The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1914-04-25
RIDICULOUS MIsREPREsENTA-
TION

RIDICULOUS MISREPhEoENIA-
TION.
In quite number Of our esteemed
newspaper contemporaries, most Il
not all of whom certainly shoule
know better, statements or inuendoas
have recently appeared calculated II
create the impression upon the pub
lie mind that members of the Bayou
Lafourche Lock Association and per
haps other residents of the upper
Lafourche valley, are in favor of hay
ing the dam at the head of the bayot
removed forthwith and without wait
| ing for the construction of a lock to
| take its place.
This as a ridiculous misrepresenta
ton, regardless Of the source OF
sources from which it emanates.
There is not citizen Of the La.
fourche region, whether in or out OF
the lock association, nor sane per-
son here Or anywhere else who has
ever favored or seriously contem.
plated the taking out of the dam in
advance of the building of the lock.
DonaldsonVille could not stand
such a proceeding any better than
could the other portions of the levee
districts, inasmuch as the bayou
Ievees have been partially demolish-
ed here as elsewhere along the
stream, and without the protection
Of the dam this city would be inun-
dated as soon as the Mississippi
reached more than a bank-fu1l stage
The purpose of the lock associa-
ton and those cooperating with
that organization has been and is to
expedite the fulfiliment of the moral
and legal obligation voluntarily as
sumed by the Atchafalaya and La
fourche basin levee boards to re-
place the temporary dam with a lock,
and to oppose the indefinite extern
sion of the already long-expired time
limit granted by the federal govern
ment for the accomplishment Of this
work.
If the levee boards had treated US
fairly from the beginning, and had
squarely admitted their inability to
carry out their contract, instead OF
persistently declining to make such
an admission or to accord any salts
factory response to our demands for
Justice, the question of the extern
sion of time for removal of the dam
need never have come to the atten-
ton of the federal authorities.
Naturally long extension was OPP
posed, because past experience has
demonstrated that such a concession
would be tantamount to another in
definite postponement of the whole
matter, but this opposition did not
mean that it was the purpose of the
lock advocates either to force the
general government into the build
ing Of the locks, as Congressman
Broussard has been quoted as think
ing, Or to compel the tearing away
Of the dam and thus cause the flood
ing of the entire Lafourche valley,
as some other people profess to be-
lieve.
In this connection 1t can be stated
that Editor Joseph Fl. Price OF the
Lafourche Leader, published at Lock
port, who was in Donaldsonyille last
week on his way to and from the
Red Men convention at Plaquemine,
expressed himself to The Chief as
being unequivocally in favor of the
construction of the lock, and in last
Saturdays issue of his paper ap-
pears the following editorial express
sion: After having visited Donald
sonville, and Ascension and Assump
ton parishes, and conversing with
many of their 4lssasAing citizens, we
are glad to report there is absolute
1y no sentiment for the removal Of
the dam without the construction of
locks
Mr.. Robichaux of the Houma Times
also stated to The Chief that he
favored the building of the locks, and
editors E. D. Gianelloni Of the Ma
poleonVille Pioneer and Francis L.
Knobloch of the Thibodaux CONNER
cial Journal are staunch advocates
Of the same cause. 1t would be the
height of absurdity to suspect or &C
cuse any of these intelligent and pub
lic-spirited newspaper men, whose
every interest is identified with the
safety and prosperity of the La
fourche valley, of countenancing,
much less supporting, a wicked and
proposition to force the
removal of the Donaldsonville dam
before lock is built to take it's
place.
There has never been any such
proposition extant, save in the
Imaginations of the poorly-informed
Or over-credulous, and the agita-
ton Of the subject has evidently
from sources interested in
the water so as to inter-
fere with a clear view of the real
issue.