St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1891-02-07
DEEP WATER.
KANsAN's IDEAS OF THE RIGHTS AND
INTERESTS OF THE NORTHWEST.
DIES MONIES, Iowa, Jan. 81, 1890.

Inc question OF deep larDOT Oh tHS
Gulf of Mexico being lust now a matter of
interest to all Iowa, will you allow Kan
sas man to express few ideas in regard
to the interests alike of Kansas and Iowa
on this subject?
The eastern end of Kansas lies in d.
rect line from any of the proposed harbo rs
from Texas northward near or by way Of
Kansas City towards Des Moines and Du-
luth. The difference in the long and short
haul by rail as we'll as competition by new
siderations with all the Northwestern
States between the Mississippi and the
Rocky mountains.
The question then arises as to the near
est and best point for Iowa on the Gulf of
Mexico, and | assume that the best point
for Iowa is the best point for Kansas
The board of engineers appointed ''to
report as to the most eligible point for a
deep harbor which can be Sc
cured and maintained in the shortest time
and at the least cost" reported Galveston
as the place of the first importance, as
1.-The most eligible point to be secured
and maintained in the shortest time, with
an estimate and recommendation of sc, 600, =
600, with Arkansas pass, near Corpus
IL
pass, on the eastern line of Texas and
western line of ouisana, as secondary in
Importance, with estimates of 81 400, 900
and 81, 200, 0O0 respectively, to make them
available as ports OF entry.
| have passed all along the entire coast
and examined as best | could their har-
bors, with a view to satisfying myself. l
believe there is a better than either of
these points for the great commerce of
iowa, Kansas, and dozen other States
whose farmers and business men are de-
pending upon cheaper outlets for their
surplus productions. which go to feed the
lsboring millions at home and abroad
In the next decade. with the progress
Kansas is making, she will have 60,0OO
900 bushels of wheat and 800, 900, coo
bushels of corn. With the former at As
to so cents in the extreme west end, and
the other at its most productive point
west of the center of the State at 12t cents
per bushel, the producers and dealers in
these cereals are looking in desperation
for better markets and easier means to
get to them. On these points Iowa peo-
pie can speak for themselves and make
their own computations. The place |
refer to as better than any point in Texas,
is at the mouth of the Calcaseu river, in
Louisiana, not more than twenty FIVE
miles from the mouth of the Sabine.
This point was excluded from considera
ton by the Topeka convention, because
the previous convention at Denver, where
Calcasieu had no representative, had so
decided, by geographical limits. 1t is
therefore out of the limit of either con-
demnation or approval of the scientific
IL H. -,
three points, and is worthy of con idera
tion by all interested, without necessarily
conflicting with any of them.
The Calcasieu is navigable for a long
distance, but since a railroad to New
Orleans has penetrated that region, it has
only been used for numbering purposes
for sixty or seventy miles. And just here
| may say that for $50 miles nOrthward,
between the Sabine and the Calcasieu,
and east of the Calcasieu, there is a body
of timber unsurpassed by any similar
body in the United States. l say this
authority. This timber is largely the
long leaf pine, which has no equal for
car finishing, wainscotting and other
ornamental work this side of Alabama,
and, think, no superior any place. The
other varieties are cypress, ash, hickory,
pecan, the different oak, elm, white gum,
etc.
Whatever the opening up to these for
ests may be worth may be taken into con-
sideration. My opinion is no. very valuable;
but l am aided in forming judgment on
the question by the best of authorities on
lumber, the Northeastern Lumbermdn, of
Chicago, from which | quote January 4,
IS oil 40
ing the past twelve months that has given
it high rank in the North and West. and,
as never before, has given the white pine
interest to understand that the Southern
product has become rival that can no
longer be ignored. 1t must be considered
in all future trade transactions.
Yellow pine prices have advanced, while
those of the Northern product have re-
manned stationary. The require
ments for car factory stuff is not likely to
abate while there is scarcity of rolling
stock throughout the country"
While this timber interest may be con-
sideration to all the treeless regions of the
Northwest, as it is in Kansas, the great
question is to reduce the cost of haul. The
engineers recommended Galveston-esti-
mated at cost of So, 500. 000-and second
arily Sabine, at cost of 81 100000. Gal
weston and Sabine are the only ports con-
sidered in which Iowa and Kansas are
directly interested. The cheapest of
is the place for u.s. Either
Sabine or Calcasieu-both are about equal
about fifty miles nearer Des
Moines in q straight line than Galveston,
and the nearest practical railway line 100
miles nearer.
The engineers, through reporting Sabine
as capable of improvement as useful
harbor, have said also that it is impracti-
cable to build town there. There was,
however, a board of army officers who
once sailed up little creek and reported
that it ought to be fortified, and built
fort, but it was very poor place for human
habitation. Since then the greatest con-
CLONE alton of humanity on earth, the
learned and the unlearned, have rushed in
there in defiance of learning and science
and built the second city on the American
continent and called it Chicago. l am not
to say that the counterpart of
that history may not be illustrated at
Sabine. If it were not due to the people |
Of Sabine to express a contrary line of
opinion, it would be in my line of argu-
ment to admit that the thing is impracti-
caple and to say that twenty five miles
further east is practical harbor on the
Calcasieu river and to prove it by quoting
from official authority, the report of |
Assistant Engineer Thomas l.. Raymond,
n 1886:
"Calcasieu pass, the outlet of Lake CAL
,asieu, is something over seven miles in |
.epgth, with an average width of 600 feet |
md a good channel sixteen feet deep for
The greater part of this distance, inter-
.upted by oyster reefs about four miles
from the gulf. Neither time nor oppor-
unity was had for current observations |
Turing the examinations, but in ali SINH