Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1883-01-16
The Mississippi as the Regulator Of Rates
Of transportation and Of Texas
Cattle and Sheep Markets.
What Anaoreon Said About It--4hs Phi
losophy of John 0owdon- His Dreams
and Visions Of American Splendor
And Commercial Empire The Great Com
mercial Question of the Age
and Country,
special Correspondence Of the Gsze.t..

Z J
| Railway managers and representatives
have succeeded in delaying action, but
discussion has progressed and the COM
4 petition of the Lake and Willard
| canal routes, from west To east, sug-
/ gested, necessarily, as the proper
/ method Of regulating this interstate
/ commerce, the perfection by congress
( of the navigability of the Mississippi.
/ With the redemption of the lowlands
4 from overflow, save as an incident Of
I commercial" purposes and policy,
congress, under the constitution, can
/ have nothing to do From these
facts and aspects of this question
I as originally discussed by Judge Rea-
/ gan, sprang the conviction now fast
ened upon the public mind, that the
commercial necessities Of the whole
country demand, at any cost, the per-
/ lection of the navigability of the Faith
/ or of Floods 1t costs commonly, five
| times more 10 shi p a ton of freight one
mile by rail than by water. Barges on
the Mississippi transferred hay, corn,
wheat, cotton, sugar and tobacco from
/ St Louis and Memphis to
/ New Orleans at one cent
per ton per mile. Railway
owners could not tolerate such gains
/ OF such wealth by producing popula-
/ tions, and the great barge line owners
were induced TO sell their boats to rail-
/ way managers, and the barges now rot
| at their whnrves. Prior to this, Texan
| cattle, delivered in twenty-four and
| thirty-siX hours from San Antonio
and Fort Worth 10y rail mt New Or
leans, were transferred to empty
/ barges, and, watercd and fattened on
/ the river, were delivered in six and
/ eight days in st. Louis in better con-
/ dition than when taken from the
/ plains. Beef from Texas was then in
| great demand, but the suppression Of
/ the barge line, ~ Il ruinous competitor
/ Of Texan railways, excludes impover-
ished Texas beef cattle, rs now shipped
from the butchers shameless OF the
| East, Texas loses enormously and
the cost of living is augmented in ey-
cry novel and palace of America.
Statesmen. except those that belong to
manufacturers aud railway corpora
tons, consult the greatest good Of the
greatest number, and therefore the
profound earnestne-s with which
MIR. Carlisle and others OF the
congressional committee, hav-
ing III special charge the
consideration of methods OF thwarting
railway managers and agents and OF
descending rates of transportation, and
thus the cost of living, have de-
voted themselves TO the task of deter
mining proper methods of perfecting
the rivers navigability. Not only is
this question of cheap freight rates in.
VOWED, but the fortunes of great states
whose cities are laved by uavigable
strcalas 2S 900 miles in length. OF
400 600 bushels of wheat produced
along these rivers only 100 900 600 ear
be exported. If the river were made
rs II might be, n veritable arm of til,
sea, 400, 900, 600 bushels of grain woult
be delivered at one cent per ton PEI
mile IN New Orleans. Egyptian cot
ton and wheat from the Black sea
could no longer compete in Londoi
y with these cheapened products of tn
: United States. Eight or ten million
j cotton bales would he added by tn,
! redeemed valley 10 the annual cotton
, crop of the United States, and toddie
i of the dram-drinking universe woul,
: be made delicious by saccharine Juice
r of Louisiana. Old Anacreon wa
dreaming ofthis grand consummatiol
when he wrote more than two thous
= and years ago:
7 Behold when Mother Earth Is dry
/ she drinks tho droppmgs of the sky;
ANA then the dcwy cordial gives
To every thirsty plant thai lives.
| me moon, too, quotis her paly stream
2 OF lustcr nom the solar beam
The Napors which at eV"-iiig weep
Arc beverage To the Vastly deep.
If natures holy land be drinking
! II make the law OF nature mine
I Ana pledge the Universe In wine
Thia ntnigp,ltnnl fno.f ;,.-....-i
cause find that your bihulOus reader
were tired of the consideration of In,
virtues of water.
LENEES vs.. OUTLETS.
The river commission, at least ma
jority of this fungus addendum of IN
congress of the United States. woul,
wall in the river aud its tributaries n
far up IA highlands, with mud Can
tain Cowden is here seeking 10 Undue
l congress To make an outlet for tn,
super-abundant flood tide of the rive
: into Lake Borgnc, of the sea level
ten miles below New Orleans. Ifthi
do not accomplish the purpose. IN
would divert Red River or its flood
into the Gulf If this do not reliey,
the low lands, he would turn the Ar
kansas Hoods into Red River. If tn,
volume of water coming down /,
springtime from the Rocky Noun
'ains be too great for the "incontinent'
FATHER of floods, Cowden would cut ;
canal from the Missouri 70 the Neosho
loo miles, which flows into the Arkan
sas. Thus we would have two Missis
sippi rivers parallel with one another
ana connected by transverse navigahl,
canals from which the whole vale,
could be irrigated and its present pro
ductlVeness always maintained
Wall in the river and w,
will have Danubian overflows
forever. We lose countless confessed
advantages and deny the absolute
necessity for the rich deposit wisely
made by nature, giving ever-renewed
productiveness TO lowland plantations
We eNpend hundreds of millions ON
trail earthen walls that are ephemeraI
and forever to be rebuilt and guarded
day and night. while canals are self.
sustaining and diverted rivers main.
tam and carve out their own channels.
cowDEN is RIGHT.