Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-03-29
The Savannah Harbor Appropria-

The Savannah Harbor Appropria-
ton.
The amount appropriated In the river
and harbor bill for savannah harSor
occasions very general surprise in this
/ city. and there are very good reasons
why it should. The amount asked for
was $685.. 900. and the amount appropria-
ted IS only Sl25, 0OO-a little more
than a third of what is needed.
When the Importance for the commerce Of
this port is taken into consideration, aud
the necessity OF deeper water al once is
understood, it is difficult TO comprehend
the motive of the committee in treat
ing Savannah harbor with such
little consideration. While 1t is true
that Charleston ana Jacksonville
get only about one-third Of the amounts
estimated for them, it must not be for
cotton that their Improvements are not
expected to be completed for several
years, and that they can get along very
we'll with the appropriations given them,
while the estimate for Sa-
yannah harbor was to complete
the Improvement under the survey al
ready made. II the Improvement OF
Savannah harbor had only just been be-
gun, or was nowhere near com pleted, the
estimate for the present year would
doubtless have been great
deal more, and under the
committees plan OF making appropria-
Ons-appropriating one-third Of the
estImate--a sort Of horizontal scaling sys-
TEN without sense or reason, the appro-
priation would have been a great deal
larger. The estimate, however, could not
have been larger than it was because no
more was needed to complete the i'm
proyement. rhe committee does not APP
pear to have taken this fact into con-
sideration, and why it did not is some
thing that needs to be explained.
Under the plan the committee is pur-
suing it will take years to complete
the improvement begun under the present
survey, because it will not permit of an
appropriation sufficient to complete it.
The SI25, 900 appropriated in the present
bill cannot be spent economically. 1t will
soon be used up, and then there must be an
other long wait for another appropriation.
in the meantime the works, being uncom-
pleted, will suffer damage from being tenn
porsrily abandoned
The facts that our harbor improvement
under the present survey is nearly COM
pleted and that the whole Of the estimate
submitted by the engineers is needed to
complete 1t should be impressed upon the
committee, with the hope that it will
amend the bill 80 far as Savannah harbor
is concerned.
Ifthis amendment cannot be secured in
the House no effort should be spared to
secure it in the Senate. The appropria-
ton for Savannah harbor in the last
river and harbor bill was Increased in the
Senate through the efforts of our Senators,
and it looks as if they would have
to be appealed 10 again for assistance.
After all, it would probably have been
wise to have sent committee to Wash
linton to assist our Representative in i'm
pressing upon the committee the impor-
lance of apprOpriating for our hGrbor
somewhere near the amount asked for. 1t
may not be too late yet to send commit
tee.
1t is difficult TO see why there was any
occasion for making an appropriation for
the cut through Romney marsh. II we are
rightly informed the cut has been COM
pleted by private enterprise, and if that
is the case the appropriation cannot
be made available for any purpOse-nOt
even for reimbursing those who advanced
the money to complete the cut. The cut,
however, as we have frequently stated, is
of no benefit to the commerce of the city
but, strange to say, while the committee
gave Savannah harbor only one-third OF
the amount asked for it gave this cut
through Romney marsh the entire amount
estimated as necessary to complete it.