The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1882-05-06
Capt. James b. Eads, the Great
Engineer, and His Grand
achievements.

Achievements.
That the thousands of farmer
who read this journal, and especi
ally the young farmers who are Jus
entering upon the practical duties
Of life. may be informed of tn,
great progress that Is being made ir
other fields of science and Industr,
which directly concerns them a.
the producers of wealth, whose in,
terests are vitality affected by the
improvement Of old and opening
of new routes of transportation, we
present in this issue of THE PA.
IRON such illustrations and descrip-
tons of the Jetties at the mouth o.
the Mississippi river, already com
pleted, and the Ship Railway, to
be built across the Isthmus of Te-
huantepec, as will enable them to
understand the character and mag
nitnde of those great works and
their immediate bearing upon the
agricultural, manufacturing and
commercial interests of our country.
We also present an accurate and
sPlendidly executed portrait of
Capt. James B. Eads, the Great En-
gineer, who constructed the mag
nificent Iron Bridge that spans the
Mississippi at ST. Louis. and the
Ietties at its mouth. and who will
soon commence the building of the
Ship RAILWAY under circumstances
that insure its speedy completion
His. grand achievements have won
for him worldwide reputation
and while scientific men acknowl-
edge him as the foremost Engineer
OF the age, the farmers and manufac-
tuners of America will unite in pro
Claiming him the most useful man
of the day. His works are all of an
eminently practical character, which
will not only confer untold benefits
upon the toiling millions, but so
revolutionize the transportation of
the country as to strike from honest
labor the shackles which railways
and other monopolies have fastened
upon it and open to the products of
our fields and factories new and
most valuabl markets.
1t is impossible to estimate the in
fiuence which the deepening of the
mouth of the Mississippi will have
upon the agriculture of the Great
Valley. The opening of the rive,
to the commerce of the world had
engaged the attention of the Genera
Government for over halfa century,
and for more than forty wears it had
attempted to accomplish it, but all
the efforts of its leading military
engineers had resulted in failure.
In the meantime Northern capital
lists had built up railway system
that forced the transportation of the
farm products of the Great West
across the continent to New York
and other Eastern cities-a channel
at once unnatural and expensive
and who imposed such high rates
that at times the farmers found
it more to their interest to burn
their corn as fuel than to ship
it to the distant markets of
the East. The producers were
Powerless to oppose successfully
this most oppressive system, for
with the Mississippi virtually closed
against them, they had no alterna-
tive but to ship their produce by
the railways at rates that left but
mere pittance for their labor or
leave it ungathered in their fields.
But the great problem of securing
a deep water outlet to the Gulf was
to be solved by one man, whose
plan was so simple as to seem abb
surd, and which, when brought be-
fore the public, excited the ridicule
of the leading military engineers of
the country, and was most stub
bornly opposed by the press, by
public men, and by Boards of Trade.
But Capt. Eads was so thoroughly
impressed with the capacity of his
Jetty system, that he boldly met his
adversaries with voice and pen and
successfully overcame all opposi
ton. When the question was be-
ing agitated before the people, he
brought it to the attention of the
National Grange at the meeting in
ST. Louis in 1874, and that body
promptly memorialized Congress to
accept his plan, and it is the proud
boast of our Order that its National
head was among the first corporate
bodies that officially endorsed the
Jetty system.
After the General Government
adopted his plan, and while even
his friends were fearful of the re-
suit, Capt. Eads delivered mem
orable speech at ST. Louis on the