OBSTRUCTED RIVERS PLEAD FOR THE PROHIBITIONISTS.
Some years ago, when the Spanish Cortes were discussing a treaty with
Portugal on improving the course of the river Douro, a deputy rose and
said, "If the Douro is turned into a canal, transportation will be
made at a much lower price. Portuguese cereals will sell cheaper in
Castile, and will make a formidable opposition to our _national
labor_. I oppose the project unless the ministers engage to raise the
tariff in such a way as to restore the equilibrium." The assembly
found the argument unanswerable.
Three months later the same question was submitted to the Senate of
Portugal. A noble hidalgo said: "Mr. President, the project is absurd.
You post guards, at great expense, on the banks of the Douro, in order
to prevent the introduction of Castilian cereals into Portugal, while,
at the same time, you would, also, at great expense, facilitate their
introduction. This is an inconsistency with which I cannot identify
myself. Let the Douro pass on to our sons as our fathers left it to
us."
Now, when it is proposed to alter and confine the course of the
Mississippi, we recall the arguments of the Iberian orators, and say
to ourselves, if the member from St. Louis was as good an economist as
those of Valencia, and the representatives from New Orleans as
powerful logicians as those of Oporto, assuredly the Mississippi would
be left
"To sleep amid its forests dank and lone,"
for to improve the navigation of the Mississippi will favor the
introduction of New Orleans products to the injury of St. Louis, and
an inundation of the products of St. Louis to the detriment of New
Orleans.