The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1913-01-11
an ExeELLRNT APPo1NTmENT.

Is g. -
There will be general satisfaction
and approval felt in this section owe
the announcement from Washington
that President Taft has nominated
Col. Lansing H. Beach to fill va
cancy in the Mississippi River Com
mission.
Col. Beach is fittingly described BIZ
the New Orleans Times-Democrat'
special reporting the appointment as
zone of the most accomplished engi
neer officers Of the army. and is ex
ceptionally well equipped by training
and service on the river through
much Of his army life since his grad
uation at West Point in 1882. He Is
well and most agreeably known in
Louisiana. It was he who completed
the Plaquemine lock, an assignment
to which he was detailed by Gen
Luke Wright, then secretary of war
upon the Recommendation and urgent
appeal OF Representative Broussard
He also started the work on the in.
tercoastal canal system, and now
heads the Intercoastal Canal Com
mission. His most recent service has
been as member of the board OF
engineers for rivers and harbors and
in the Baltimore district. He was a
cadet at West Point with Col.
George w. Goethals, though two
years younger than the Panama Can
al chief engineer.
During his. several years of official
service in this district with head
quarters at New Orleans, Col. Beach
became thoroughly familiar with river
and levee conditions along the lower
Mississippi, and he is particularly well
posted with regard to the closure of
Bayou Lafourche at Donaldsonville,
the obligation assumed by the Atcha-
falaya and Lafourche levee boards
to construct locks in lieu of the dam
which they were permitted to place
across the head of the bayou as a
temporary protection against inunda-
ton in the Lafourche valley, and the
physical conditions to be encountered
on the construction of these locks.
The recent transfer Of Col. Beach
from New Orleans to another dis
trict, with headquarters at Baltimore,
was much regretted in this comnu-
nifty, not only because Of his general
efficiency and popularity, but espe
cially for the reason that he had I'M
dertaken to prepare and submit to
the two levee boards jointly a plan
by which locks could be placed in
the Bayou Lafourche at considerably
less cost than that estimated by the
contractors who submitted bids for
the work on plans and specifications
prepared by the state engineers at
the instance of the levee boards.
We hope the appointment of Col.
Beach as a member of the Mississippi
River Commission will involve his re-
turn to Louisiana, and that he will
find it feasible and proper to lend
his invaluable aid to the movement
for the reclamation Of the Lafourche
from the plight into which it has de-
generated because of the cutting off
Of its water supply by the building OF
the Donaldsonyille dam He knows
the circumstances under which the
placing OF that obstruction was per-
mItted by the United States govern
ment and the obligation resting upon
The leVees boards IS to build locks IN
its stead, and he is familiar with the
1isadVapta ges resulting to Donaldson
Vile and all the upper section of the
Lafourche valley by reason of the
5orking up of the bayou. His influ
enee ought, therefore, to go a long
ways in the furtherance of the eff"
ort to have this situation relieved
Ind improved.