The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1885-04-11
The River Improvement Convention.

The River Convention, which
is to meel in this city nextt Tues
day, is the NEST important gather
ing of the kind which has ever
been held. On its course depends
the immediate future of the work
of Improvement of navigation.
The circumstances which have in
terfered to prevent the prosecu-
tiOn of the labors of the Mississip-
pi River Commission are in their
nature fertuitOus. 1t would have
been a comparatively easy task to
procure for the Commission and
its work the necessary support of
Congress if no attempt had been
made to interfere with the Com
mission and to change its plans.
The whole system of improvement
established in the hands of the
Commission was a compromise
which proposed to abandon the
conflicts of theories which distrac.
ted the friends of improvement
and to bring about united and har.
monious action by leaving every
plan and every detail to the un-
biased judgment of skilled and
unprejudiced engineers bipartisan
and uncommitted to any plan. On
this basis, after ten years hard
work in Congress and out of it, in
arguing with malcontents, quisting
headstrong theorists, and combin.
ing all friends of the work in
one direction, the improvement
has been set agoing, and the work
SO far advanced at the tive reaches
which were selected for the initial
experiments that navigators have
been able to Judge of the effect.
The praise given to the incomplete
works has been quite sufficient to
warrant the expectation that ulti.
mate success would crown the
general plan of Improvement. The
whole present difficulty has arisen
from the attempt to place Capt
Eads upon the River and HarbOr
bill. The effort was made to put
him in practical control Of the
Commission and its work, and also
in charge of improvements In Gal.
weston harbor. The bill would
have been swamped by either pro-
ject; both together killed it entire.
ly. Nevertheless, but for the linn
tied time allow to defeat these
schemes, the bill would have been
stripped of them and carried in q
proper shape.
The present danger lies in the
impudent persistence Of the advo
Gates of these distracting schemes
Rather than see the river i'm
proved by the Commission with
out Capt. Eads aud his unscien'
tifc DETECTION of the Red River
they will defeat the improvement
entirely. The friends of improve
ment should resolutely meet them
on the original basis of compro'
mise by refusing to discuss
schemes of Improvement Of any
sort or degree, and by insisting
on Improvement to be made by
the commission of expert engin
eers upon its own plans and lines
and absolutely without lnterfer'
cnce. The effort will be made to
overturn the Commission. This
cannot succeed except at cost OF
abandonment of Improvement. II
the valley is again, after ten years
Of struggle, to fall into conflict
over details and presents q dlsu
nited front to the remainder OF
the nation, no improvement is to
be hoped for at all. 1t is only by
absolute union that an appropria-
tions can be secured. The first
and most peremptory duty of the
approaching convention is conse'
quently to sit down hard on every
attempt to discuss the method oil
Improvement or any detail of it,
and to peremptorlly insist that
the united valley shall confine it.
self rigidly to the demand for im'
provement, uhcoupled with any
schemes, theories, or jobs.
Any attempt to discuss the
Commission or its work will result
disastrously. There is literally
no end to theories and their con.
flicts. The only way in which the
work can be carried forward at all
is by forcing every malcontent en-
gineer to take his hands off the
Commission and to keep them off.
The Utah Commission.
Washington, April 2.-The mem.
bers of the Utah Commission had
very satisfactory interview with
the President to. day. They made
a verbal report to him Of the con-
dition of affairs in Utah and out.
lined their plans for future work.
Tho Drao;danf 1iatopad IN than