The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-05-08
Mr.. Blanchard's Bayous.

The New York Times is a persistent OPP
ponent of the river and harbor bill, but it
must be admitted that its opposition is not
wholly without reason. In Sundays issue
it calls attention to some of the
appropriations in the bill for Loui-
| siana, Mr.. Blanchard's State. Mr.. Blan-
chard, being chairman of the River and
Harbor Committee, it was to be expected
that he would favor his State, but it was not
expected that he would deal with the little
bayOus in it as if they were great national
highways of commerce, and with harbor
like Savannah, which accommodates COM
MERGE to the amount of 500, 0O0, 900, as if it
were only ditch.
The Times calls attention to the number
OF appropriations for the rivers and bayous
of Louisiana, and points out that they cover
two pages of the river and harbor bill. For
bayou Plaquemine, for instance, 800, 900 is
appropriated, $4,000 more than for Savan-
nah harbor, and of what importance to
commerce is that bayous In 1884 a pre-
liminary examination of it was made, and
the engineer in his report made this state
ment:
Beginning about 300 yards below its
connection with the Mississippi, the bed of
the stream IS nearly dry and thickly
strewn with cypress saw logs for distance
OF 1--WE miles to Darden'S Bend. From there,
down four miles further, to the mouth of
Crosse Tete, there is sufficient width and
depth of water but it is covered with ex-
tensive RATS of saw logs. The same may be
said OF the remaining two or three miles to
Upper Grand river. Bayou Plaquemine has
been given up entirely to the lumbermen,
who have already stored it with a supply of
logs sufficient to last them for several years:
and, as this is the only interest to be serued,
there is no need of any Improvement what
ever.
Bayou Terrebonne also gets an appropria-
ton, and in 1886, two years ago, the engi-
neer III charge of government work in that
locality reported that ''the greater portion
of the bayou above Houma is a bayou only
in name, parts of it being dry and other
parts being only q drainage ditch" it
seems that at the point Of operations the
bayou is only II feet wide Lieut.. Crosby
also reported that boat drawing as much
as Is inches of water could not navigate
the bayou at Houma. He also said that be-
yond Bayou Cane the Terrebonne was vir-
tually dry, and that near Thibodeaux the
bed Of the stream was so continually dry
that rushes would not grow in it.
And yet Mr.. Blanchard appears to think
that these little bayous are of more impor-
lance than great harbor like that of
Savannah. They may be to him, but are
his interests to be considered before those
of commerce. Win Congressman be sus-
tanned in appropriating the public money
so as to advance their political fortunes,
while great public works, which affect
hundreds of thousands of people and mil
lions of dollars of capital, are almost
neglectedi Is it not a reflection upon
Congress that the Savannah harbor, which
accommodates the greatest commerce on the
South Atlantic coast, has to have its OBJ
structions removed at the expense of steam
ship owners! If Mr.. Blanchard and his
committee had studied the needs of the
great harbors of the country little more
closely, and legislated in accordance with
their requirements, less fault would be
found with their bill.