Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-09-28

have already indicated-they insist that
| the genius and skill of the civil engi-
neers of America shall have an Oppor-
tunity to compete with the army i'll the
the solution of this great problem. l
desire senators to remem Der the fact that
this is, probably, the only civilized
country on the face of the globe
where such enterprises are left
exclusively to military engineering
Even in those European mon
arches, which are so military in their
character, governments would not think
moment of excluding the civil engi-
neer from public works which are not
absolutely of military nature. On the
contrary, almost all; aye, / might say
all of such work is done by the civil en-
gineer exclusively. Why should this re-
public, then, rely upon the military
alone? We ask for a commission of
engineers TO examine the different
methods of opening the mouth of the
Mississippi which have been proposed;
we ask that the military engineers, who
have occupied themselves so many years
with this problem, shall have two men
on that commission to represent their
views; we ask that another body of gov
eminent officers of recognized skill,
members of the coast survey, shall have
two members. But then we insist that
the civil engineers of America, more nu
merous, and perhaps more eX-
Derienced than either--meu who
have planned and achieved greater enter
prises than either, men who have tun-
neled our mountains, run our railroad
tracks thousands of feet above the level
of the sea, built the foundations of our
magnificent bridges, and whose trl-
umDhs are among the most respondent
glories of the republic-we insist that
they shall have an opportunity to offer
their genius and skin to the country, and
have a representation worthy of them on
tets commission.
The conditions in the matter Of a Texas
harbor are analogous. For fifteen years
or more the government has been fOOling
with the Texas gulf coast, and has fritz
tered away in Intellectual work between
three and one-half and four million dol
lars. The engineers have shifted from
one point to another. digging little
here and building 4 few hundred yards CT
jetty there, fixing upon some locality,
and after working at it in a desultory
sort of way for a few years, and
spending few hundred thousand dol
lars, abandoning the whole thing and
moving off TO some other place TO begin
at it all over again. AS result of all
the work that has been done, based on
''official'' investigation and ':reports,
and directed by official science and skill,
the greatest depth of channel into any
Texas harbor is twelve and one-half feet
at Galveston. and this is just the depth
of channel that Galveston had more than
ten years ago Could any possible array
of arguments more forcibly emphasize
the unwisdom of trusting to the general
government to provide the harbor facili-
ties for which such pressing and growing
need IS felt?
The projectors of the Brazos plan,
warned by the history OF this and of gov
eminent work III general, wisely deter
mined to do the work themselves, and
thus ensure its early completion and the
enjoyment of the resulting benefits.
They organized company and went TO
work, asking from congress no aid
whatever, but merely the privilege of
being allowed 10 make the barber. 70
obtain this bill was introduced and
passed, granting 10 the company
the right to contract, own and
operate such permanent and sufficient
jett1es and such auxiliary works as might
be necessary to create and permanently
maintain a navigabIe channel at the
mouth of the Brazos.
To prevent possibility of any advantage
being taken Of this franchise, the bill