The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-01-15
THE RIVER CONVENTION.

LIE XIV Elk CON ENIIONs
The second assembly of the Califor-
MIA River Convention will be held in the
State Capitol, at 2 P. NJ. to-day. The be-
lief is expressed that there will be, as
there should be, a large attendance.
Everyone of the regular or first, and of
the additional or recently appointed dele
gates from Sacramento should be present.
The business in hand is sufficiently i'm
portant to justify the laying aside of all
private matters by delegates in order to
attend.
The, public of the State was gratifed by
the conservative action of the convention
at its first assembly, 1t then kept in
view the one and only true purpose of
ats creation, to wit: the securing of gov
ernmental and other aid in restoring
and preserving the naVigability of the
streams of this State. All other and col
lateral matters were wisely put aside and
kept from entangling the main purpose.
This should be the inflexible rule at the
called to treat of the streams as naviga-
BILE waters, and of the duty of the Gov
eminent toward them. The causes of
their degeneracy and the treatment of
those causes are matters with which the
Government may properly deal. but they
do not concern the convention immedi-
ately, and to fasten them to the pro-
gramme and force them upon Congress
sional attention may result in that body
standing aloof
The convention can best accomplish
its ends by adhering to single line of
policy that no one can in good conscience
oppose, or that has never been antagonized
by any one. That is to say, the clearance
of the rivers, the correction of the align
ment of the channels, the increase of
their flood carrying capacity. These
carry with them engineering problems,
schemes and devices, that ought to be
left to the Government, and its Boards of
Engineers.
The convention cannot, for instance, for
moment afford to consider as an essen
tial detail of programme the reclamation
of land or the protection of low lands
from floods. Those things are inevitable
incidents of river treatment. They flow
from it Of necessity, and no one objects to
them. But the Government will not and
should not, treat navigable streams for the
purpose of enhancing the value of lands
lying along their courses. That confne-
ment of the river within banks, correc-
ton of it's channel, the cutting off of
doubling bends Of the stream, the re-
moval of obstacles, the enlargement of the
deltas, are of necessity to result in benefit
to the low lands, is true. Butthe work
the Government engages in has not that
end in view, nor can it undertake to con-
slider it, without establishing dangerous,
entangling and uneconomic precedent.
So, too, it cannot in the rectification Of
rivers for navigable Improvement con-
slider the prosecution of mining, the
drainage of lands or the benefting of the
productivity of agricultural areas. The
first of these questions is properly an engi-
neering incident; the second and third
may be considered as factors in the aug
mented use of the stream as free high
way for the carriage of the products of
the country and the enlargement of COM
merce. A prime purpose on the part of
the Government in river improvement is
to benefit commercial carriage. But the
convention need not now concern itself
with that matter; the data of the COM
mercial value of the rivers of the State
has been compiled and laid before the
Government already.
The convention made splendid advan-
ces in its first effort. It secured action by
Congress in the matter of river treatment;
it committed the Federal Government to
the policy of river treatment; it put life
into dry bones that would have officially
slumbered for an age but for the shaking
up the convention gave them; itachieved
the appointment by the Government Of a
commission to examine the streams,
which body advised large preliminary
appropriation, that Congress should now
make. To secure this appropriation is a
primal purpose of the convention to-day !;
TO persuade Congress and the War De-
partment to much further action is
coupled with that purpose.
It will be recalled that all that has been
achieved by the convention, therefore,
has been done by infexibly rejecting and
keeping out of it all collateral issues and
secondary questions. No one objects to
river improvement; that, therefore,
makes clear sailing. What is involved
An effecting river improvement can be