Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 71.djvu/139

Rh on the railroads, on the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad for twenty days and on the Riverside Division for forty days. There was no loss of life or of live stock and most of the movable farm implements and machinery were saved. For this protection from loss a great share of the credit should be given to the Weather Bureau, which sent out warnings to the inhabitants of the basin a few days before the river reached its highest stage.

Another line of work in charge of the commission is the maintenance of a navigable highway from Cairo to the Gulf. The specifications demand a channel of at least 200 feet in width and 9 feet in depth. To meet this demand, a number of dredges have been constructed, and as fast as the river falls in stage and approaches a 9-foot depth dredging operations are inaugurated. It has been proved that, unless the river falls to an abnormally low stage, it is altogether within the power of the dredging parties to maintain the required size of channel. Notwithstanding this surety and this success, the traffic of the river has declined in volume during the last thirty years. This decline may be due to a number of causes. The greater length of the waterway over the railway between the same ports resulting from the meandering oi the river, and the greater speed attainable in rail traffic make the time by rail to the time by water from St. Louis to New Orleans as 1 to 10. A second disadvantage of the water route lies in its uncertainty. During high water stages navigation is difficult. At times the boats are ordered to go at slow speed lest the wash increase the caving of the levees. There is also an uncertainty concerning the location of the low-water channel. Even with the success of the dredging operations the channels are often difficult and hard to run. A third cause which is emphasized by the loss of time and the uncertainty of the passage is the constantly decreasing difference between the tariffs by rail and by water. A fourth cause lies in the active part which railroad companies have taken in the competition.

A liberal appropriation is made for the continuance of the work of the parties under the direction of the River Commission. While different judgments concerning the efficiency of their work prevail, the opinion is a general one that this work ought to be prosecuted until a more obvious means of benefiting the people of the alluvial basin and at the same time serving the needs of the inhabitants of the valley can be devised.

The second point in the River and Harbor Bill was an appropriation of $250,000 for the stretch of river between the mouth of the Missouri and the mouth of the Ohio. The Senate amendment to this portion of the bill was a complete renovation with an appropriation of $650,000. It was later understood, however, that the Senate conferees had yielded to the argument of the House conferees and would allow the amendment to be stricken from the bill. During the four seasons just past this stretch of river has had an appropriation of $650,000 annually. In