Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-06-12
K,vEE InrReyEmENr POLICY.

importance. We all know what that river,
a. nature has rudely left it, is to the pros
perily of those who dwell upon its banks.
The semi arctic and the semi-tropic exchange
productions directly by aid of this single
conduit of commerce, and busy villages and
stately cities, factories, foundries, and all the
varied appliances Of trade, have sprung up
and are every year increasing by lite isvoring
aid. II 60 much has been done while the
navigation Of the great national highway
was impeded by bare and shoals, and snags
and rapids, to what fights would the COM
meroe of this mighty valley attain il the
Mississippi could be navigsted from the Falls
Of St. Anthony to the jetties at all seasons
when ice did not interfere with the upob-
structed regularity with which coach ira
verses a wellkept highway? Na'ure
has given the rough channel and
thee teeming supplies oil water; let
skill, directed by science, perform the
great work of clearing the rivsrb'-bed and
removing the obstacles that obstruct naviga-
ton, and the Commerce Of the great valley
would enlarge and widen and pour among
the people inhabitiDg lis shores and those of
its sfiluents, unstinted wealth. 1t is clesrly
the interest aud The duty to all who enjoy
the privilege Of living in this valley that
nature has 90 favored with her unstin'ed
gifts, 10 spare no effort that can be made 10
attain that great and necessary object, an uu-
obstIucted river a clear way along which
tha How of trsda sbalI raza unhipdered
This universally of will and effort is the
more needed "a the very extent and grandeur
OF the results 81 3 constantly navigable river
has raised up rival voices that condo mn and
oppose all improvement. Eis cru ports fear
their trade would be les ned ty the MI,sis.
sippi river Offering more facilities 10 navigs-
ton than at present, and they bitterly oppose
all Improvement. Railroads there are that
fnd clear river navig alton will be check
to exiortions and determinations, and these
are bitter enemies 10 Mississippi river inn
provement. A hundred other motives feed
this opposition; some OF them are mean, per-
sonsl, and spiteful. This opposition
should arouse and stimulate every
dweler in this valley TO deter
mination and action The greater
part of the opposition comes from those who
Zee what vast results TO ourselves would flow
from the possession of arIver channel uuob-
strucltd and constantly open to commerce.
These men have more lively realization of
the vast conseq uences that would flow from
an improved naYigable river channel than
we have ourselves, therefore they oppose it.
Their vigilsni, undring Antsgonism, within
the halls Of legis.stion, in the press, and
from the platform, proclaim how highly
they think OF what would follow unob-
structed river navigation. Shall we whore
interests are 80 closely bound up in the work
DOW carrying on by the Mississippi River
Commission, allow the enemies OF our pros.
perity to show more vigor, industry, vigil
lance and spiIit than we manifest Ourselves?
The justice Of the cause we defend, and the
strength Of the claims we urge, have induced
Congress 10 CONNER the work that must be
done. But scarcely had the initial Iabors
been begun when the sciive and watchiul
enemies of river improvement brought about
suspension of proceedings by inducing Con-
gress to refuse to vote the Gums necessary 10
the performance of the duties for which the
Commission was appointed. They are able
to do this, becau the appropriations In aid
of the Mississippi Improvement are mingled
with the Iogrolliug, bargaining and trickery
that is conneced with the famous, or rather
infamous, "river and harbor BILL" An i'm
provement for petty creek, got up only to
satisfy the hungry mouths of demsgogues
and s0indling contractors, is put upon the
same footing ss the great work Of rendering
permanently navigsble the main internal
water highway of the nation, which is sub
jected to the chsnces and m anipulaGons thst
govern trivial and often fraudulent schemes
and imposfures. The APPEAL has continu-
ally COMMANDED lhsts work 40 fuRdam entally
important as that Of ippfoving the Missis-
sippi river ought to have place in tine iesis-
ialion of Congress unconnected with any
other. To miugle the great interests Of the
Mississippi Valley, and the vast stream that
waters it, with little schemes for improving
Cow creek and other equally important
waters is an insult to the people
of the West and the Southwest. II is
helittling the great object that is TO be
accomplished. II is telling those who know
nothing personally about the Mississippi
that the interests of that river and those of
Cow creek stand fundamentally on the came
bssir. We are glad TO obserre that the intel.
ligent Washington correspondent of the ST.
Louis Republican sees the matter in the same
light. A few days ago, in a communication
to that paper, he said it ia universally con.
ceded that the improvement of the Missis-
sippi river is national work, not to be con-
founded with the grounds of criticisms COM
mouy aimed at the river and harbor bill,
yet the interruption of that great work was
the special object Of many OF those who OPP
posed the last river and harbor bill. The
fol lowing sentence OF the correspondent is
Of the real motive being hidden is evidence
OF the truth that the work is OF such an inn
porlant general character as to forbid open
opposition" The writer adds another sen-
teace that the APPEAL is sure contains a
warning that the people of the Mississippi
Valley, if they value their future interests,
will neither forget nor neglect. He says:
/ "If 1 mistake not, it will be discovered
that this same opposition will be encountered
in clearer outline at the next session of
Congress" OF course it will. The opponents
of Mississippi river improvements exhibited,
at the last session of Congress, readiness to
seize oppor unity, skill in discovering how
10 neutralizs the work previously done in
favor of the Mississippi, aud altogether a
| persevering, untiriug, wary and skillful
power of Influencing legislation, that was
conspicrously deficient among the friends of
river improvement. The fact ia, the East
erners "know athing or two" about river and
harbor legislation that the Westerners are
not yet fully "down to-" They have had much
experiences with that bill, and have gained
the spending of millions in consequence, and
they neither want TO share those millions
with the Mississippi nor to have Transports
ton they have hitherto monopolized find its
| way down the Mississippi to the sea. We
think that what is here said must con.
! yincs the MsasYhis reader, and those 10 the
valley at large, that the FIRST thing upon the
subject that we are discussing to be aimed a
Ia the next session Of Congress, is 10 require
that the Mississippi river improvement m at
ter shall be entirely separated from the gen
eral river and harbor bill; that its elaine
shall stand on their own merits uncon
i founded With Cow creek and other schemes