The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1882-12-28
Rivers and HarbOrS.

Rivers and Harbors.
The following response TO our articles on
river and barbor improvements is so good
and so true and so encouraging 10 us and
others engaged in the same praiseworthy
cause, that we surrender to II our editorial
column. We find in the article lut few
sentences which we cannot endorse. And
since the article as a whole possesses so
much merit We will not indicate those SEN
fences.
To tie Wise Men Of the East, the Metre
pol;tan Press, the Representatives OF
Capital Invested in Mining and Manuiac-
turing. i'm Railroads, City Property, &C.,
Now Arrayed in Powerful PhalanX,
Gittering with Golden-lIeadcd Spears,
for the Overthrow OF Every Movement
Made by the South and West to Cheaper
Transportation, and for Their Develop
ment
CONTAMINATION one from the mar
row, cramped localities of the East comes
into the Valley OF The Mississippi he be-
comes lost. He is like child when he first
enters some great city-the more he looks,
the more he is bewildorod. 1t is relief 10
him to return to his fathers cabin and few
poor acres.
Let any one in the habit Of looking at the
truck patches Of The East, at the Hudson,
the Connecticut, and other like rivers
mighty rivers 10 him-cOmc OH to the Ohio
at Pittsburgh, and 90 on down 10 Cairo,
thence down the sea OF moving waters
called the Mississippi to New Orleans, and
lie will have passed rivers each one OF
which drains a territory capable oi sup
porting larger population than the New
Tpgland States, with New York and Penn
sylyania added on. These are some Of our
t~out streams, az the New York papers
term them i'm dcrision. And when he Las
returned home his own mighty rivers will
look like brooks. When he enters the Mis-
sissipni at Cairo the mighty. Ohio Itself will
seem hut 4 thread OF water pouring little
muddy current into the sea OF waters Tow
ing by. Here he viii have passed, few
hundred miles below, the mouth OF the
Missouri, reaching far away for thou
sands OF miles into the vast continent.
This river drains a territory larger than
oIl the eastern States, with Ohio, Illinois,
and Indiana added on. This traveller, too,
Will lave passed the mouth q great
river draining in part Louisiana, Arkansas,
and Texas away up into the Rocky Noun
tains-a river that drains more cotton
land than lies east Of the Mississippi, and
CAPABLE Of producing more com than is
now grown in America. These, to the
average wise man OF the East, arc all "trout
streams; but when he sees them he viii
think them flowing seas, ii, indeed, he
does not regard his voyage all a dream.
and finally 20 crazy or end crank.
Fifty millions OF people might live in
The basin Of many OF these rivers and have
land to sell. Improve the river and they
will be there. | have no doubt that most
OF those who repeat, like parrots, "the
great steal" are very honest people in
their way. In coming down the Ohio The
traveller would pass 4 trout stream called
The Great Kanawha. 1t drains a territory
ms large as hall OF New England, leaving
out her icc-bouse called Maine. IL is $50
miles long, and its valley some 10 miles
wide. These lands are fertile, the climate
magnificent, the vast forests covered with
timber unsurpassed anywhere. The area OF
coal is some $4,000 square miles, aggre-
eating in thickness some 40 feet, and OF
every variety except anthracite, to which
the splnt Is about equal In value. This GOA
and this timber have been locked ND from
commerce, from the vast and growing
populations of the Mississippi and Ohio
valleys. from the Gulf and Atlanti,
seaboard, for the want of few mil
lions OF dollars to improve its navigation
This river carries more water to the sc;
than all the rivers Of New England, ant
its valley Is OF more intrinsic value thar
New England with New York State adde,
on. The Government, under the contro
Of the East, has doled out, crumb b,
crumb, for ten years past, about 100000
wear for It's Improvement instead OF 81
900 "a year. We have one engineer
with two assistants, whereas we ought
have five engineers with their assistants
Wc have locks of about half the requisit
dimensions. And vet with these part;
and diminutiye improvements we are no.
shipping by river some 10000, coo bushe
Of coal yearly; whereas, had the work bee
completed five years ago we would Ia,
been shipping at least 60,0O0,000 busfc
yearly at lsc. cheaper than Pennsylyanj
Goals, with large yearly increase-a sayin
TO the consumers Of 5000, 900 yearly. Tn
would be, OH the estimate Of $4,000, coo
complete the work, Is per cent. wear. il
creaslng every year. Can't this Govern
nent afford 10 invest the peoples none
for them at Is per cent. 7 In twenty yea
pore we will ship, perhaps, 100, 200, 90
bushels weary.
Coming up the Kanawha this trayele
from The East will pass trout stream cal
cd Elk river (di6 these wise men OF lib
'''N WV IVA vi ItNtC ~, tfnDlNiu
into The kanawha at Charleston (of co,lrs
they never heard OF Charleston). This /
stream for brook trout. 1t Is only IL
miles long, and drains basin about q
miles wide-say 1900 square miles. Tn,
forests are unsurpassed for timber, th.
lands fertile, the coal-feld the same as tina,
on the kanawha, but the seams of Goa
thicker and purer-the area Of coal. say
1900 square miles, aggregating forty to
mty feet In thickness-more coal than in
the State Of Pennsylvania; more than in
Great Britain. So much for the stream for
brook trout. Such coal-feld In PennsyI.
yanla would be worth $1,000 an acre. I'M
prove our trout streams and give us n rail-
road to carry this Elk-riyer coal east and
west, ana the coal.lands OF the Kanawha
and Elk-Hivcr valleys will be more yaIlla.
bic than the Pennsylvania coal-lands, be.
cause nearer 10 market with cheaper trans
portstion. This Is not ALL. These Goals
are OF every variety, some making the very