Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-04-27

EAST.
The changed tone OF the Eastern press,
upon the subject OF Mississippi river inn
prcvement, since the occurrence of the ca
ismitoUs floods, now subsiding, do credit to
the hearts and heads Of the citizens in that
part Of the Union. They formerly doubted
the force OF the arguments used in favor of
those improvements, but now that calamit-
Gus facts have demonstrated what had before
been 80 confidently asserted, they have the
intelligence to perceive and the honesty to
confess the force OF reasons that they had
judged to be merely Hypothetical. They
kindly sympathise with the suffering that has
been inflicted, and will not oppose such
remedial measures on the part of the general
government they believe to be Just and
constitutional. The Boston Advertiser, in
recent article, speaks strongly in this sense.
1t declares the case SIS urgent from the fact
that the river States have been totally I'M
able to cope with the recent foods"
1t sees much to praise in the
tone Of the recent debate in Congress
upon the subject, debate it considers to be
eminently instructive, and in which the
DPcdhCfb hGpI tue UOduub Oh TccOrQeu
experience and good sense, while the ripa-
rian senators showed respect for legal and
constitutional principle that entities them to
candid approval. 1t adds, speaking of the con-
stitutional part of the question: Southern
senators argued the point with conspicuous
frankness and fitness. Praise is also due to the
riparian States, especially Mississippi, for do
fivo tba1
to protect the exposed bottom lands" The
Advertiser thinks there is point at which
the government and the States concerned
must differ in their views, the former regard
ing the levees only as a means of confirming
the river within safe limits while the other
is concerned in retaining swamps and pro-
viding for irrigation, the latter because vital
with rice planters, and hardly less so with
sugar producers and the cotton estates.
They need the slime of the river as
fertilizer, they need the water OF the river as
an irrigator, and they need the river de-
posts for the purpose of raising the bottom
lands. This way of regarding the Mississippi
as sort of Egyptian Nile is frequent with
those who are unacausinted with the Missis-
sippi valley. As discussion proceeds, how
ever, they will learn that levees are wanted
to keep the river within its channel. That
the general government, which is the owner
of the river, should prevent its becoming
destroyer of their property they regard as
just, the more so as the waters that inflict
the damage are not the produce of their
own section OF the country mainly, but come
sweeping down with irresistible and ruin
dealing force from the States above, from as
far as near the line of Manitoba, and from
the declivities of the Rocky mountains. OF
course the sufferers by the late floods are
Just now most concerned about the safety of
their property, but they are by no means in
sensible to what must be the principal OBJ
ject of the government, the preservation and
improvement of the navigable qualities of
the river in the interest Of interstate
trade and postal communication. The
plans likely to be adopted by Congress our
Boston contemporary regards as being excel
lent and az meeting the emergencies of
the hour. While the Boston Advertiser and
many other Eastern newspapers are man
ifesting generous sentiments and enlightened
views upon this subject, it is notifying to
find opposition or depreciation in papers
published within the valley of the Mississippi
itself. These papers are supporters of the
untenable and unscientifc Outlet plan, a
plan which, for some reason, they want to
see adopted, and if they cannot rule in that
they are willing to ruin by allowing levees
and jetties to go to destruction, and floods de-
vAstate the country, while mud Jumps block
entrance from the sea. Thank God, outlets
and 'rnle or ruin" are swept away by the
action of Congress and of the Mississippi
River Commission.