The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1907-06-06

Life in New Orleans was everywhere
at highest pressure, with merchants
and shippers making enormous profits,
men and women living prodigally, even
riotously, gambling almost universal
with dueling, rioting and lynching
as frequent as in the flush days of CAL
ifornia. Then the business men of the
North began to build railroads to tap
New Orleans's rich field, and divide
her monopoly. They had far better.
business methods and were satisfied
with much lower profits. They worked
so well that by 1850 Cincinnati and st.
Louis were ahead of New Orleans, and
Chicago had quadrupled her popula
lion. New York and Brooklyn had six
times the population of New Orleans.
At first railroads We're auxiliaries TO the,
rivers. They usually ran to points nos
reached by water courses to bring
passengers and products to the great
highways. After 1850 the railroads be-
gan to compete with the rivers. Tho
like as cheaply as the steamboats,, YET
they cut across the country: had
shorter distances, and made better time
and were reliable every day in the year
where the steamboat trade depended
upon the stage of the water. The Ohio
River was the first to feel the competi-
ton of the railroads, and a marked
shrinkage of the volume of products
sent to market by water. The Great
Lakes began to compete with the Mis-
sissippi River as the leading CONNER
cial highway, and the products of the
West began to flow Eastward instead
of Southwark. Chicago, Detroit. Cleve-
land, Buffalo and New York rose at the
expense of New Orleans. and it was
this which was the main influence iii
carrying New Orleans into the rebel
cI1n r,lf CHI Oft
the competition and hold her trade by
establishing a line of custom houses al
the mouth of the Ohio. The mistake
that she made cost her the greater
part of her wealth in the depression
which followed the outbreak of the war
While she is to-day, after years of dis
couraging history, once more prosper
Gus and progressive. it is altogether I'M
likely that she will ever gain anything
like the prominence that she had III
the days before the war.
Galveston as Competitor.
Galveston has become her formidable
competitor and is reaching out VigOr-
ously and successfully for the trade of
the great country lying between the
Mississippi River and the Rocky Noun
tans. Galveston lies directly upon the
seashorc and can be easily reached by
ocean-gOing vessels, while New Orleans
is $50 miles up tortuous river, with e
current running like a mill race. New
Orleans has been clamorous for Gov
crnment assistance to help her regain
her former position. and the Govern
nlent has done an immense work in thar
direction in improving the navigation,
IF the Mississippi and in deepening tho
Southwest Pass, SO as to admit the
passage of ocean-going vessels of the
deepest draft. AS is well known. the
Mississippi River carries down immense
quantities of silt upon its rapid current,
which is precipitated when the current
comes in contact with the waves of the
Gulf. This forms an ever-advancins
delta, with the United States being
pressed out into the Gulf of Mexico at
the rate of several hundred feet a year,
At the mouths of the several outlets
bars are formed which have always
been an obstacle to the entrance OF
ships. There were many plans urged,
but when Capt James B. Eads, the
great engineer of st. Louis, proposed To
make the river scour out its own cham
nell he was met by rdicule by engineers
and others who claimed to be familiar
with the conditions. He persisted and
was at last allowed to try his plan upon
the South Pass, the least practicable o;
any of the outlets. His plan was to put
mattresses of brush loaded down with
stone, and held by lines of piles to con-
fine the water to a channel and compel
it to cut this out to the required depth
Eads's plan succeeded wonderfully, to
the immense benefit of New Orleans
The Government is improving the other
outlets on the same plan.
A good safe channel of 80 feet
is now easily maintained, and New Or
leans is again growing. with her trade
cheerfully increasing, but her exports
are less than those of Galveston They
amount to about $50, 100000 annually
where Galveston claims 1856, 200, O00
worth. She stands twelfth now among
the cities of the United States. having
population, in 1900, of 287,104.
Restoring the Rivers Importance.
Naturally there is all the time a de-
eided agitation in favor of doing some9
thing to bring the Mississippi River and