Year: 1873

If is most creditable to the liberality
and good sense of the merchants Of st.
Louis that in laying before the con-
gressionaI conference the easiest, SIM
plest. most expeditions and cheapest
mode of compelling low rates of freight,
they have done so in broad, compre-
hensive and liberal spirit, embracing
the views and interests of the people of
the whole Mississippi valley. Nothing
could be more catholic or generous than
the resolutions read by Captain Eads,
devOJed as they are and dealing as they


do with not only the particular wants of
a city that might be supposed to be.
selfish as well as ambitious, but with all


the cities of the great valley that have a


direct or collateral interest in the Missis-


sippi river. The first one sets out with


an assertion, that all right-thinking me n


will indorse, that the improvement OF the


mouth Of the Mississippi river is the
first and most essential of all the i'm


provements desired, and suggests mode
that a; first blush seems to US to be most
feasible. The others recIte the removal


Of rocks, bars, ,snags, ,sawyers, old wrecks,


and all the rest Of the impediments that


prevent the free navigation of the great


river, and, indeed, of all the rivers that


are tributary, which should and must be
done, even though it cost as much as


fifty million dollars to do it. Any one
at all conversant with the difference in
river and railroad freights will admit
that as much as that will in two or three
years be saved to the people by the i'm
provement of the great river and its
important tributaries, admitting as they
will Of the utmost facility for a reduc-
ton in freight charges that viii greatly
reduce, tG the eastern and southern con-
sumner, the prices of breadstuffs, meats
aud other prime articles Of food. AT
present prices, the difference of a bar
rel Of flour to Boston or New Orleans
from St. Louis is that between four dol
lars and Lightweight cents and fourteen


dollars and forty cents per ton, the for


mer being the river and the latter the


railroad rates. II this differ
ence, amounting to an almost
prohibitory freight tariff which compels
the farmers of the west TO burn their


corn, and places them at the mercy
of the sharpers who control things at
the great gram centers, for them pri-
msTily we desire the Improvements so
conciseIy stated to the conference, salts
fled that any measures affording them
relief must inure to the advantage Of
the poor mechanics and laboring men Of
the Atlantic cities, towns and villages,
as well a to the planters and laborers of
the south. We hope the conference
viii give the resolutions a thorough
sitting, and that, looking at the re-
soluuons-for which we thank the st.
Louis merchants in the name of the
people Of Memphis-in light free from
sectional or political bias, they will be
prepared to vote early at the next session
0f congress for an appropriation so hbe-
raj as to express a determination to deal
with the sixteen million people Of the
Mississippi valley in manner equal to
their just demands and crying necessi-
ties. We are for the improvement of
the Mississippi before anything else,
and we hope the people will urge upon
their representatives in congress the
early accomplishment of the work.