Morning journal and courier., 1885-11-02
News by Telegraph FROM ALL QUARTERS. THE FATHER OF WATERS. Improvements Made By
 The Commission. ARMY OFFICERS IN A FIX. McCIe|Ian's Remains In
 New York. SECRETARY COON STEPS DOWN. Finamcier Ward Nm Sing
 Sing.
SECRETARY COON STEPS DOWN.
AMERICAS GREAT RIVER

Growing Mightier in Usefulness
 Through the Millions Spent by the
 Commission.
 WASHINGTON, Nov. 1.-The report of the Mississippi river commission covering it's operations from October 1, 1884, to the end of the fiscal year June 30, 1885, is made pub lie. The general plan of improvements con templates the closing of outlets, both low river outlets and crevasses; the concentration of the waterway of the river where the width is excessive and the navigation bad, and the maintenance of the banks. The total cost of bank revetment between Cairo and Vicks- burg up to July 1, 1885, has been $2,240, 900 and works for contracting the channel $2, 500, 900. A very considerable of the portion expended for bank rsyetment was designed to give protection to certain cities and har- bors, Memphis, Vicksburg and others. Some of these required special and prompt treatment. If Delta Point had not been held siderable expense the city of Vicksburg would long before now have been practically an inland town, entirely cut off from the river. At Memphis great values were also put in jeopardy by 8 rapidly eaving bank which threatened to carry off 8 portion of the city. Bank revetment as offering the only possible means of arresting the danger was successfully applied in this case The expenditures for improvements from October 1 to the end of the year were $1 ,636, ,s3S and there remained on hand on July 1, 1885, $389, ,90S to meet liabilities and car ry on the work of improvement. The estimates for the year 1886, which were transmitted to the Secretary of War in July, 1884, are repeated. The esti- mates for 1887 call for an aggregate appro priation of $3, 154, 900 for surveys and work from the head waters to the passes of the Mississippi. The cost of improving the Mis- sissippi, the commission say, in the manner and to the extent contemplated will doubt less exceed the estimates formerly submitted by the commission. For this there are two reasons; first, that it has been found neces sary to make use of stronger and firmer and therefore more expensive methods of con- struetion than those upon which, from the want of experimental knowledge, that esti- mate was based; and, second, that the per cent. of loss from floods has exceeded what was formerly thought to be fair allowance GulS coAtihSouCy. hIuCn OI CiilS loSS, however, would have been spared had the stronger methods of construction been resorted to at an earlier day, and future loss from this cause may therefore in some meas ure be avoided.
 In other respects also experience gained in the application of new and untried devices cannot faifto tend in the direction of econ omy. There must be no ground for appre- hension that the ultimate cost of this im- provement will be inordinately great or will exceed what the government will be fully justified in expendine in great national work in the success of which so large inter ests are involved. In order, however, that the increased depths already secured upon two reaches of bed navigation may be util- the improvement should be extended up stream and down. Indeed, it cannot be said that the navigation has received any practical benefit whatever as long as the improvements are restricted to localities hemmed in by bad rivers both above and below. It might be better, were no middle course left open, to spread each appropriation judiciously over the six reaches of bad navigation for improvement below Cairo, adding little each year if practicable to the available depths of the worst bars than to confne the work to Plum Point and Lake Providence reaches as heretofore, even if the low river navigation of these two localities should be rapidly deepened to twenty feet and the feasibility of the commissions plan thereby be fully demonstrated. The objec- tive point is the improvement of the river and not the vindication of the agents of the work except as means to an end.