The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-11-08
BOen'S Canal.


ing itself merry over Congressman
Boen's scheme to ditch the Red Riv-
er, Lake Traverse and Big Stone lake
and make the Red River flow into
the Mississippi. We warn these face
tious gentlemen that if they keep on
and get Boen mad he will put his
hand in his pocket and build the ca
nal himself; for he is big-hearted
gentleman of splendid liberality.
There are no ''small potatoes" in Bo-
ems kettle, and no flies on him, Ell
ther.
The Tribune says:
'1tw will be news to Minneapolis bus
mess men, and especially to the lum-
bermen. to learn that Congressman
Boen, the Seventh district populist
congressman, is pushing bill
through congress especially in the in
terest of Minneapolis and it's lumber
ing interests. But that is what the
Northwest News, of Grand Forks,
ayers. This North Dakota authority
says:
The News calls the attention of Sena-
tors Roach and Hansbrough to the fact
that Congressman Boen's bill for locks
ana dams above Fergus Falls is entirely
n n the h interest OF minneapolis and has for
RED lake timber from the Red Lake river
to this outlet. The dams and locks should
be in the Red and Red Lake rivers
During the campaign the Tribune
got the impression from the phil
lipics addressed by Mr.. Boen to the
Minneapolis "plutocrats," "lumber
barons," and "wheat cormorants,"
that the Seventh district statesman
was not the special friend of this
city. But it seems we are mistaken.
1t appears that Minneapolis is repre-
sented on the floors of the lower
house of congress by two sapient and
indefatigable solons. One is the
Hon. Loren Fletcher, of this city,
familiarly known as "Your Uncle LO-
ren," and the other is Hon. Haldor
e. BOen, of Otter Tail county, the
statesman who was elected on the
free coinage and sub-treasury tiket.
Mr.. Fletcher is to be congra tulated
IN possessing SO sagaciOus and enter
prising colleague as Congressman
BOen, and in sharing the hOnors of so
Important a measure in the interests
of this city. Welcome, thrice well
come, to Congressman Boen's lock
and DAM"
Now all this is unfair; as is the at
tack of that other writer, who de-
clares Boens bill is can act of COLI
gress to make water run up hill" 1t
is true that it might have been wiser
for new man not to attempt a topo-
graphical reconstruction of the con-
tinent at the first fell swoop. But
Boen probably felt like the boy who
set his hen on seventy-two eggs, and
when his mother asked him why he
did it, replied, "Well, I wanted to see
the old fool spread herself"
And yet, seriously speaking, there
is merit in Boen's proposition. The
late Gen. Warren, of the United
States army, who once had charge of
the river Improvements in this state,
his belief, in an official re-
port, that at one time in the not re-
mote past the Red river was part of
the Minnesota, and the practical
head of the Mississippi system was
far up towards Hudsons bay. The
Minnesota was then the real Missis-
sipi, and an enormous body of water
poured down from Manitoba and
filled the bed of the Mississippi be-
low Ft. Smelling fifty to hundred feet
higher than it is now. But Warren
argued that the crust of the earth
was lifted gradually and a watershed
established where Browns Valley is
now, and thus the Red river was set
flowing northward instead of south
ward. But this elevation is so slight
that in very wet season, some years
since, that famous old pioneer, Capt.
Arson Northrop, took his steamboat
from Ft. Smelling up the Minnesota
river, through lakes Traverse and Big
Stone, and into the Red river, and
thence down to Winnipeg. When
the ice gorges in the spring in the
British possessions, it sets the water
back and floods the whole Red river
valley, to the great damage of agri-
culture. It is therefore proper for
Boen to ask for an appropriation to
have that region surveyed, and find
out just how much digging would
have to be done to enable the water,
at periods of flood, to flow soutward
into the Minnesota. If it be true
that this would enable the Minneap-
oils lumbermen to steal the Red lake
pine and float it to their mills, Boen
cannot help it. The Lord himself
could not make any improvement of
existing conditions that Minneapolis
would not make money out of it.
The average Minneapolitan will be
seen on the judgment day peddling
ascension robes and asbestos wrap
rinua amonU tho nu1fifr1o ton h,,