Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-03
DESTROY THE DELTA.
Continued from Nineth Page

continued from NtHeM rage
have had only good effects. Study of the
maps shows that the Fausse, Shreeve,
Raccourci and Hommochitto cut-offs have
been without sequent ill-effects of any kind;
rather, it may be said that until these cut
offs were made. no improvement was possi-
BILE. The present crooked channel between
Bayou Sarah and Hickman should be recti-
fed and damages paid to the cities and
towns which might be injured.
No fear need be entertained that the chan
mel would lengthen itself by eroding the
banks to regain the length lost by the rectifi-
cation. In the portable jetties we have
means sufficiently powerful to confne the
erosion to the shoals and bars. When the
water passed over. them into the bends it
would be so saturated with silt and so dimin-
ished in velocity that its tendency would be
constructive-not destructive.
Neither need we fear to disturb the ''regl-
men of the river" That is Just what the
Mississippi has never had-equilibrlum in
constructive and destructive effort. The art
of man must so control the velocity of the
stream as to establish that highly desirable
condition of things.
Nor need we fear to 80 augment the
velocity that the river will be difficult of
navigation; the slope and consequent We
locity of the river will be very much less
than it now is in great many places, and its
ascent will be accomplished with less fuel
than is row required.
Nor will we lose the reservoir effect of
those portions of the channel cut off These,
when low enough. would serve as reservoirs
for the local flood waters; and when suitably
improved and connected by locks with the
main river would be most valuable arteries
of commerce, avenues of thriving trade,
harbors of refuge during food periods and
sources of pleasure and profit In thousand
ways.
We need to lose that fear generally in
spired by this hitherto untaned giant, and
remember that it is subject to the laws of
flowing water, the same as any rivulet; and
that knowledge, courage, persistent labor
and good common sense will successfully
apply the laws of nature, and restrain and
reclaim this mighty agent to the use of men.
Further, we must devote part of our
thoughts to the people whom the river is to
serve.
Mere uninterrupted avenues of communi-
cation, mere land and water, mere masses of
population, mere erubbiug and grinding,
these things do not make the people great,
or augment commerce. Brains, culture, am
bition, inventiveness, skill, well-directed
effort, brilliant management-these are the
things that make vast and profitable trade;
and when did an unhealthy or perturbed
people have these things?
The example of our Northern lakes. rivers
and canals shows that seven or eight months
of navigation, through a prosperous and
highly cultivated country, is vastly more pro-
ftable than uninterrupted traffic in a country
desolate or but crude and limited in devel-
ment. To reclaim to use the marvelously
rich lands now swamps and sloughs, to
public health, to provide good water trans
portation routes free to all the people, will
SO vastly augment the population and the
productive capacity of each unit thereof
that there will set in an era of prosperity
overmounting the borders of the bottom
lands, spreading its influence continent
wide.
THE DWARFS OF AFRICA is the subject
of a paper by the famous ethnolegist, DIR.
Oskar Lenz, of the University of Prague, in
THE DISPATCH tomorrow. All the news.