The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1882-05-03
rhe Mississippi.

Tho hill passed by the United states sem
-. e.. the tmproyement Of the Missouri
and Mississippi rivers leaves to the river
commissioners themselves the determine
ton Of the question whether any portion
Of the appropriation Of six millions OF dol
lars shall he expended In repairing
leyees or not. That strikes us as wise
compromise. II these commissioners con-
s,der that Il would be for the interest oil
the United States Government, or rather Of
the United States, that any portion OF the
augmentation should be used in combining
the river within It's banks, they ought TO
cxpcnd some portion Of 1t for that purpose.
We do not doubt, either, that they will
reach that very conclusion. They VIII
come 10 long stretch Of the Mississippi
where that river is spread out over such an
area as TO render the stream in effect not
nayigable. Surely they cannot but deter
mine 10 make Il nayigable. Howi Neces-
sarily the first thing TO be done is to confine
the stream within some reasonable limits.
The STRENGTHENING Of the Mississippi is
another work that ought TO be undertaken
bv the United States Government. We
have ceased TO raise questions as TO the
constitutional power OF Congress to do
such work. The ante-bcllum southern
statesmen denied the power OF the General
Government to improve the rivers and
barbors OF the States, whilst the northern
politicians who were their contemporaries
II. 81 fho faIn on Of
the southern congressman, AMI voted
every year millions OF dollars to the i'm
movement Of northern rivers and harbors.
The representative OF the Richmond
district used to vote in the House Of Repre-
sentatives against appropriating a dollar to
the Improvement OF the James! Is il any
wonder that the North is rich and the
South poor: If Ireland is ruined by abb
senteeism--that is, the collection Of money
In Ireland, which is expended in England
and elsewhere out Of Ireland-surcly the
South will be impoverished II she continues
to pay into the national treasury her mil
lions Of dollars and fails to secure her
share OF the appropriations made for the
Improvement of rivers and harbors. We
would, on this ground alone, justify a
southern congressman in voting fifty mil
lions to the improvement of southern rivers
and harbors.
The national Government charges three
cents per balf-omce for carrying letters be-
tween Philadelphia and New York. There
are men who would willingly carry them
and deliver them for one cent. per half
ounce. But the General Government will
not permit them TO pursue that honorable
and lucrative business. Why not? Be-
cause it needs the money made by carrying
letters between the large cities to enable
it to pay for the carrying Of letters be-
tween the sections OF the country dis
tant from one another, and between
rural post-ofices receiving and sending
but few letters annually. As to this
matter il Is a "paternal" Government.
Now. we desire the Government TO
be ms paternal when il undertakes TO spend
its money in improving rivers. We want
il to collect millions of dollars in New York
to be expended in Missouri, Minnesota,
Iowa, and Virginia. The money is merely
collected in New York. 1t is really paid
by the consumers of the goods upon which
the tax is laid. Why, therefore, shall it
not be expended wherever the Govern
ment shall find that its expenditure will
pay? This would make the transaction
business one il anybody prefers that it
should be one of that description. If the
country at large win be benefited thereby,
Law out millions of dollars. If the pro-
prietors of the land are incidentally bene-
flied instead of being damaged, that is an
additional reason for thus employing the
money.
We conclude with the following extract
from the Washington Republican. 1t does
credit to that journal. We quote:
"The reclamation of the fifty thousand
square miles OF territory subject ~ over
flow by the great Mississippi floods is a
measure of greater importance than any
other that can be considered by Congress.
The North can now exhibit its fraternal
feeling towards a great body Of the south
ern people. The nation can now make
its beneticent power felt among people
whose disasters cry aloud for attention,
and TO whom national aid would be a
signal for closer relations between the Sec
tions than has ever before been known.
Our brothers have been drowned out OF
their homes. What limit can be set upon
the good feeling that would be engendered
by lighting up the national hearthstone and
bringing them in to dry and warm them
selves. Every dollar expended to avert
future disasters on the lower Mississippi
will be returned an hundredfold in the ere
alton OF property which shall support res
cued and n grateful people"