534 



MISSISSIPPI RIVER IMPROVEMENT. 



The sub - committee of the Committee on 

 Levees and Improvements of the Mississippi 

 were directed by Congress to proceed down 

 the Mississippi to its mouth . . . for the pur- 

 pose of acquiring a knowledge of its peculiar 

 conditions and wants, and to gather informa- 

 tion relative to the best methods for its im- 

 provement." 



The members of this sub - committee were 

 Mr. Dum, of Arkansas ; Mr. Myers, of Indi- 

 ana; Judge Harris, of Massachusetts; Mr. 

 Prescott, of New York ; and Mr. Humphrey, 

 of Wisconsin representatives of different sec- 

 tions of our country, and of both the Demo- 

 cratic and Republican parties. On the 6th of 

 May they took passage at St. Louis for Ne\v 

 Orleans, on board the steamer James Howard. 

 Her carrying capacity is about 3,000 tons on a 

 draught of eleven feet. The river at St. Louis 

 was about midway between high and low wa- 

 ter. Frequent soundings were necessary, and 

 in the upper part of the river it was found 

 necessary to tie up at night. The channel shifts 

 and soundings showed at times as little as 

 twelve feet. In the low-water period the chan- 

 nel shows about four feet. Thus, for four 

 months of the year, as far as the larger craft 

 are concerned, navigation is practically inter- 

 rupted. This steamer carried her cargo un- 

 broken as far as Vicksburg, after which she 

 made about seventy landings. The committee 

 saw everywhere traces of the general and dis- 

 astrous overflow of an earlier season. Al- 

 though they did not see the river at high or 

 low tide, they saw enough to convince them 

 that narrow banks make deep channels, and 

 that wide waters and dangerous bars and 

 shoals are so universally associated as to sug- 

 gest cause and effect. The observations of 

 these practical men confirm the scientific views 

 of the picked engineers forming the commis- 

 sion: 



Wherever the width of the river is unusually great, 

 or where it is divided into separate channels, serious 

 obstructions occur. Through a narrow and undivided, 

 bed deep water is always found. Inequalities of width 

 are caused by the caving of the banks. As bars and 

 islands are formed by this process, they serve to inten- 

 sify the original cause. 



No natural cessation of the agencies now at work, 

 destructive to navigation, can be anticipated. 



We arc of opinion that a process that will arrest the 

 caving of the banks, and will develop the bars outside 

 the width of the channel assumed as necessary into 

 new shore-lines, conserving and strengthening the 

 scouring power of the current instead of retarding, 

 diverting, and dissipating it as they do in their present 

 condition, is eminently necessary, not only for restor- 

 ing the measure of navigation already lost, but to 

 arrest the progress of deterioration which is steadily 

 going on. 



Your sub - committee have found that the parts of 

 the levee system remaining range from about four to 

 twenty feet high, comprising dikes attaining the 

 height of thirty-five feet over bayous and sloughs. 

 Where such dimensions are reached, their maintenance 

 is important in preventing the depletion of the river 

 and the resulting injury to navigation through the 

 eutlets which their destruction would cause. 



.The present provision by the States in which these 

 works are located for their preservation or restoration 



is inadequate and uncertain. It is also doubtful 

 whether these States should be solely charged with 

 these works, which, while they were built by them 

 exclusively for protection from overflows, serve a na- 

 tional purpose in preventing destructive floods and in 

 maintaining and improving by the removal of sand- 

 bars the navigation of our inland waters. . . . From 

 a careful comparison of our observations with the re- 

 port of the Mississippi River Commission, we are of 

 opinion that the description and explanation contained 

 therein of the natural operations now progressing to 

 the detriment of the navigation of the Mississippi 

 River are apparently correct ; and also that the meth- 

 ods therein recommended for the treatment of tho 

 Mississippi River appear to be correct and should be 

 tested. 



This is demanded both by the steady increase of the 

 evils to be abated, and by the trade of the great Mis- 

 sissippi Valley seeking distribution and outlet. 



After drawing a glowing but true description 

 of the great valley whose cereal, cotton, and 

 meat products form over 75 per cent, of the 

 entire crop of the country, the sub-committee 

 assert : 



It is not unreasonable to estimate that the deepen- 

 ing of the Mississippi River will lessen the freight, 

 carriage, and insurance rates of the cereals alone to 

 the seaboard at least five cents per bushel, which gives 

 in round numbers $75,000,000 per annum on the pres- 

 ent yield. 



In accordance with the recommendations of 

 this sub-committee, a bill was adopted by the 

 Committee on Levees and Improvements of 

 the Mississippi River, which was reported to 

 the House May 28, 1880. 



The purchase-money for the Great Father of 

 "Waters was paid by the people of the United 

 States with cheerfulness, so well did they un- 

 derstand the force of Napoleon's words in the 

 Treaty of Paris in 1803 : " I have just given 

 to England a maritime rival that will sooner 

 or later humble her pride." During the war 

 between the States many a sluggish spirit was 

 roused by the determination that the whole 

 Mississippi from Itasca to the Gulf should be- 

 long to the United States alone. The destruc- 

 tion of the levees was in part due to the war, 

 but no one at this day could be found who 

 would assert that therefore the Government is 

 not called upon to rebuild them. On January 

 11, 1865, Secretary Stanton sent Major-Gen- 

 eral Humphreys to Louisiana to inspect the 

 river and initiate repairs, because it had been 

 represented to the department that the levees 

 "require the immediate attention of the Gov- 

 ernment for the purpose of repairing them at 

 certain places and placing them in a condition 

 to protect the country from inundations that 

 might occasion great injury to the agricultural 

 interests of that region as well as to its com- 

 merce." 



States imbued with any degree of civiliza- 

 tion, even when laws are silent, respect and 

 preserve the arteries of commerce. During 

 the recent conflict between Russia and Turkey, 

 Prince Gortchakoff hastened to assure the 

 great powers that works on the Danube, im- 

 paired or destroyed during that war, should be 

 restored to more than their previous efficiency 



