422 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



single wreck will block a railroad, or 

 a single break deaden a telegraph line. 

 The sand and gravel, like the stream, 

 flow down forever. 



The writer did not say that the army- 

 engineers were hopeless and had thrown 

 up their hands in disgust, as Captain 

 Johnston attributed to him in his testi- 

 mony. He did say, and repeats, that 

 while they may dredge out the sand, 

 they are helpless to check or prevent 

 its incessant inrush from the eroding 

 mountains. Nor is this any criticism 

 of the engineers. That the sand and 

 gravel are constantly swept down to 

 them from the headwaters is no more 

 a reflection on them than to say that 

 the water that brings it is being con- 

 stantly carried down the same course to 

 them. They are not hopeless or dis- 

 gusted, but will dig and work as long 

 as appropriations are forthcoming, and 

 the history of their plans for improving 

 the upper Tennessee River shows that 

 their - estimates to secure a three-foot 

 channel at mean low water have steadily 

 mounted for years, and that they are 

 far from being ready to quit. In 1871 

 the estimate was $175,000: in 1877, 

 $225,000; in 1884, $300,000; in 1891, 

 $340,000; in 1894, $650,000, in addi- 

 tion to the $296,000 already spent; in 

 1907, $1,080,000, in addition to the 

 $629,152.85 already spent, and in 1910 

 the writer understands that in a report 

 on the upper river, recently submitted 

 but not yet published, the plan of open 

 channel work adopted years ago with 

 the assurance that this upper section 

 of the river was admirably suited to it, 

 is now regarded as impracticable, and 

 it is proposed to substitute in certain 



parts of it locks and dams. The writer 

 does not yet know what the estimates 

 for this work now are, but lock and 

 dam work is always costly, and it is 

 safe to predict that, like the tariff, this 

 last revision is like all of its prede- 

 cessors, ever upward. They have not 

 thrown up their hands, but constantly 

 raise their estimates, instead. 



It is probable that we at last have a 

 plan of improvement that is adequate 

 to meet present conditions, and that the 

 increased estimate of cost is only what 

 we may naturally expect to pay because 

 of these conditions. 



Captain Johnston is throughout his 

 testimony, by his convenient omissions 

 and garbled quotations, pleading a spe- 

 cial cause, rather than presenting actual 

 conditions fully and fairly. The many 

 annual and special reports of the army 

 engineers on the Tennessee River give 

 too much information as to real condi- 

 tions on it to make it necessary to draw 

 on one's personal knowledge of the 

 river to refute Captain Johnston's one- 

 sided statements. It has, instead, been 

 thought best to refute the army engi- 

 neer testimony as cited Captain John- 

 ston's out of the mouths of the army 

 engineers themselves. 



The writer would heartily agree with 

 Captain Johnston, after finding it so 

 necessary to correct and supplement 

 his quotations, that the committee 

 has been furnished "with a consid- 

 erable amount of misinformation" 

 on the subject, and he also agrees 

 with the member of the committee who 

 says, on page 158 of the report on the 

 hearings of 1910, that "it is best for us 

 to know the truth." 



i^M-,...,, 



