The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1882-03-11

Washington. February 25.-Cap- |
tain Eads this morning continued /
his remarks before the house CON-
mittee on the levees and improve
ment of the Mississippi. Besides
the members of the committee
there were present congressman
Gibson, Robertson and Hatch,
Messrs. Wright and Hogan, repre-
sentatives of the St Louis Merch-
ants Exchange, Captain Cowdon
and others.
Captain Eads to-day devoted
himself chiefly to exposing the fal-
lacies underlying the so-called out
let plan of improvement. He
characterized as ridiculous the as
sertion that the velocity Of the
current below q crevasse has ever
been found to be greater than it
was above such opening. He
gave an extended demonstration
of this by means of diagrams and
formulas, and he referred to the
operations and effects of the va
rious openings that had been made
in the Mississippi from time to
time. The results attending the
creation of crevasse had been a
decrease in the depth of the chan
mel below. These results were in
strict accord with common sense
and with the principles involved
in the construction Of the jettfes,
and in the plans of the River Com
mission, which he explained. He
declared this would not be dispu-
ted by any engineer in the United
States or Europe. The committee
ought not to overlook the fact
that where there have been the
greatest number of outlets, and
the gaps in the levees have been
most numerous, the largest am
cunts of deposits have been made
where the bed of the river has
been raised, thus causing destruc-
tive overfows. These 0verfOws
are becoming more and more de-
structive. Years ago he had urg.
ed that the gaps in the levees
should be closed in order that the
channel might be deepencd.
This statement prompted Gene
raj Gibson to inquire whether
Eads would recommend the use of
levees as a part of the proposed
system of improving the river.
Captain Eads's response is i'm
portant. He said in substance
that as an original proposition he
would not recommend the con.
struction of leyees, but there are
now 21OO miles of levees, which
have cost the States along the
river $25, 900 to build. There
( are now gaps in these levees ag.
! gregating in length about 100
. miles. He thought it would be
the sheerest folly not to utilize the
! 210O miles of levee, stop the gaps,
and have the benefits of these lie.
wees on the general improvement
of the river. As q member of the
River Commission he would soon
prepare a minority report to ac'
company the last report of the
Commission, in which he would
recommend the appropriation o'
s2,OO0,OOO for stopping the gaps in
the levees. I do not think 1t pos
!, sible, said he, to do so much fol
river Improvement with the same
amount of money as by spending
s2,O00,000 in closing these gaps
This can be done without interfer
ing with the work of the Missis
sippi River Commission, and The
object of the work of the Com
mission would be much more
quickly attained by closing the
gaps. This could easily be done
under the direction of the Secre
tary of War, and the Commission''
: work would be greatly aided ant
t. accelerated. He had no doub
that the completion of the system
proposed by the Commission
}, would result in preventing over
flows.
Passing on he took up the spe
cial subject of discussion to-day
f, which was problem Of the Red
: Atchafalaya and Mississippi
"The danger at the mouth of Re'
8, river is," said Captain Eads, "tha
unless some steps are taken t,
Or prevent it, the whole volume o
the Mississippi will go out througl
the Atchafalaya. When the raj
was removed from the head of tn
latter river the water began to en-
d. large its bed, and the rate of thi
enlargement is perfectly frightfuI
| and calculated to arouse the SER
oua onnrahansinna of the pponl