The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-25

The River and Harbor Steal.

The rumble of the logs as they are
rolled down the bank to the river and
harbor boom sounds through the land.
The biennial round robin robbery of the
National Treasury is on, and where the
carcass is, the young. middle-aged, and
old ravens are gathered.
The Congress which shall pass this most
barefaced and rotten job will make it a
last will and testament as far as the ma
jority party in the Lower House is con-
cerned. The country has submitted to
many things in the way of corruption,
thievery. and hunibug; but it may safely
be counted on to resent the utter rascality
and wastefulness of this latest River and
Harbor bill, which appropriates or au-
thorizet the expenditure of sixty million
dollars. more than half of which large
sum is devoted to unnecessary and, in
some instances, ridiculous purposes.
Mr.. Burton. Representative in Con-
gress from Cleveland, Ohio, is Chairman
of the House Committee on Rivers and
Harbors. 1t is eIninently proper that the
craftsmanship of the great committee in
question should go to the fresh water in
terror. We think so, because the only
AtAoSH1DAS ltuHudliCH IOT the
tion is to be found in the public necessity
for the improvement of our principal
ocean harboTs. the navigabIe rivers lead
ing to our coasts. and the principal water
way connecting our Western and North
western States with their Eastern cities
through the chain of the Great Lakes
Strictly confined to the perfection of these
means of intercommunication. national
and international, no well-informed citi-
zen would for a moment think of begrudg-
ing public money TO be appropriated for
such an object. But if there be anything
useful or intended to be so in these fla
grant measures of loot it is merely incl
dental to the main purpose of distributing
money among the constituents of Mem
bers of Congress.
While Ohio gets Sc o56 300 under the bill
and Michigan s7.66S. eco. the former ten
per cent of the whole steal. the question
of our great inland direct trade with Eu-
rope is ignored. Canadian common sense
and application of money to national
necessities is building up British high
way of commerce between our leading
cereal States and the Old World by way
Va Inc anu bhs 81 l-1hA we
go on wasting millions on frog ponds and
sand dunes of no earthly use to trade or
navigation, and permit our chief conner
cial rival to steal away the commerce of
New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Bal
timore. by wise and well organized lake
and Atlantic canal and improvement
policy that ought to shame our own mar
row and nroyiuciaI legislators
II is difficult to reflect upon this current
River and Harbor misappropriation bill.
and keep ones temper. If ever job had
corruption written all over its face, this
one has. There are individual members
representing seventeen States on the
River and Harbor Committee Out of
total of sixty millions provided for in the
bill, those seventeen States get s3s, 955.
657.44. Twenty-eight States and three
Territories not represented on the COM
mittee get IS, O95, 357.0S. The sum Of s12,-
445. 00O appropriated for the improvement
of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.
and for examinations and surveys, is not
ehargeable to any State.
There is nothing strange about this por-
cine practice of committeeman TO gobble
what their position enables them to- The
fault is with the country at large in toll
Grating such open and shameless waste
of the American taxpayers money. That
1t is wasted is notorious and standing
joke in Congress. every time River and
HarboT bill is on the stocks. The public
OF this country is a patient ass. Some
times We wonder If anything hat could
he done would make ~ L{c.