The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1897-10-15
STRONG RESOLUTION.
GOVERNMENT CONTROL Of lEveE
STRONGLY RECOMMENDED.
Improvement Of the Mouth Of the Missis-
sippi Cones In for Consideration.
Money all hat Is Necessary.

80 N~"~AS Tvs dtN fN
pecially deserving of the consideration
of the national government, and shoult
be improved, regulated and controlled
in the interest of producers and con
sumers alike.
We urge liberal appropriations fol-
this purpose, believing that they vii
be repaid many times by reduced cost
of transportation and the great saving
thereby afforded to the peoble.
we approve of the reservoir system
inausurated upon the upper Mississippi
both as a means of restraining the
floods upon that section of the river and
of supplying it with additional water
for the purposes of navigation during
periods OF low water, and we urge its
extension to the greatest practicable ex-
tent,
THE growing commercial necessities
of the city of New Orleans, which is al
ready the second port of the United
States in point of export, and the entire
Mississippi valley, of which it is the ma
tural outlet, demand that it should be
provided with certain, permanent and
better exit to the gulf of Mexico. The
increase, which of late years has taken
place, in the size and carrying capacity
of ocean-going vessels, has made the
outlets through the Eads jeties wholly
insufficient to meet the demands of
commerce. Inasmuch as the Eads con
tract will shortly expire, we urge upon
Congress the great Importance of i'm
mediately deepening and widening the
channel through the South pass, so as to
accommodate the largest -goers.
In our judgment, the great and growing
Importance of that port makes necessa-
ry a naviable channel of at least 80
feet, and, in order that there be 40 in
t%erruption to ocean traffic; we urge that
a scientific and careful survey be made
of the Southwest pass, which is the
natural outlet, with a view to i'm
proving the same, so that it may also
be adapted to all possible demands of
ocean commerce"
I'VE believe it to be the duty of the
national government to make such ap-
preparations as may be necessary to
protect the ~alluvial lands in the lower
Mississippi valley from the ravages of
the foods which annually go down to
the sea. When the food of the present
year was at its maximum, no less than
100000 cubic feet of water per second
passed the city of Cairo. This repre-
sented the surplus waters of all the vast
region between the Alleghaney and
the Rocky mountains; 80, 900 square
miles Of lands as fertile as any on the
earth, which are capable of furnishing
homes and means of livelihood to hun
preds Of thousands of American peo-
pie. are annually threatened and often
overswept by these vast floods.
"The Mississippi valley is nov inter
sected by many railroads engaged large
" in interstate commerce, whereby the
products and commodities of our peo-
pie are interchanged. These roads are
interrupted and heavily damaged by
these floods, ard they must be repaired
by increased charges upon the traffic
they handle, all of which amounts to a
direct tax upon the people.
The gr%ain-growing States are deeply in
in the free and continuous OPP
of these great arteries of com
nerce, in view of the enormous and
constantly increasing quantities of corn
md other agricultural products which c.
low find their way over them to the
,ulf coast for export.
In time of foods there is no place for A
to land corrective and discharge
heir freight, nor to which they can re
in case of accident or damage.
The result is that all traffic ceases until "
he subsistence of the floods, thereby
great loss to those who have in
their money in steamboats,. "
he facts stated are sufficient of them. -
to justify the words of the late
resident Garfield, that If there is one
hing in America more national than =
it is the great Mississippi ri :
er. If there could ever have been any
as to the national character of IL
his problem it has been removed by
Many years of sad experience, OF
The people dwelling in the lower val
~ have for years struggled, but never -
18th more than partial success, against -
lese floods, and in so doing have bur ~
ened themselves with taxation as no
Their people have ever done. Notwith-
anding the general assistance of the N Is
ational government in late years they OF
DIV find the burden greater than they wi
In bear, but enough has been learned
show that at a cost easily within the g
cans of the government, and insight
can't, when compared with the great e
benefcient results to be attained,
wees can be built which will furnish ~.
'solute protection to this vast domain Fe,
fertile soil. iai
This work Of reclamation can only
effectively, systematically and scien-
ically done with abundant means al
avs at the command of the engineers. At
hereas, as 1t now stands, the work
ust be carried on in the future, as it Pr
- in the past, in Il hating, slip shod
d make-shift way. The magnitude