Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-02-28
Floating Capital.

The report from Memphis that wicker |
work mattresses by the acre are dally |
seen passing that city on the bosom Of the |
flooded Mississippi lends interest TO the
measure before Congress asking for the
1888 installmento Of the great river and mar
Dor appropriation, designed for the I'M
provement of the Mississippi. -Four MIL
lions have already been spent IN carrying
out the plans of the commission, chiefly at
PIum Point and Lake Providence reach,
70 which points a select committee adj
yised that the work should be confined
until thoroughly tested by repeated high
waters, etc, and promptly the flood came,
with melancholy result to the commission,
the expectation of the 500, 900 appro-
priation people, and the unfortunate pOpu-
lation of the low grounds of the great val
lev. Engineer knight reports l, 40 feet OF
the mattress and piling swept away from
Plum Point reach, and, as the river is yet
only in fair way of getting up, it is very
probable that when it subsidies echo will
have to answer the query, where has gone
the four millions! The commission pro-
posed to spend from $50, 900, OOOto $lOO,OOO,-
coo i'm this kind of work, under the I'M
preston that it would improve the river
and restore it to navigation by large
steamers, but the signs are not propitious
for further pursuing the theory OF the
commission at present, and it would
probably be better to wait while until
the water retires, that close inspection
may be able to determine, if any, what
real good has been done.
The people of this country are willing
to improve their rivers and harbOrs, even
at great cost, but they are not in favor OF
emptying their treasury into the Missis-
/ sippi upon an untried theory of convert
| ing it to 'bread upon the waters;" nor
| merely to furnish employment and sala-
/ ries to large class who are never so hap
/ DIV as when drawing large pay for small
| work on government contracts. The
/ work on the Mississippi, so far, seems to
/ be about as improving to that stream as
| the ietties to some of the harbOrs, where
/ millions have been spent to change sand
| beds from one point of entrance to another.
| We trust, however, that things will not
/ turn out as bad as they seem-we
/ should certainly regret to see so we'll sup
/ ported theory for improving the great
river utterly fail. We had become con-
vert to the practicability of restoring it to
| its former uses in transportation, and it
would be saddening to discover that so
/ grand and majestic a stream must pass
through the ages of a mighty empire upon
its shores, unsuited to the higher purposes
/ of navigation. But even here reflective
reason suggests that, after all, things may
| turn out about right. Nature neither goes
| ahead or behind mankind in her benefits.
| Ii she opens to him the riyers-and har-
bOrs and then fills them up again, IT is
more than probable that compensation has
been amply prOyided-pOssibly through
mans own invention. Who shall say
how long the world will stand in need of
deep water for navigating purposes?
Already shallow barges and surface ships
have been invented (the latter not more
| wonderful than the steam engine), and
we must not be surprised if the future
population of the Mississippi valley
esteem the great surface breadth of that
stream as more important to their indus
try and enterprise than its great depth.