The Aberdeen examiner. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1866-current, 1884-04-24

States, would reinforce the column
of its enemies.
The friends to the improvement Of
the lower Mississippi and its coasts
are necessary to the friends of the
River and Harbor Bill who have no
peculiar interest in the Mississippi's
lower valley, hence a compact exists
which is built upon the most solid of
all foundations, that of common in
terest, and he is no friend Of the
lower country who while apprecia-
ting this condition Of affairs, would
suggest or urge a divorce of these
interests; division of forces in the
face of common enemy who would
cheerfully make peace and alliance
with the little rivers for the sake Of
strangling the great one-the Mis-
sissippi.
OF course this is a matter Of taste
and Judgment entirely, but it seems
to us that after the Mississippi river
has succeeded in obtaining recogni-
tion for the works on its lower divi-
sion, in the River and Harbor Bill,
to almost il not quite the full extent
asked by the Board organized for the
protection Of its interests; and when
the River and Habor Bill after a
struggle of many years duration has
at last been reinforced by the Con
gressional delegations Or even Mas
sachusetts and Rhode Island, that it
is very impolitic, unwise and suicidal
for journals and public men in the
riparian counties to chime in with
the great and powerful enemies of
the Mississippi river, in ridiculing
and denouncing the iayorite measure
Of its best friends and allies.
We can say to these people what
every one familiar with the views of
members Of Congress upon this ques-
ton knows to be true: That any
thing like a formidable opposition to
the River and Harbor Bill from the
delegations on the lower Mississippi,
would have the effect to blot out
that stream perfectly and completely
from the list of Treasury benefcia-
ries; and it ought to.
So far as Arthur's support of the
applications of the Mississippi River
Commission go, they have no weight
in Washington-the men who be-
friend the great river would do SO
quite as readily if Arthur was its
enemy, and the best friends the river
has on the Republican side Of the
two chambers, are to be found among
the men who voted for the bill he
vetoed. and who afterwards saved the
lower valley by rebuking the Presi-
dent, and carrying the River and
Harbor Bill over his veto, that pro-
vided the money that has been ex-
pended in the lower valley for the
last two years. If that veto had
stood the Delta would have been to
day almost a wilderness,
Arthur's handsome talk may win
him delegates from Mississippi to the
Chicago Convention, but our people
should not be deluded into the belief
that his friendship for them will ever
Justify him in kicking against the
metropolitan enemies Of the improve
ment Of Southern and Western water
ways.
The GreenviIle Review concludes
its editorial as follows:
"Senator Lamar has been silent
long enough, and on behalf of suf.
fering constituency he is asked to ask
attention Of the Congress to the Ma,
tional Importance of development oil
the latent resources of the valley,
that can be reclaimed only through
the efforts OF the General Govern,
ment."
This would amuse the members o
the Senate and House of Represen
tatives who remembered that Senator
Lamar reported and fought through
the ill for the creation of the Mis-
sissippi River Commission, and who
know that in season and out of sea
son, he is ever at work in promoting
the interests of the lower valley, anC
doing his work where alone it can be
! ell'ectual, before the Committee o
the two Houses having the matter ii
charge.
Senator Lamar does not use the
Mississippi river-as Arthur uses it
for the promotion of his own popu'
larity or "boom," but he is ever
mindful Of its claims, and every one
in Congress knows that he is tirelesi
in his efforts to secure from the Com