Improvement of the Mississippi River

[Forty-sixth Congress, first session, H. R. 1847.]

In the House of Representatives, May 10, 1879.-Read twice, referred to the Com. mittee on Levees and Improvement of the Mississippi River, and ordered to be printed.

Mr. GIBSON, by unanimous consent, introduced the following bill:

A bill to provide for the appointment of a "Mississippi River Commission" for the improvement of said river from the Head of the Passes near its mouth to its headwaters.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a commission is hereby created, to be called "The Mississippi River Commission," to consist of five members.

SEC. 2. The President of the United States shall, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint five commissioners, three of whom shall be selected from the Engineer Corps of the Army and two from civil life. And any vacancy which may occur in the commission shall in like manner be filled by the President of the United States; and he shall designate one of the commissioners appointed from the Engineer Corps of the Army to be president of the commission. The commissioners appointed from the Engineer Corps of the Army shall receive no other pay or compensation than is now allowed them by law, and the other two commissioners shall receive as pay and compensation for their services each the sum of $3,000 per annum; and the commissioners appointed under this act shall remain in office subject to removal by the President of the United States.

SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of said commission to take into consideration and mature such plan or plans and estimates as will correct, permanently locate, and deepen the channel and protect the banks of the Mississippi River; improve and give safety and ease to the navigation thereof; prevent destructive floods; promote and facilitate commerce, trade, and the postal service; and when so prepared and matured, to submit to the Secretary of War a full and detailed report of their proceedings and actions, and of such plans, with estimates of the cost thereof, for the purposes aforesaid, to be by him transmitted to Congress: Provided, That the commission shall report in full upon the practicability, feasibility, and probable cost of the various plans known as the jetty system, the levee system, and the outlet system, as well as upon such others as they may deem necessary.

SEC. 5. The said commission may, prior to the completion of all surveys and examinations contemplated by this act, prepare and submit to the Secretary of War plans, specifications, and estimates of costs for such immediate works as, in the judgment of said commission, may constitute a part of the general system of works herein contemplated, to be by him transmitted to Congress.

SEC. 6. The Secretary of War may detail from the Engineer Corps of the Army of the United States any officer who may be selected and recommended by said commission to act as secretary of said commission.

SEC. 7. The Secretary of War is hereby authorized to expend the sum of $175,000 for the payment of the salaries herein provided for, and of the necessary expenses incurred in the completion of such surveys as may now be in progress, and of such additional surveys, examinations, and investigations as may be deemed necessary, and in maturing and perfecting and reporting the plans and estimates, and the plans, specifications, and estimates contemplated by this act, as herein provided for; and said sum is hereby appropriated for said purposes out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

[PUBLIC-No. 34.]

An act to provide for the appointment of a "Mississippi River Commission" for the improvement of said river from the Head of the Passes near its mouth to its headwaters.

SEC. 2. The President of the United States shall, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint seven commissioners, three of whom shall be selected from the Engineer Corps of the Army, one from the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and three from civil life, two of whom shall be civil engineers. And any vacancy which may occur in the commission shall in like manner be filled by the President of the United States; and he shall designate one of the commissioners appointed from the Engineer Corps of the Army to be president of the commission. The commissioners appointed from the Engineer Corps of the Army and the Coast and Geodetic Survey shall receive no other pay or compensation than is now allowed them by law, and the other three commissioners shall receive as pay and compensation for their services each the sum of $3.000 per annum; and the commissioners appointed under this act shall remain in office subject to removal by the President of the United States.

SEC. 3. It shall be the duty of said commission to direct and complete such surveys of said river, between the Head of the Passes near its mouth to its headwaters as may now be in progress, and to make such additional surveys, examinations, and investigations, topographical, hydrographical, and hydrometrical, of said river and its tributaries, as may be deemed necessary by said commission to carry out the objects of this act. And to enable said commission to complete such surveys, examinations, and investigations, the Secretary of War shall, when requested by said commission, detail from the Engineer Corps of the Army such officers and men as may be necessary, and shall place in the charge and for the use of said commission such vessel or vessels and such machinery and instruments as may be under his control and may be deemed necessary. And the Secretary of the Treasury shall, when requested by said commission, in like manner detail from the Coast and Geodetic Survey such officers and men as may be necessary, and shall place in the charge and for the use of said commission such vessel or vessels and such machinery and instruments as may be under his control and may be deemed necessary. And the said commission may, with the approval of the Secretary of War, employ such additional force and assistants, and provide, by purchase or otherwise, such vessels or boats and such instruments and means as may be deemed necessary. SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of said commission to take into consideration and mature such plan or plans and estimates as will correct, permanently locate, and deepen the channel and protect the banks of the Mississippi River; improve and give safety and ease to the navigation thereof; prevent destructive floods; promote and facilitate commerce, trade, and the postal service; and when so prepared and matured, to submit to the Secretary of War a full and detailed report of their proceedings and actions, and of such plans, with estimates of the cost thereof, for the purposes aforesaid, to be by him transmitted to Congress: Provided, That the commission shall report in full upon the practicability, feasibility, and probable cost of the various plans known as the jetty system, the levee system, and the outlet system, as well as upon such others as they deem necessary. SEC. 5. The said commission may, prior to the completion of all the surveys and examinations contemplated by this act, prepare, and submit to the Secretary of War plans, specifications, and estimates of costs for such immediate works as, in the judgment of said commission, may constitute a part of the general system of works herein contemplated, to be by him transmitted to Congress.

