Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-01-20
Southern Harbor improvements.


The Jobbery which has so long been
progressing prosperously under North
ern contractors and Northern work
men in Southern harbors, seems
likely to work out legitimate results
III some localities and come to a head.
promising startling disclosures in the
Wreckless waste of funds designed for
permanent improvements in our port ell
frances. In the United States Senate. on
the I'd inst, Senator Call, of Florida, sub
mitted the following resolution:
ReSOIoed, That the Secretary of War
is hereby directed to furnish the Senate
information of the condition of the work
for the Improvement of the entrance to
the st. Johns river, Florida, and to Cum
berland Sound, Georgia and Florida: also
whether there is necessity for an imme-
diate appropriation for the protection of
the works already constructed from de-
structlon by the action of the waves; also
as 10 the amount of money necessary to
be expended for this purpose until the
commencement of the next fiscal year.
The Senate, by unanimous consent. pro-
ceeded to consider the resolution.
Mr.. CALL desire to say that | hold in
my hand statement from j. j. Daniel
an eminent citizen of the State of Florida
writing in behalf of the citizens commit
tee OF jacksonville, and setting forth in
formation derived from the engineers as to
the condition of the public work at the en-
trance of the st. Johns river, and the
necessity for the continuance of the work
so as to prevent the st. Johns bar from
Swallowing until it becomes imDassabIn
for vessels; also, stating that the action
OF the elements there is such that without
further appropriation the work already
constructed would be destroyed entirely.
and asking that information may be pre-
Sented before Congress and such action
had as Will enable an appropriation to be
made for the immediate protection of the
work. The same statements are made bv
persons engaged i'll the work in regard to
the works for the improvement of the en-
trance to Cumberland Sound. | ask for
the adoption of the resolution.
The resolution was agreed to,
More recently the Jacksonville Times
investigated the complaints and publishes
a very dlscoouraging report of the progress
OF the work on that harbor, from which
the following is eXtracted:
'They were begun in December.
1880, by the contractors, LARA, Ross
81 Co. the work under the sec
Ond contract was begun in NOyem-
Der, 1881. During the time that work was
going forward upon those contracts the
channel was moved northward probably a
mile, ana was moving that way when Ma
ks
time there was a channel to the sea fifteen
feet deep. The work under the present
contract should have begun in September:
almost nothing at all has been accom-
plished under it. During the delay great
Washouts have occurred along the iettv
line, and the work has been under
mined and sunken in places. The
entire work under the present contract
has been expended thus far in placing
MATS Of fl,n sak&s
mats" they are called, to arrest the pro-
gress OF destruction and mend the breaks
or sinks. Only eight cargOes of stone had
been delivered up to January 1st. and but
one or two since then. The channel has
worked back several hundred feet further
south than 1t was when Major Durkee
finished his contract. Fifteen feet of water
has become ten feet; three million feet of
lumber are lying idle in our port, and be-
lated vessels are paying an aggregate of
$l50 a day to subsist in this maritime
prison of ours, bankrupting themselves
and running jacksonville as a commercial
port"
Upward of twenty vessels, SAYS the
Union, commenting upon the subject. are
said to be lying at the mouth of the river
awaiting sufficient depth of water on the
bar to go to sea.
After all the great expenditure of the
+.
the report the people there have to make
of the work, The Charleston harbor lob is
said to be progressing in about the same
way, new bars forming as fast as the old
are removed, only little further out TO
sea each time, leading the plethoric con-
Tractors out into still broader ocean of
future appropriations, which have hereto,
fore paid them, it is said, about 80 per
cent. on the Investment. The expenditure
of $500, 600 not having created any marked
change tor the better in the bar of that
harbor, the government might properly
consider whether it would not be mare
profitable to Charleston to place the re.
naming unexpended 100000 OF the an
preparation into other hands,
We see no remedy for this growing evil
save In giving the whole matter info the
hands of the States. Who so interested
and capable of cleaning out and Drotectin@
the har6ors OF tie country as the States in
which they are situated? Congress should
forthwith wipe its hands clean of the
whole matter and henceforth vest all such
appropriations in the States. This should
be new departure at once entered upop.
not only to prevent the waste of the mil !
lions already appropriated for rivers and
harbors, but as Work of reform 10 pre-
vent any more demagogues getting into |
Congress on the reputation of plundering |
the Treasury to reward their strikers and !
henchmen.