Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-01-24
HON. POINDEXTER DUNN.
His Speech ON the Proposed Amend
ment to the Rules Empowering the
Mississippi River

His Speech on the Proposed Amend
| meut to the Rules Empowering the
Mississippi River
| Improvement Committee 10 Report Up
propriations-He wants the work
| Done, and No Trining.
We publish in full the speech of the above
named gentleman, delivered in the House OF
Representatives. Containing, as it does, a
vast amount of information in short space,
| it cannot fail to interest as well as instruct.
! Having obtained the floor, Mr.. Dunn said:
| "Mr. Speaker, it Is perhaps of some i'm
| portance that the exact force and significance
| of the proposed substitute should be well IN
| derstood by the House. The committee TO
| which it refers is now designated in the rules
as the Committee on Levees and Improve
ments of the Mississippi River; and until
the adoption of the new rules it had juris-
diction of all matters relating to the levees
! and improvements of the Mississippi river.
| Under the new rules it only has jurisdiction
of matters relating to the levees of the Mis-
| sissiBpi river. That committee, sir, while it
| had jurisdiction of the subject OF the i'm
provement of the river as we'll as the levees
well performed its part and proved itself
| worthy at least to retain the things conhded
to it, if not indeed, worthy OF even greater
| things. For half a century almost Congress
had been earnestly considering the problem
of controlling and improving that mighty
river, and millions Of money had been ex-
pended fruitlessly, and plan after plan had
been considered and rejected, or, if tried,
| had failed. Sir, it was reserved for this
| committee to take the first step in the right
direction. By the act of June, 1879, reported
| TO this House from this committee by the
| Il had ISL m
| Mr.. Gibson then a member OF it, scien-
| tifc commission was created charged with
the duty of maturing and reporting plans
| and specifications for improving and per-
| manently locating the channel, securing the
hanks givin9 essa and safety to zaSiss"t'o'',
preventing destructive Hoods" etc. That
| commission is composed OF perhaps the ablest
engineers in the world, ssnd they have ma
tured and reported to Congress a definite and
well defined plan of Improvement with
specifcatl ons and estimate of cost Sir,
that was done two years ago, and moth ng
has remained to be done since but for Con-
gress to appropriate the necessary sums of
money to do the work. And, Mr.. Speaker,
Congress has promptly voted all the Com
mittee on Commerce would allow it to vote
and would doubtless have voted more If it
had been allowed an opportunity. The Com
mittee on Levees and Improvements of the
Mississippi River, among its last acts agreed
to the plan of improvement and reported 4
bill appropriating 100000 for the work of
improvement in accordance with the recon-
mendations of the improvement commission;
but it had no privilege of reporting at any
time for consideration, as the Committee on
Commerce has, and its bill died on the cal
endar, and the friends of the measure had to
carry their plan aud specifications to the
Committee on Commerce and pass it through
the scaling mill of that committee. We got
the pitful sum of 81 100000. Now, sir, /
undertake to say that had the Committee on
Levees and improvements had the privilege
in reporting bills making appropriations
for this great work that are accorded to
the Committee on Commerce in reporting
river and harbor bills, Congress would have
voted the entire S6,O0O,00O proposed in its
bill that died on the calendar. | fear, sir,
and the people of the eighteen great States of
the Mississippi xalley fear, that if this
great scheme of improvement which they
cling TO as rainbow of hope and prom
ise' shall be committed to the tender mer-
cies of the Committee on Commerce, it will
languish and die. Sir, we know that this is
a great and difficult enterprise, in which sue
cess is to be reached only over the stepping
stones of difficulties, but the commission are
confident of the ultimate Success of their
plan, and the country Is hopeful and even
sanguine, and I will add, impatient of the
halting and dilatory action of Congress The
people believe that upon the success OF this
great movement hangs their last hope of de-
liverance from the deadly hug of the ana
conds of railroad monopoly, now fast tight
ening its fatal folds about them. They see
and know that the only way to break that
dangerous power, concentrated by the vast
schemes of consolidation now being per-
fected every day, is for Congress, by the ju-
dicious use of liberal appropriations under
scientific application, to seizs aud utilize
every cubic foot of water in the nation and
compel it TO bear its precious burden of pro-
duce to the sea. 1t is this power which the
people hold over the free water courses of
the country, alone before which the railroad
kings and despots tremble. And il we do
not hasten to utilize these waters they will
send somebody here who will do 1t. But to
return TO the subject of the Jurisdiction of
this committee. After making this splendid
inauguration of this great and hope
full project, instead of the just re-
ward for fidelity, 1t was stripped of the little
power it had-literaIly emasculared-and so
it stands to-day. Now the Committee on
Rules kindly agree to change its name, as if
it was ashamed of the old one. and allow it |
again to consider subjects relating to the i'm |
provement of the Mississippi river, but it is
not to handle any money. Sir, the plans, |
The Improvement Commission. and so long as /
they report that the plan adopted is working |
successfully there remains nothing to do but /
10 make the necessary appropriations. So |
that il this committee have no power to |
bring in appropriation bills it will, under
this proposed change, be yet further degraded |
and stripped of power, for, mark, you, sill, if
the change recommended by the Committee
On Rules shall be adopted, with or without
he amendment offered by the gentleman
rom Ca ifornia, Mr.. Page,) then it will not
even have jurisdiction of the levees OF the
river. Sir, it had better be aboi-
shed, for it will be neither useful nor ornl-
mental. What powers will it have, and wha
IAN it 80? Mr.. Speaker, | imagine that |
zee here in the change proposed by the Com
nittee on Rules gentle and stealthy unload
ng of the levee feature of this great scheme
If improvement. which will, 10 my opiu-
on, II carried out in the spirit of the plan of
he commission, not only give deep water in
permanently located aud narrowed channel
rom st. Paul to the sea, but will result in
he prevention of oveItiows and destructive
foods OF the grest delta of that river, and
lltimately reclaim more than twenty million
acres of the most fertile and productive land
n the world. To US of the lower Mississippi
Talley this is, in a local sense, the most valu-
lble feature of this great scheme as cheap
,ned transportation for their domestic pro-
visions is the most important feature to the
great Northwest and the upper Mississippi
Talley. That scheme should be carried out
n letter and in spirit as the law intended,
md to which the government is fully COM
nitted by repeated acts of Congress. Sir, l
protest against an abandonment OF or back
ng down from any part of the plan.
Finally, sir, will add, it is folly to give
his committee power to report bills making
appropriations for this work of improve
nent unless you give the privileges accorded
o the Committee on Appropriations in re-
PORTING general appropriation bills, for other
wise these bills will die on the calendar.
The substitute gives the committee jurisdic-
ion of the whole subject, with power to re-
port bills making appropriations for these
and have them considered at
my time, az the Committee on Appropria-
ions and the Committee on Commerce can
10, and l hope it will be adopted"
Mr.. WALTER F. MCCUNE, of Pittsburg,
pennsylvania, writes: My age is twenty-eight
tut at the age of nineteen, having just finished
ny collegiate education, fell into habits OF dis
ipafion. After six years of fast living felt my
constitution broken down. l put myself under
he care OF one of our best physicians His treat
nent seemed to do me no good. Finally he said
,owels, kidneys and lungs were all threatened
With consumption, and were fast wasting away in
ertain decay. I tried everything advertised
loping 70 gain relief Finally drfted into state