SEC. 6. The Secretary of War may detail from the Engineer Corps of the Army of the United States an officer to act as secretary of said commission.

SEC. 7. The Secretary of War is hereby authorized to expend the sum of $175,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, for the payment of the salaries herein provided for, and of the necessary expenses incurred in the completion of such surveys as may now be in progress, and of such additional surveys, examinations, and investigations as may be deemed necessary, reporting the plans and estimates, and the plans, specifications, and estimates contemplated by this act, as herein provided for; and said sum is hereby appropriated for said purposes out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.

Approved June 28, 1879.

REMARKS

HON. RANDALL L. GIBSON.

Mr. GIBSON said:

SATURDAY, June 21, 1879.

Mr. SPEAKER: I will endeavor in a very few words to explain the scope of the bill as originally passed by this House and the modifications made by the amendments of the Senate.

Let me say that the bill was passed by this House nearly three weeks ago, with only twenty votes against it, and was returned to us from the Senate with only four adverse votes of that body. As it passed the House, it provided for the appointment of a commission to be called "The Mississippi River Commission" to consist of five members, three of whom were to be selected from the Engineer Corps of the Army and two from civil life, and the President was authorized to designate one of the commissioners from the Engineer Corps to be the president of the commission. Now, the amendments made by the Senate provide that in addition to these five members one shall also be appointed from the Coast and Geodetic Survey and one from civil life.

It is proposed to concur in these amendments of the Senate. I should prefer the bill as originally drawn, but I can see no weighty objections to the proposed alterations. It will be seen that they relate merely to the commission, increasing its number from five to seven members. No changes have been made in the duties imposed upon the commission.

Mr. Speaker, I am persuaded that every gentleman in this House who has made himself acquainted with the vast interests of the Mississippi Valley and with the difficulties to be overcome in the protection and advancement of those interests will hesitate long before he will throw himself in opposition to this bill.

The Mississippi River is a national river, the grandest highway of commerce in the world. And yet while the Federal Government has with unstinted liberality made appropriations for our ocean front and lakes and upland rivers, nothing has been done for our great inland sea. You have expended enormous sums for harbors and water-gaps upon our eastern seaboard and you support a navy to protect our foreign commerce upon every sea under the sun. You have established sheltering harbors and piers upon the lakes at the cost of millions. You appropriated ten millions to unite the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers and four and a half millions to build a canal around the Des Moines Rapids. These are but a few instances. I believe every dollar so expended adds to the wealth, comfort, and happiness of the American people.

But why is it that nothing, absolutely nothing, in comparison with the interests involved, has been done for the Lower Mississippi, from

Cairo to New Orleans, a distance of one thousand miles, making a coast front of two thousand miles on our great inland sea, whose commerce and trade even now exceed in value our whole foreign commerce? It is only within the last three years that we have been able to secure deep water at the mouth of the river. Experiment after experiment was made until finally a plan was suggested and adopted that proved successful. We are to-day confronted with difficulties apparently as invincible along the route of the river as those that barred its gateway. What are they?

In the first place, official reports show that during several months in every year immense sand-bars and snags close the navigation of the river as effectually as if artificial dams were constructed across its channel.

In the second place, official reports show that at other seasons the river rises over its banks throughout the alluvial region and spreads out over the country for forty to sixty miles-becomes a mighty, roaring torrent-destructive not only to human life and property upon its borders, but destructive to the commerce and trade upon its waters. The report of the engineers show that these floods cause changes of the channel itself, and the towns of Vicksburgh, Vidalia, and Natchez are now threatened with being cut off entirely from the main channel of the river, and unless something be done to correct its course these once thriving towns will be isolated and become interior towns, not on the banks of the river, but upon quiet inland lakes without communication with the river.

In such seasons the largest boats propelled by steam are sometimes destroyed and often detained several days by the extraordinary obstacles they encounter, but that countless fleet of smaller boats, barges, and flatboats, propelled by the current of the river itself, are absolutely at its mercy and are sometimes borne into the adjacent forests and wrecked, or whelmed and destroyed in the furious eddies and counter-currents.

At night and in storms there is absolutely no protection. It is estimated that these extraordinary perils impose a tax of not less than $10,000,000 annually on the increased rates of insurance alone. We know what the difficulties are. They have been surveyed and reports made of them to Congress. But no complete and comprehensive system for their removal has been submitted to this House or to the country.

This commission is created with the hope that they may devise some plan, economical, feasible, and complete, that shall give us deep water at all seasons of the year, and prevent these destructive floods so ruinous not only to the country through which it flows, but to the mighty commerce that carries the productions of the teeming millions who inhabit the great valley to the markets of the world and brings back in exchange the wealth of other countries.

Mr. Speaker, I do not, I cannot believe any gentleman will be disposed to vote against reasonable and just appropriations for wingdams, jetties, and levees, should this commission, after a thorough and scientific examination of the subject, report that these are the appropriate and necessary instrumentalities to deepen and correct the channel, to prevent destructive floods, to afford safety and ease to navigation, and facilities to trade and commerce upon our great inland sea; that they are, in fact, to the Mississippi River what watergaps, sheltering piers and harbors, and light-houses and beacons and buoys are to the sea and lake coasts.

Would you decline such appropriations so clearly constitutional under the power to regulate commerce, when they are smaller in pro

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