Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-02-26

may be further suggested that, if the views
of your committee are concurred in, and
the work of channel improvement restricted
to one or two reaches, a system of lesees
will hardly be necessary while this expert
mental work is being tested. Certainly no
superstructure should be raised IN
til the permanence of the founda-
ton is established. Your
committee were also directed to INQUIRE
into the feasibility Of the outlet system as
means of improving navigation This
plan consists in the construction of ont
lets sufficient in number and capacity to
carry off the food waters of the Mississippi
pi by other and more direct channels to the
gulf. It is claimed for this plan, that it
will keep the river at all stages of water,
substantially within its natural banks,
deepen the channel and ultimately
bring about low water naviga-
ton. Without reviewing the evil
dence submitted to your committee
touching this plan, it will be sufficient to
state the conclusion to which they have
arrived, to-wit: That an outlet system
would not, in the judgment of your COM
mittee, be beneficial to navigation; that,
while if might relieve the river of its flood
waters and save adjacent lands from over
flow, yet your committee are unable to dis
cover how low water navigation of the
river would be improved thereby.
The next question considered inthe report
is that of the jetties. The act authoriz-
ing their construction is quoted. The
terms of the contract with Eads fully
set forth, the means used
to preserve the required channel described,
and the subject dismissed as follows:
''Yessels drawing twentysix feet of water
pass in and out through the jetties and
south pass without difficulty since the
completion of the improvement. Reports
to the contrary were not found by the
committee to rest on facts. A reference to
the testimony will show the remarkable
| increase in shipments from the port of
New Orleans to all parts OF the world and
demonstrate beyond possible question the
immense advantages secured to the agri-
cultural and manufacturing and CONNER
cial interests of the whole Mississippi val
ley by the increased facility and
| safety of navigation. When the jetty
improvement was projected and became
subject of investigation and discussion, 1T
was asserted by eminent engineers that the
effect of the prolongation of the shore
lines of the pass by jetty walls, would be
to carry forward the land building process
farther into the gulf, and that in process
of time shoaling would result in front of
the outlet of the jetties. This view was
strenuously resisted by others who main
tanned that no such fall would occur, be-
cause of the presence of a lateral current
moving westward across the mouth of the
jettieB and sweeping away into
deep water the sediment borne
A.
observations of the inspecting engineer
and his assistants are important toward
the solution of the question. They testify
that during the last three years, since the
jetties were completed, the average deposit
over fan-shaped area of about one and g.
quarter miles in front of the mouth of the
ietties, has been a little over four feet.
This deposit was not evenly distributed.
In the language of Captain Heuer, "in
some places in this area there is no fall;
there is a scour. There is no deposit, and
water is deeper than it was. In others
instead of being secured that deposit has
exceeded seven feet in depth. These facts
lead naturally any one to doubt the pres
ence of lateral current and it appears
that no one has been able to detect il. The
removal of this sedimentary deposit will
Gent depth of water over it. 1t is possible
and even probable, that after q lapse
OF many years the accumulation
may be so great as to require the extern
sion of the jetty walls into the guilt, in
order to maintain the substantial benefit
now secured. Shouts such work become
necessary during the term OF maintenance
Tor which Mr. Eads IS bound, which IL the
! opinion of the committee is not probable,
the conditions Of his contract viii demand
the performance of such work by him at
his own expense. No damage
has resulted to the jetties since
completion, from the effects of storms,
currents or wave action except N a single
instance; and it is believed they are sub
stantial and permanent. On the 9Th of
September, 1882, a severe hurricane passed
| across the works with so great violence
as to move solid blocks of concrete, esti-
mated to weigh thirty tons, from the tops
of the ietties, at the inner lefty, which had
been partly constructed, and that served
to break the fury of the storm and protect
the channel. The committee are unani-
mously of the opinion that no action is
necessary on the part of congress in rela-
ton to the jetties, as the laws IN force fully
provide under authority specifically ex-
pressed, for any future exigency IN the
premises, and the performance OF con-
tracts made appears to be faithfully rem
dered.
The majority report is not signed by
either Thomas or Ellis. Those two mem
bers of the committee join in the minority
report, favoring vigorous prosecution of
the work of improving the river under the
plans of the commission, and declaring
that the plan has proved a success, and
has passed beyond the experimental point.
They, however, have not yet completed the
preparation of their report.
Messrs. Butterworth, Hazelton and HoI-
man, who were originally designated as a
subcommittee to report to the full COM
mittee upon the outlet system, have sub
mitted their views upon that subject as a
minority report.
The general report does not oppose this
report, but that what it suggests is not in
its opinion in the interest of navigation by
the public.
The minority report says: The advisa-
biity of improving navigation of the
Mississippi is conceded by all. A difference
of opinion, however, exists as to
which is the best method or whether it