The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-23
OPENING THE CoosA.
Colonel Wiley Addresses the House
 in Behalf of an Appropriation.

Tn the House of Representatives on March 18th. the House having under con- sideration the appropriation bill reported from the Committee on Rivers and Har-
 MT. Chairman. my colleagues (Mr. Thompson and MT. BurnetD have so fully covered the entire field of rhetoric and logic in describing the pressing im- provement. once happily begun, on the through their respective Congressional districts, find that little has been left for me to say upon this interesting sub- ject.
 The people whom nave the honor to represent here. living along the Alabama River, of which the Coosa is tributary. are vitally interested in the uninterrupted progress of this beneficent governmental enterprise, inaugurated several years ago. and upon which $l.200.000 have all ready been expended.I would remain sil- ent but for the fear that failure on my part during the consideration of the pending measure briefly to reiterate some of the advantages of commanding supe- riority which the Coosa for which no appropriation is made) possesses over many other rivers and streams Tor the betterment of which this bill makes ann pie provision might be construed into lack of personal interest and zeal in the prosecution of this great project.
 My colleagues have already referred
 
 Of Engineers of tho United States Army by Captain Judson, lately in charge or the work. In the discussion Of this ques- tion I shall have occasion, further on in my remarks. also to reter 10 thls report $, because manifestlv this unfavorable and unjust report caused the distinguished Chairman of this Committee (Mr. Burton) in answering a question propounded to him last Monday by my colleague MT. Thompson, to give expression upon the floor of this House to a disparaging opinion as to the practicability of the pro- ject to improve the Coosa River. and as d basis of his justification for declaring that the Committee regard the contin- uance of that improvement as wastetul to the very last degree.
 indulge no extravagant flight, either of romance or fancy. for which common sense would have right to reprove me when l take occasion thus publicly to declare that the evidences of vast wealth in multiform and Variegated shapes. con sisting of the products of the held ana forest, of unlimited mineral resources ot coal and iron. of lead and copper, Of marble and limestone, Of mica and ocher in boundless quantities. as well as abund- ant gold in undeveloped mines, to be found in diversified and lavish profusion and in close proximity to the Coosa River, extending from Rome. Ga, to Wetumpka. Ala. constitute this Area dian region one of the fairest and most favored sections of this great continent.
 Captain HoNle, gentleman Ol pEe-eHl- inent ability, the Army Engineer to whose skill this work of improvement was first intrusted adopted as a part of his re- port to Gen. Casey (made on the 2Ath day of November 1SS9 u statement of facts and deductions therefrOm contained in a memorial addressed to Congress by the Coosa River Improvement Convention, which assembled at Montgomery. Ala. March 15. 1887. the summary of which was as follows:
 The Coosa River presents the cheapest and most certain water route to the Gulf of Mexico of the coal iron. cotton, and cereals of a vast extent of country.
 ',The removal of obstructions which cut in half this river, now naYigable for hum dreds of miles below and above such instructions is a national duty, in view of the commerce it would pour into the Gulf of Mexico. The opening of the Coosa would enable the Government to move munitions of war from the interior to the seaboard safely and expeditiously.
 Ut would place the navigable waters of the Coosa so close to the naVigable waters of the Tennessee that water com munication between the two streams must certainly follow. and thus afford The Tennessee River and its vast trtbu- taries an outlet to the Gulf by way of