Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-05-17
Our Ticket For 1888.
The River and Harhor Bill.

The River and Harbor bill, appro-
priating about S20,000.000 for the inn
provement of our harbors and water
ways, recently passed the House by a
vote of 161 to 50. OF the 1863 Democrats
in the House 100 voted to pass the bill
without amendment or debate. Only
20 voted against it, 40 being absent.
OF the 1872 Republican members 60
voted for the bill, 40 against it, and 43
were absent.
Six years ago an appropriation, sew
eral millions less, was passed over the
Presidents veto by a Republican house.
Thereupon the democratic press of the
country with one accord denounced the
extravaganza OF the Republican party
and democratic politicians made it
war-cry. There is no doubt that voting
for that bill cost good many members
their seats.
Now the situation is reversed A
Democratic house votes almost solidly
for greater appropriation, which some
Republican newspapers call .'the great
steal" For our own part we do not
desire to make any party capital out of
the matter, but simply call attention to
the inconsistency. We believe in lib
eral appropriations for public improve
ments. 1t is true that much that has
been appropriated for such purposes
has been misapplied, but there is
better remedy for such abuses than re-
fusing to appropriate anything for such
purposes. That is. to use a homely
figure, "biting off your nose to spite
your face"
No expenditures made by the general
government benefit the whole people so
much as those made properly, for the i'm.
provement of commerce. Wherever
channel is deepened to allow the pass
age of larger vessels. thatmeans cheaper
transportation, which benefits both the
producer and the consumer, and is
continuous in its effect.
Water is, and always will be, the
cheapest means Of transportation. No
corporation can get monopoly of a
free waterway. 1t not only affords the
cheapest rates of transportation, but it
beats all the Interstate commerce laws
in regulating rates on the railroads in
its vicinity.
Now deepening the channel or re-
moving some obstacle at a single point
in some navigable stream, may double
the value to the people of waterway
hundreds of miles in extent. Who will
say that such an expenditure is not
beneficial to the people'
Bnt the trouble is that so ms any Of the
individual appropriations are for creeks
that never can be made navigable, and
are made solely to benefit the members
from those districts and their political
friends. II so there should be, and is,
remedy for the evil.
We believe with Senator Cullom, than
whom we have no better authority on
transportation matters, that the trouble
lies at the foundation of the whole sys-
tenn of internal improvements or rather
is occasioned by q lack of system-''a
want of any comprehensive and well
considered policy" Nothing is done
to find out what improvements are most
needed and where the work should be
done to be of the greatest value to the
whole nation. Whenever Congress
orders an investigation it is of a partc-
ular project which must first be brought
to its attention by those most directly
benefited, and if any examination and
survey is undertaken it will be on &C
count of the recommendation of the
representative of that district rather
than from any knowledge of the merits
of the case.
All examinations and SURVEYS are
conducted by the engineer corps of the
army, and to that inefficient body is the
supervision of laying out these vast
sums of money intrusted. The manner
of making the appropriations also
handicaps them In carrying on the
work economically, rs the appropria-
tons are made In driblets, and they do
not know what they can count on from
year to year.
The way to make such appropriations
more effective in benetiting The
whole country Is take from Con-
gress the function of national
board of public works, or rather from
the committee which it creates, and
which changes its membership con-
stantly, and create a department of
public works that shall be as constant
as possible in its membership. In this
department all projected improvements
would be looked into and, if recon-
meuded, would be submitted to Con-
gress for approval. The benefits de-
rived from improvements made under
such a system would be general rather
than sectional. and the motive for the
most vicious Legislature methods would
be removed.
Whether the particular bill under
consideration contained a sufficient
number of items Of the class mentioned
to entitleit to be called steal or not, we
do not pretend to know; nor do we be-
lieve our contemporaries who so de-
nominate it are much wiser in that
particular, but we do believe that with
all the abuses and Interpretations the
money that has been expended with so
little economy has been returned
to the people many times
over, and that the chances
are that we shall all be benefited by
the expenditure of this last and greatest
river and harbor appropriation. If the
newspapers as we'll as the representa-
tives in Congress would cease viewing
this matter from party standpoint or
from sectional standpoint, and
turn their attention TO The mpoh
needed reform in our system-the
otaaffNn of ctrah a