Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-12-14
AN UNJUST CHARGE.
MAI. Mackenzie Rv IMPROVEMENT
Work Attacked and Why y-The In.
sInuatinns Otiki. a e in st. Paul and
TIL, re They arr EitfingIy Rehuked


sinua'ians OfiEi- a e in 1T. Paul and
There They ara Fittingly Rebuked.
In the st. Paul chamber of commerce
the other day, there was made commit
tee report which is an unwarranted at.
tack on the system of river improvements
pursued by Major Mackenzie the past
fifteen years. The public knows nothing
of the merits of the system Of river i'm
provement devised by Capt Bell in the
interest of which apparently, the report
Of the committee on the Mississippi river
was prepared. And if the committee had
contented itself with recommending his
device for experiment and trial, there
could have been 10 objection. But when
with this is combined fierce assault ups
on the work of improvement under the
supervision OF the engineer corps of the
war department, work which has been
the pride of Rock Island and all other
cities on the upper river TO encourage,
and a work whose successful prosecution
has added immensely to our advantages
and our business resources, 1t Is time for
protest in the interest of fair play and of
common justice. The St Paul Pioneer
Press combats the statements of the re,
| port in the interests of truth and Justice.
and right, 1t says:
This report asserts that 1T seems to be
fact that, notwithstanding the work
done by the United States engineers de-
partment during the last fifteen years to
| improve the navigation on the upper
Mississippi, there was as much obstruc
ton during the season just closed as ever
before" And again, 1T is alleged by ex-
| perienced river men that these bars are
worse now between ST. Papl and Hast
ings than they We're twenty years ago"
How this extraordinary statement could
pass the chamber of commerce unchal
lenged is a mystery. In the first piece.
while the upper Mississippi has been
nomnally under Improvement for fifteen
years. it is only during the last seven or
eight that there was money to prosecute
the work; and, in much of thst time
owing to the failure of river and harbor
bills, it required the closest outstanding
of appropriations to keep the work of
improvement from going backward In
the next place, as will be seen by the tes-
timony OF persons necessarily well in
formed, there is no truth in the assertion
that the condition of the river is worse
than ever before. On the contrary steam
bostmen are loud in their praises of the
Improvement wrought in the interests of
navigation. The St. Paul stretch is
counted as perhaps the best in the whole
river; and when bosts did not run to St j..
Paul it was for reasons of their own, and
not because the passage was impracti
cable. This IS the testimony of men like
Capt. Hays. familiar with the details of
river navigation, and OF those connected
with the packet lines, whose knowledge
of the facts is absolute. But it does not
need this evidence at all; for, in the last
report of the chamber of commerce it.
self. prepared with unusual care and
thoroughness, occurs the following
statement: ut is the universal verdict of
the navigators familiar with the old and
new conditions, that by the closing and
wing dams between st. Paul and Pres
colt, thst portion Of the river, formerly
almost impossible ut low water, has been
made better than many stretches for hun
dreds of miles below From the opin-
ion of the chamber of commerce in De-
cember. there lies a valid appeal to its
opinion officially proclaimed few
months ago,
1t is not with the best grace, says an
other paper, that the northwestern repre-
sentstives IN congress can appeal for the
necessary appropriation for the upper
Mississippi, if they shall be confronted
with such statement as that supported
by the st. Paul chamber of commerce
For years the business men and press
have worked for the recognition of their
rights In the river and tabor bill. For
years the commerce of the river has suf-
fered from insufficient opriations;
| aud IA HJDI BldChcILlt hlu G1t EupluceTS
in charge Of the upper Mississippi have
done wonders By the improvements in
aid Of navigation which they have accom-
plished by the intelligent use of limited
resources. And the Pioneer Press says
further. whatever we may have to e1-
pect from untried devices, this work OF
systematic improvement must go for.
ward. if the upper Mississippi is not to be
closed to navigation at St. Paul. Ii
would not have Jared particularly well
with US if we had cut the engineer de.
partment several years ago, in the inter :
est of the vanished Adams fiume.' The
chamber of commerce has committed q
mistake which is none the less grievou.
because it has been the result of careless,
ness rather than of intention. Out of i'll
own mouth 1t stands convicted upon TIL
charge. 1t cannot repair the error too
speedily"