that we are not on the right
track. We are doing something. We are following
out the plan which has been proposed by the au-
thority to which looked for advice upon this
question. We are carrying out the plan which he
saws Is the only plan that can be made feasible to
successful completion We are not taking the adj
vice simply of our own State Engineer, but we have
the advice also OF Captains lads and Mendell, en-
gineers who have world wide reputation for skill
and knowledge upon such questions. We say that
they are unanimously in favor of the present PLAN
Now, then, we say that this law should not be re-
pealed but that it ought to be carried to
eessfu issue, as these engineers can be
done And is it competent for this Senate to set up
its own wisdom upon this question as superior to
that which emanates from these men? Now, if you
repeal this law if you do not substitute any remedy
for it to help the condition of things the result will
be that the people of Yuba county, and the people
of Sutter county, and the people OF a large portion
OF Yolo county, of Sacramento county, of Butte
county, will have to get up and leave the country.
There is no question about that, Mr.. President.
When you say that these people shall take care Of
themselves when you tell me that these people
should build their own leyees when YOU tell me
that they the parties to rectify the river chan
nes of this State YOU tell me that they are to do
something which is simply impossible for them
to do We say that these people have
already become impoverished in the prosecution
Of this work All the profits of their business have
been spent in that way, and now they have nothing
more TO expend Their homes are already mortglged
for levee taxes for from Sc to 81 per all along
these rivers. What more can you ask them to do
Ii YOU repeal this law and take frcm them this meas
ure of protection what would be the result? What