Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1903-10-24
INTERESTS AT STAKE.
They Reach From Pittsburg to Mon.
tana, From Bismarck to the Gulf,

The Washington Post, which is al
ways well informed concerning South
ern matters, as it is about the country
generally, in speaking about the big
leyee convention, has this to say:
Great interest attaches to the forth
coming leyee convention, which is to
assemble at New Orleans October 27
1903. That interest is felt in nineteen
of our greatest States. The immense
territory drained by the Mississippi
river and its MISUNDERSTANDING which
we may mention the Missouri, the
Ohio, the Red, Arkansas, Tennessee,
Cumberland, Wabash and Yellowstone
is as large as Europe, Its population
is numbered by the tens of Millions
Its resources are almost incalculable;
its possible development beggars de-
scription Yet all this gigantic region
and most of its inhabitants are init
mately concerned in the navigation OF
the Mississippi Industries too vast for
computation are affected. Financial
considerations which can hardly be
expressed in figures touch the question
Of inland water transportation from
the agricultural mining and manulac-
turing districts to the sea.
ut is not true, as so many good peo-
pie in this part of the country too has
tily assume, that a leVee convention at
New Orleans or elsewhere represents
nothing more than the comparatively
insignificant interests of few cotton
and sugar planters in Louisiana, Mis-
sissippi and Arkansas The fact is
that the navigation of the Mississippi
river and it's innumerable affluents is
serious factor in the prosperity of
nineteen rich and growing States.
Throughout this prodigiOus area, the
dominating question is that of the es-
tablishment and the permanent main.
tenance of cheap water transportation
for it's products To the extent to
which this communication can be es-
tablished and maintained, the farmers,
manufacturers and miners will be
profited Every penny saved in the
cost of transportation is penny left
in the pockets Of the producer. And
that constitutes problem in arithme-
tic before which the most vivid imagi'
nation must surrender.
"The levees? In word, they make
the question of overshadowing import
ance at this time. Science assures us
that by confning the current, holding
it inexorably within certain fixed linn
it's. and compelling the entire volume
of water to travel to the sea by a pre-
scribed path, we can best deepen the
channel and secure unrestricted ano
safe navigation at all seasons OF the
year. There have been controversies
and counter claims without number
but the weight Of authority is with The
embankment theory, and the teachings
of experience sustain it. Most OF om
leading engineers, civil and military
congressional committees time ant
time again, have declared that leyet
system affords the most effective
agency of permanent and profitable
navigation in our great silt-bearlnt
streams. No other plan has giyer
satisfaction. In no other expedien
has a rational or substantial promis'
been discerned,
ut is to consider the question o
securing levee system, therefore, tha
the New Orleans convention OF tn
eth instant, has ben arranged, III
interests at stake reach from Pittshur
to Montana-from Bismarck to tn
Gulf"
To which the New Orleans Picayun
adds:
ut would be difficult to state tn
situation more inteligently or NOR
forcibly than it is done in the editoria
, from the Washington Post, printe
above. Too many people take u
the narrow and ignorant notion tha
the levees along the Mississippi rive
are only of local and private interes
when, on the contrary, they are OF nj
tional importance. This is not onl
true from the standpoint OF lndustI
and commerce, but 1t Is so from tn
fact that the Mississippi river was tn
chief factor in inducing the purchas
by the United States of the territol
of Louisiana, and it was just as lmpor
ant an instrumentality in saving u
Union as it was in extending its llml
and enlarging its boundaries.
when the independence OF the Uni
: teen English colonies which formf
the original union of the America
States had been acknowledged !