Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1895-10-06


year, are taking very lively interest
in the River Improvement Convention,
which is to assemble at Cincinnati dur
ing the coming week, and there is a
wide spread hope that the Convention
will have sufficient influence upon the
coming Congress to secure the enact
ment of a law which will rescue the
river from the deplorable condition in
to which 1t has fallen through neglect
extending over a great many years, and
restore in at least some measure the
more satisfactory state Of affairs ex-
listing in the past.
The manner in which the upper Ohio
HAS BEEN NEGLECTED.
by the general government, ever since
the war with the exception of q few
seasons when a little work was done
here and there, is perfectly we'll known
TO most of those living along It's banks.
Time was when there was some assur-
ance that there would be at least five
or six months of navigation every year,
and the boating interests managed to
do enough during half year or so to
warrant them in continuing in bust
ness, while the benefit accruing to not
only manufacturers and shippers but
TO all classes of people, through cheap
transportation for bulky freight, was
widespread and very apparent. Or
late, however, the glory of the river
has not only departed, but the stream
has ceased to cut any figure in COM
merce during nine or ten months OF the
year,
THE BOATING INTEREST
has been paralyzed, shippers have to
depend altogether upon the railroads,
with their higher rates for transporta-
ton, and the coal miners and shippers
of Pittsburg, the iron and steel work.
ers of Wheeling and vicinity, and the |
city and country merchants alike have |
TO suffer. The aggregate Of the in
terests affected by the total cessation !
of navigation foots up vast figure, |
and so unbearable has the situation be- |
come that from Pittsburg TO Cincinna- |
ii there is an universal cry for relief |
on the part of the general government. |
The Cincinnati convention is the out
come of this demand, and through it |
the people of the upper Ohio Valley !
will be heard in the halls of Congress.
The Register has repeatedly and |
earnestly called attention in the past
once two or three years ago. and again !
about a year ago--to the condition OF |
the river, pointing out the reasons |
which have brought about the present |
condition, and
SUGGESTING a REMEDY.
The last publication was made during |
the campaign, and for that reason 1t
possibly attracted less attention than 1t
otherwise would have done, but still
the agitation has amounted to some |
thing, and there is now a hope that re-
lief will be afforded. For many years
the general government has made
pretense Of taking care Of the Ohio, but |
it has seldom gone beyond that. 1t
keeps an engineer officer Of the army at
Cincinnati. and has several boats afloat !
on the Ohio, the pretended purpose be-
ing TO keep the channel Of the river in |
something like good condition. Occas-
ionally one of these boats makes trip |
into the upper river, pulling out snag |
or two. of removing few hundred |
yards of gravel from some bar, but the |
work is so infnitissimal in COMPARE |
son with what is imparitively needed, |
that
NO GOOD WHATEVER
is accomplished, and the money thus |
spent might as we'll be expended for |
champagne and cigars for the con- |
sumption Of the engineer corps AS |
a result of this sort of thing, extended |
over a long series of years, the river |
has gone from bad TO worse, until 1t is |
useless for the purposes Of commerce |
nine or ten months OF the year. and Will |
soon cease altogether TO be a factor In |
the transportation problem of the coun-
try.
OF course. this has been largely been |
brought about by the neglect Of Con- |
gres. and in seeking a reason for the |
negligence of that body, we have not
far to 20, although the casual reader
may marvel at the fact that hundreds
of thousands of dollarS-and even mil
lions-are lavished
UPON SMALL STREAMS
tributary to the Ohio, while the main
river itself hasn't a friend in either
Senate or House. The reason is per-
fectlv plain. The smaller streams, like
the Monongahela, the Big and Little
Kanawha, the Youghiogheny, the Mus
kingum. and others, which have been
improved at immense cost, flow, as a
rule. through a portion OF a State, Dl-
secting some Congressman district,
or cutting through several districts, as
the case may be. 1t naturally follows
that the Congressman through whose
,~ftr his ETfT- i
uents lining both banks, and using the
river for commercial purposes, finds it
TO his interests and the interests OF his
party. to see that the stream is I'M
proved" that dams are built bars
dredged out, ice harbors constructed,
etc. AS a result, such stream figures
in the river and harbor bill year after
year. until an aggregate of millions
has been expended, and the tribu-
tory streams is not only put
IN APPLE-PIE ORDER,
but is kept in that condition
The main river. on the other hand,
hasn't a friend. 1t runs between the
two States of Ohio and West Virginia,
as far as Kenova, and thence between
Ohio Indiana and Illinois, on the north
side. and Kentucky on the south, to its
junction with the Mississippi, skirting
Congressional districts all the way,
but being simply q boundary line, not
only between districts but between
States II cuts no figure with any one.
Dozens of districts run out TO the river,
on one side or the other. in the five
States named, but the river interests
in any one of these districts IS not suf-
ficiently large to cut much of figure