Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1915-08-11
Pine Bluff Chamber of Com merce Takes Lead in Fight
 to Continue Work.
U. s. ENGINEERS
 AGAINST THE PLAN
Beard Believes Traffic Insufficient to Justify Expenditure, and Arkansas River Improvement Association
 Will Probably Take Action.

That the board of engineers for rivers and harbors have ruled un- favorably on the continuance of work of aredging tll channel of the Ar kansas river, was the announcement made Friday in a letter to tho Pine Bluff chamber of commerce, which was not made public until ycster- day, and following the receipt Of which hurried decision was reached for a conference of trustees and aembers of the chamber of con- merce yesterday morning.
 Following this conference, Carl Baer of Little Rock, head of the Ar kansas River Improvement associa- sion. was asked to call meeting of the association, that immediate steps might be taken to countoract the ef- fects of the action of the engineers, end to have tho work on the river continued without delay or interrup- ton.
 It is intended to have the Arkan- sas senators and congressmen be in at,endance at the meeting and also l to take whatever steps are necessary allu pOSSlDlc lO nave llc IlNcl WOl K 1 continued
 Reasons for Transfer.
 At the conference yesterday Major E. M. Markham in charge of the levec work in this district. was in attendance. from Little Rock He had little to say, except what was covered l in the communication to the chamber of commerce. The communication l was as follows, in part:
 1 "It will be seen that the comm cree has been decreasing and now amounts to only about 55,000 tons, large part Of which consists of forest products which can usually be handled al medium and high stages without i'm provement. Gradually the large ves- sells, which formerly navigated this river have disappeared and the little business that is now done is by few small boats operating over short dis 1 tance.
 "The history of navigation on this river is similar to that of many other | shallow western rivers In early days, when these waterways affords q 1 the best if not the only means of transportation, they were used to the limit of their capacity. Their i'm. provanent was undertaken in all of the general progress and development of a pioneer country. and the expen ditures brought abundant returns and were fully justified Transportation follows largely the lines of leas resistance and it was found advanta geous to abe ndon the river with the coming of the railroad and this has been done almost to the complete de. sertion of this waterway, although the adjacent country has greatly de veloped and the amount of transpor tation required is many times wha it was when navigation flourishs( years ago.
 Experience has shown that it ii impracticahle to secure any improve ment of the navigable capacity of thu river except at cost commensurate with the present benefits. The leas expensive method is snagging, and al it happens, this is essentially the frs steps taken in connection with an. method of improvement and is neces sary to permit tho use of the naiura channel even for the small presen 1 commerce. It seems desirable t keep the river open in aid of thi commerce and in the hope held b. many that there vii be a revival o traffic on these waterways in the flu ture In view of the above, the boar concurs with the division enginee, and recom'r ends legislation authoriz ing the transfer of the ,iredges. with out charge, to some other improve meM and a modification of the ex isting project, so as to limit the wor to snagging the river from its mout to Ozark at an annual cost of abou 5000. until such time as the need of navigation shall warrant more ex tensive operations.'
 Business Men Awake.
 Nearly half a hundred jobbers wholesalers and other business me participated in the conference yestel day. and appeared to be fully i'm pressed with the necessity of utiliz ing the river to greater extent if is to be made navigable throughou the year at the expense of the federa government.