The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1882-07-08
4 Word to Oar Friends In the Lower
Valley.
sPUT NOT THYRAITH IN PRINCESS
[Aberdeen Examiner.l

food level of the stream by so con-
eentrating and directing its waters
as to force them to scour out the
bars and dig deep and perma-
nent channel; with this object in
view they must be absolutely the
masters and controllers of the
great volume that hurries past our
coast to the sea, for If it escapes
them and rushes OF TO right or
left IT depcsits silt and makes bars
below the line of exit, thus ceasing
to be the great labor motor pro-
posed by the engineers. To pre-
vent this il viii be absolutely nec-
essary in many instances, for the
purpose Of Improving the. naviga-
ton of the river, aud not for the
protection of it's coasts, to build
rejecting walls or levees, and they
win be built, and in,the course Of
time they may build SO many of
them that they within some regions
constitute almost continuous lines
of levee, but We cannot AFFORD to
await the slow progress of a work
that panders primarily to CON-
merce and only incidentally to ag-
riculture.
The work Of protecting the river
front of Mississippi cannot safely
belief to others than her citizens,
II must move steadily and uninter-
ruptedly forward at the expense
of the immediate beneficiaries,w who
will, however, as they progress
painfully along with the labor and
outlay incident to create and re.
pair, have the consolation hereto
fore denied them, of knowing, that
the Government is at work in their
front, plowing out the channel to
the inevitable end that the river
shall sink deeper into the bosom
Of the valley, Thus adding foot to
the heighth of the levee for every
foot of new channel depth SO.
cured.
1t IL hardly possible that any
great headway will be made by the
engineers in the next twelve
months, in fact it may be several
years before the effects of their
work will be fairly discernable, for
they are wrestling with a giant OF
want0n mood and cannot foresee
with absolute certainty its .eccen.
trc movements, but still we have
the consolation of knowing that
destructive foods arc not of annu-
al or bi.amual occurrence, and
may confidently rely for safety
upon a levee limo no more sub
stantial than that which followed
the coast line last winter, for safe
ty, until guaranteed permanent re-
lief by@ the toilors in the deep" Of
the channel force.
What we have written is moi
submitted with q view to discour
aging the hopes of our valley
friends-far from 1t; it is rather IL
a warning spirit, and in the belize
that II is our duty to dispel what
we certainly regard as danger
ous delusion. We have listened
to and carefully considered the
debates in both House of Con
gress upon this subject, and we
have interviewed many men OF in
fuence in both the great politica'
parties in regard to the matter
and confidently assert that the
friends of the levce system-as q
distinct proposition and for the
purpose of protecting the riparian
regions -are vastly weakerin Con
gress to-day than. they were last
spring, and are hourly losing
strength; while on the other hand
the policy Of improving, deepening
and Strengthening the Mississippi
river, is being generally accepted
as q matter of national interest and
concern, by representative men Of
all parties and of all sections.
In our judgment-for we have
implicit faith in the plans Of the
1 River Oommissiou-two years o.
channel work VIII result IN lower
ing the flood level of the Missis
,sippi to such an extent as to guar
antee absolute security to those
who dwell behind such levees al
we had prior to the last overflow
aud that each succeeding year o.
work will give additional protec
ton to the riparian proprietors
but for the present they must looi
to the picks and shovels that have
served them in other years so well
and borrowing patience from wei
founded hope, "learn to labor ant
to wait"
We confess it is not pleasant t.
discourage those who have bull
largely upon the words of TIN