The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1890-06-14
The OVERFLOW OF TIE MISSISSIPPI.
An Appeal 70 the Chamber OF Commerce
b. lis HaFb0r and Shipping Committee
for the Substantial Relief or The saf.
ferers By the Recent Great Floods.
On. Y. journal of Commerce.I

IN. Y. Journal of Commerce.l
Your Committee on the Harbor and
Shipping have had under eonsidera-
tion the following communication ad-
dressed to the President of tho Cham
Der and referred by him to the CON-
mittee
To the President and Members Of the New York
Chamber Of Commerce;
GENTLENIEN-We have been request
ed by a great many OF our most prom
inent fellow citizens of the States bor-
derlng on the Mississippi River to
bring before your honorable body an
intelligent presentation of the subject
of their suflerings from the overflows
Of that great river, with the view OF
invoking your sympathy and active
cooperation in influencing the govern
ment promptly to adopt some certain
mode Of preventing the recurrence of
the source of these suflerings.
We trust we may be permitted to
say that we do so unhesitatingly, for
experience has taught us that the
broad minds of the merchants of New
York are ever ready to respond to the
appeals of distress, from whatever
source they come, and that they are
ever keen to discern that il is wise,
prudent and profitable to extend a
helping hand to any and every citizen
of the United States who really needs
and deserves it. We cannot, therefore,
doubt your cordial assent to the meas
ure proposed in this instance, to in
woke the aid of the national govern
ment In behalf of great mass of Its
helpless citizens.
A few facts which we think will
suffice to convince any fair-minded
person of the propriety of this request
The terrible results of the recent over
flows of this great river, which Is esti-
mated In the one just subsiding. de
spite the large and effective protection
existing at the levees, to have covered
over FIVE millions OF acres of the most
productive soil even within this rich
empire. rendering even communication
with the river itself impossible except
by boats, driving the poor settlers out
of the lower stories of their houses to
take refuge where they are deprived
of every necessary Of lifc-thcir sole
reliance for living, their mules and
cattle, drowned in thousands, and 9TH
ers drifting with the flood to lodge on
any treetop or still emerged hill, there
to perish by starvation-prcsent a pic
ture of horrors from which humanity
shrinks. The Mississippi Valley has
within the last fifteen years been found
to be refuge for the colored race, who.
stronger than the white to stand the
malarial character Of the climate, hayc
erected vast numbers of little homes
and have proceeded to cultivate this
extraordinarily rich roll with marvel
Gus results, and II has been estimated
that these new settlers alone have add
cd nearly II not fully half million
bales Of cotton to the annual crop of
the Union. There remains In this re-
gion at least fifteen millions of acres
still to be occupied, which, II freed
from the terror of dreaded overilows,
will most certainly be availed of and
made similarly productive. Aside,
therefore, from the protection the
older districts are entitled to. IL Is ap-
parent that as a matter of investment
and business the United States gov
ernment, which freely offers to all its
citizens farms worth easily from three
to five dollars per acre for settlement
In the west, can, by an expenditure
which will not In all probability at
completion exceed dollar an acre, so
that for all time the dread of overflow
will be removed, open up for SETTLE
ment all this rich and mighty territory
at this small cost per acre, and which
will be purchased by settlers at price
per acre Insignificant in comparison
with its intrinsic value.
The United States River Commits
sion has, by Its elaborate and extended
examination of this whole subject, de-
termined that by the system of loyees
as devised by 1t, the problem is solved
and thereby the river can bo confined
to its natural bed, its channel thereby
become moro even and deeper and all
overfows prevented; but nothing less
than q continuous and complete sys-
tenn will suffice. The limited applica-
tion of the system heretofore adopted,
whereby only breaks which have a
direct and immediate effect OH the
channel are repaired, while all others,
however extended and desolating, are
left TO the exertions of the local au-
thoritics, viii never suffice to any per-
manent good. Nor can the influence
of the comparatively few citizens along
the river ever suffice to produce the
legislation required for the States to
appropriate any sums of money at all
adequate to accomplish the desired
end. Unless done by the United States
government It will not be done, and
years will roll by and this possible
richest of agricultural districts rccede
into desolate wilderness.
Tho work should be done by the
United States. II is In every sense
national, not that this feature is abso-
lutely essential TO the wisdom aud ex-
pedienoy of the government undertake
ing 1t, for the close and constant inter-
course of the whole United States Is
now so prevalent that no one part eau
suffer without many other parts also
suffering, and 1t is very certain that,
the prosperity of any one part makes
itself felt In nearly every other part.
There can be no States prosperity dis
tant from the United States prosperity,
and the whole United States will feel
the benefit from the natural return of
wealth the investment of the money
required for this work will produce.
Aside from this the great national in-
land sea derives its waters from twen-
ty-nine different States and territories.
All of these States contribute directly
to producing these diastrous results,
felt possibly by six only and most by
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