The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1881-12-24
Report of the River Commission.

Report OF the River Commission.
Special to The Times. Democrat.
Washington, December l5.-The
Mississippi River Commission re.
port covers about so pages of fols.
cap, and is accompanied by several
voluminous appendices giving de.
tails of surveys and the operations
on different parts of the river.
The following is an abstract of
what the commission says about
lcvces; "rhe utility of lcvces as
a means to prevent destructive
floods, which is one of the ends
enumerated in the act creating the
commission, is too obvious to re.
quire comment. The Importance
to be attached to that object is
matter wholly within the discrc.
ton of Congress, and not suitable
to discuss here. The utility of
levces as means to deepen the
channel of the river and improve
and give safety aud ease to naviga.
tion, is a subject on which differ.
encc of opinion exists, and in re.
spcct to which the facts collected
do not carry equal weights as evi.
dencc to the minds of all members
of the commission. II Is consid.
cred by every one that the leyees,
by combining the tloodwaters ofthe
river within a comparatively re-
stricted space, do tend in some de.
gree to increase the securing and
the deepening power of the eur.
rent by the extent and potency of
their influence on the improve
mcnt of the low water channel, in
respect to which, for the purpose
ofnayigation merely, improvement
is most needed, and their value for
that purpose, as compared with
other methods of Improvement,
and as compared with their cost,
are regarded as subjects requiring
further observation and study, and
the accumulation of further and
more comprehensive data, before
final conclusions can be reached
concerning them. In the mean
time, the existing state of know
ledge and the judgment of the
commission cannot be better ex.
pressed than in the words of their
report February II, 1890"
After quoting from last years
report on the subject, the commits
sion Say they are not nposscssion
of the data deemed necessary in
making a trustworthy estimate of
the entire cost of u leyee sys.
TEN, but a great reduction is cvi-
IDENTIFY practicable in the amounts
of former estimates, and on the
assured existence of u river bed
not subject to erosion, and on
levee work at 40 to 80 cents per
cubic yard. The cost of lcyce
work in Louisiana during the last
four years has averaged less than
20 cents per cubic yard. There is
\ strong presumption that the
levees of the Mississippi do not
stand as works super-improyed on
the normal banks to restrain an
additional flood volume and eleva-
ton which they themselves have
produced, but as artificial barriers
to replace that natural height of
bank which has been lost from
causes connected with the occupa.
ton and cultivation not only of the
banks of the main stream, but also
Of the basins of the tributaries.
Their present functions is not
so much to increase the flood vol
ume abnormal as to maintain that
part of it which would otherwise
be lost from the degradation of
the banks. 1t may be said of ont
lets (which term we restrict to well
defined depressions connecting
the river with the swamps and
their drains, on either side while it
is within it's banks,) that whenever
they are not directly connected
with the Improvement and main
tenance ofnayigation, they should
be efficiently and permanently
closed.
The commission estimate the
total cost of the improvements
needed on the Mississippi at s53,
ooQoon. OF tie q, 100000 appro-
priated BY the act Of March >, 1880
s250,ooB had been expended up to