Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-01-06
Mr.. BIGGS, BILL.

Congressman Biggs has introduced his
threatened bill, "to investigate the min
ing debris question in California The
bill ought to be knocked in the head, just
as the Courts have Drained the debris ques-
ton itself. What do the friends of the
measure want investigated? Facts that
have been established and put on record in
State and Federal Courts, and that admit
no longer Of any manner of dispute? Do
they want the law investigated, which the
Courts have unanimously agreed upon and
declared? Do they wish the decision of
the War Department reversed, that ny
draulic mining is so destructive of river
navigation that the Government ought to
make no attempt to improve it upon
rivers on or near which hydraulic mining
is prosecuted until the process has wholly
ceased Do they wish a commission ap-
pointed to ascertain that which everyone
knows, that low lands have been DESTROYED
by reason of hydraulic mining, agricult-
ural development checked, homesteads
buried beneath slickens and rivers abso-
lutely lifted up and carried over into
strange places to flow in aimless courses &?
These are not the aims probably of Mr..
Biggs. His bill is intended, Judging from
Geographic advance announcements of it.
to ascertain through commission of engi-
Daar- if bvdro,,lic ,,,;p;,fr oa,,,,o4 l. 80
carried on as not to injure the rivers. We
apprehend that the engineers to whom
have committed constant observations of
the rivers for years past, and of the by
draulic choked channels of their tribu
taries, are fully competent to give Congress
all the technical information it can DOS
sibly desire upon the subject. There
is 10 need then, for a Government
Commission of Engineers except it be to
aid somewhat in reducing the surplus.
ANY investigation looking to further
prosecution of hydraulic mining that
sends its tailings to the rivers, we believe
to be useless and waste of precious time.
Mr. Biggs could far better labor to push
through Congress a bill to improve our
river navigation, to clear the channels of
some OF the deposits of twenty years and
more, placed in the streams under the eve
and by the silent consent of the Govern
ment. We do not question Mr.. Biggs'
motive, he is too sincere man to Justify
that; he probably hopes that engineering
science may find way to compass the
impossible; he is probably urged by his
mining constituents to present this bill in
the hope that something can be done to
save hydraulic mining from its fate. But
We believe it is an ill-advised bill, and it
should not pass. Unfortunately, it is
in danger of becoming law, because
1t is bill of inquiry, and the plea
will be made that it can only serve to
throw light upon the question. But if it
passes 1t means postponement of the ques-
ton of river improvement for another
series of years. But for this we would
entertain no fears regarding the bill. Every
diversion of the attention of Government
from that question makes it the more diff
cult to consider, and the heavier the work to
be done in the end. Mr.. Blggs' bill will
cause delay, will cost an immense sum of
money and retard development of the val
ley by postponement of all important river
improvement, which the Federal Govern
ment has finally settled upon to be neces-
sary, and recognized as imperative, by its
DEGREES and its legislation against the
agencies assaulting the integrity of the
navigable channels, The passage of the
bill introduced by Mr.. Biggs will unsettle
values along all river sections below the
mouth of the Feather, and largely along
the whole course of the Sacramento, since
hydraulic mining is now threatening the
upper waters of that river. 1t will create
feeling OF uncertainty, really turn the
entire river section of the State backward
ten years.