The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1911-02-23
RIPARIAN LANDS.
Thousands of Acres in Claiborne
for Which Owners May Fin
ally Get Justice.

ally Get Justice.
Last fall there was meeting
held in this city on the 9th day OF
October, 1910, by the riparian
owners on the east bank of the
Mississippi river between Vicks-
burg and Baton Rouge, for the
purpose of trying to obtain reiIei
from the government Of the United
States for the continued inunda-
ton of their lands caused by the
elevation of the flood line in the
Mississippi river to an extent hith-
erto unknown.
A tax of three cents per acre was
levied on each land owner, and a
committee was appointed with
power to confer with members of
congress and the Mississippi River
Commission to see what relief
measure could be obtained. Mem
bers of congress replied TO their
letters by referring them to the
Mississippi River Commission;
and accordingly last June Judge
Jeff Truly and John F. Jenkins
appeared before the Commission
at St. Louis and presented their
petition for relief to that body.
The answer to their petition is
to be found elsewhere in the report
of the Mississippi River Commits
sion of date the goth June, 1911.
The report of the Mississippi
River Commission on this question
is a distinct and unequivocal avow-
al on the part of the representa-
tives of the government embracing
the most distinguished engineers OF
the u. S. Army, that the govern
ment of the United States has con-
trlbuted its portion of damage to
riparian owners of the east bank;
and after I6 years of study, refiec-
ton, observation and experiment,
admit there is no longer any doubt
that the ''general confinement OF
the discharge has increased the ell
evations of flood heights" and
that cit is intolerable to any man. S
sense of justice" that these things
should continue longer without re-
dress.
The law is that congress cannot
make appropriations of money fol
public improvements without the
recommendation of the United
States engineers. Here then, en-
bodied in this pronouncement, Is
the strongest recommendation evel
uttered by a United States engl'
neer.
Armed with this recommendation
the riparian owners should not lei
the grass grow under their feet
but take heart or courage from the
report and appeal to congress tol
aid.
The following is an extract from
the report of the Mississippi Rive
Commission, 1910, page 1887;
THE RECOMMENDATION
"The attention of Congress has
been called in former years, be
ginning as far back as 1894, to the
situation of the narrow and irregu
lar strip of land, lying between the
Mississippi river and the High
lands east OF it, between Vicksbure
and Baton Rouge, a distance o
as4 miles by the river. Within
these boundaries the alluvial land:
are cut across by number o
small streams coming in from the
hills, so as to form, in connection
with the devious course of the
river, detached areas difficult ot
protection by levees. The eleva
ton of the general food levels
which has resulted from the exten
sion OF the levee system in recen
years, subjects those lands to deep
er overflow than they were subjec
to formerly. or would be subjec
to now if the levee system was no
in existence. The people llvin
in the larger of these overhowe
areas have been clamoring for al
in the building of levees to protec
their lands for sixteen years pas
But the Commission has been ur
able to see its way to the recon
mendation of allotments for th'
purpose out of the appropriation
Fo~ tte forr reasons that the cor