Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-02-19
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Wisdom and Folly of the Mississippi
River Convention.
Conflict of Two Theories Diffusion and
Concentration.
Gigantic Plans TO Curb the Current Of
the Mighty River.
Mud Walls No Barricr--Artiilcial Out
let's the True System.

sion and action of representative men
OF the valley of the Mississippi in this
city has induced the whole press of the
country TO discuss, with a degree of
earnestness never known before, the
necessities and the value of the
Mississippi. Two great facts
stand confessed - first, that If
the Mississippi be made navigable and
ship channel from New Orleans
to the guilt enable great
ships, such as enter New York harbor,
to enter New Orleans, that the course
of continental commerce will be invert-
ed, finding its way TO New Orleans
and Houston instead of New York;
and, second, eight million cotton bales
and an equal value of other crops will
be added TO the annual productions of
the South. Therefore, some have ar
gued that the great railway kings
would not have the Mississippi made
navigable and therefore does the river
commission pursue n policy which
many people insist can never result
by any possibility in the achievement
of any good. In other words, the
com mission represent the railway cor
porations. and not the people of the
great valley. This / am not prepared
To believe. On the contrary, the
members of this commission derive
their theories and base their practices
upon the assertions of men who, hay
ing spent their lives behind levees, can
conceive of no other means of security
for themselves and their homes.
MIGHTY INTERESTS INVOLVED.
A wide district, rs fertile as the val
ley of the Nile, when Egypt was the
mate no 9amiti,Sa,s tho sn;I 10 ax,harant
tba aaa Cnttnn r;ca born s,,nnr "a
fruits aonriSh ir , rori,.n 1"S 5,a "n
which the iron,caI Maori erray;tota a' as
naimraIIu ~. ~ s,IS raesna" 80,
generomsIv n the iaast npssihia tniI
& fr,nans ara naan,iarI,, awen,nt yr,,,,
disaasas nciaapt To- MI, rjaI Idu,Iand,
and if th;s ,natchless conntrv MAJ ho
radaamad FROM anods and Nay nri.on nc
hacoma nccessi,,Ie IN vessels M fiva.nd
seven thousand tons burden that
Grain aud cotton may Ina aynorted
In hulk rather that Inv the halo
and hnshel lie wealth of thja vaIInv
will sneediiy control the worIdis cn,n.
merce making the richest nations nj
,voya dahtora 10 tha ITnitnd Stotns
ma annual cntton cron njona nf ,hn
district defined from Chiro IN tho .mif
would he worth nj $40 ner hale. S5oo
OoO 400 Rice corn. supar md frnits
,,roanced yon,d he Of great ynl,Ip'and
Val CONGREGATIONAL estimates of evils
done Inv The floods of Last wear meas.
ure only triflinp present losses of forty
or fifty millions of dollars.
Why build ietties giving uncertain.
hn "a la,tbu nf yp,far md ot haoI
only admitting shlps OF 2,ooo tons,
when current ess snip emanuel thirty
ieet ueep,, from new orleans 10 lhe
gun, Woulu cost no more OF even Tess!
why wheh pretending 10 reiieve New |
orleans was NOT l'resiuent Jeiiersoh
pan peIlecleu Wheh ne puliC fort
Livingston on barralarla Dhy ana
why was not mat ihiet MADE tne gate
way 10 Verltapie seaport through
another SuezcanaI' why were Jettles
MADE 10 conilne the different passes
WITHIN one par Oh walls ana mus NV
up the rivers surface NJ us entrance
INTO the sea?
There may be SOUND reason Tor per-
sistent assertions OF steamboatmen that
the unprecedented destructiveness Oh
Hoods OF years ago Is 10 De ascrlDeu 10
''NN ,,, *, ,"
by the JetIles. Inc ONO ana us trlpu-
taries alone contributed to these latest
dreadful disasters. III the upper Mis-,
'isslppl, the limos, missouri, Iteu hhu
Arkansas rivers had been sihiuilahe-
ously Hooded, Inc whole OF LOUISIANA
below shreveport ana nan OF Mlssis-
iippl would nave beer AT the boItom OF
his turbld yellow sea-
RUIN WROUGHT by JETTIEs.
prt If tbe ietties do not operayate
,oion,ities Inv onerating ms n dam across
IL. rive,Is mouth aud litling IN
a. nond,ide and iuundatinp
.;obest districts of the valley never be.
,aIa snI,maraed the simnl, a. diagram
.I,a,ys that no Tie ietties inust he nee
.ssarilv extended further and further
ITO tHe yulf hecause the river IL al.
.a,,a ng,hening itself The rivers sur-
go aln9r H. whole Length. il thus
teodiIv mnIIfled, oyerfows necessa-
H., hscon,es more aud more wide
nryaod and ruinous and annual calam-
|; 10 wiIlfuiiv aogravated
III How nnlnsbIe IL the simple fact that
. tha ,ivar,s mouth were nj New Or
cons tho sea.lpveI heinz at that point.
La riyer,s ,rface woliid he depressed
nnrtnen feet A straight line from
Sew Orleans to Cairo shows indlspu-
aliy tha etI;ci of fh,s Iesseninp of The
.iuay,s ienyth unon is height.
n this reduction of the
,aod lido sonrtaen feet Mt New Or
na M raii.d 10 relieve the whole val
90, Iivarsion of - greater volume of
~, Missiasinni INFO The Atnhaf4Inya
,a;oht he made 10 lower the water