The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-12-12
RIVER IMPROVEMENT.

THE CALL FOR A BILL OF PARTICULARS.
WASHINGTON, December 10.-"That is
what the man in the play would call
corker, that resolution of ours, passed by
the house yesterday" said member of the
commerce committee tonight "Read
carefully this clause of the resolution
Whether any money appropriated by the
act of Augusta, 1882, were appropriated for
works or objects that are not in the inter-
est of, or do not benefit, commerce or navi-
cation, and if SO to name such works or Oh.
jects, and the respective amounts so appro-
priated' That is what the secretary of war
must report TO the house. feel sorry for
Mr.. Lincoln. He is compelled to expose
the ignorance of his chief, the president,
who directs in his veto message that the
river and harbor bill contained appropria-
tons of public money beyond the powers
given by the constitution to congress.
tell you the president
DIDN'T KNOW WHAT HE WAS TALKING ABOUT
And the secretary of wars response to our
resolution will show it."
The commerce committee will doubtless
annoy the department aud the president,
and they may succeed in convincing the
latter Of inconsistency in his veto message.
But the members of the committee go very
far when they assume the defense of every
item in the bill passed at the last session,
including appropriations for large num-
Der of small and unimportant streams, the
reservoirs at the head of the Mississippi
and the survey Of the proposed Hennepin
and Delaware and Maryland ship canals.
Not few members Of the house, who last
session opposed the passage of the river
and harbor bill, voted yesterday for the
committees resolution on the ground that
| the committee and the house were entitled
to bill Of particulars regarding the condi-
ton Of the Improvements authorized in
course of construction or not yet begun.
coNGER's ABOUT FACE.
Friends VI the improvement of the Miss
issippi river are surprised at the present
attitude Of Senator Conger, who has deve-
oped splenetic and fierce opposition to
separate Legislation for the Mississippi.
He now charges that the large appropria-
ton made for the Mississippi at the last
session of congress was the cause of CON-
plant throughout the country against the
river and hsrbor bill, and declares that the
size of that bill was increased by the ac-
ton of the committee on improvement of
the Mississippi. The charge is absurd,
and is not sustained by facts. Conger
| himself at the last session voted for the
senate bill making an appropriation of So
100000 for the Mississippi and 81 100000
for the Missouri. This bill was passed
unanimously by the senate and is now on
the speakers table in the house. Yester.
day in the senate Conger said that the ap-
preparation for the Mississippi in the river
and harbor bill, recommended and urged
beyond what the commerce committee had
reported to both the senate and house,
swelled that bill to the proportions which
made it distasteful to many people of the
United States. This assertion is grossly
inaccurate. The amount In the river and
harbor bill for the Mississippi was put
there by the house commerce committee,
approved by the house, and by the senate
commerce committee, of which Conger is
member, and by the senate, and finally by
the president, who commended the appro-
priation in his veto message. In the face
of these facts, Copeer's newborn hostility
to the amount appropriated last sessions
for the Mississippi is certainly remarkable.