require substantial uniformity in
the width of the channel of the river by building spurs and dikes at
points where the Mississippi is too wide, the proper riveting of the
banks wherever caving is likely to occur, together with the building of
permanent levees of a height and strength sufficient to confine the
waters in the channel. It is stated that since 1865 the cost of repairs
has amounted to considerably over forty million dollars, yet owing to
the fact that this work is of a temporary character the benefits which
would be derived from a permanent levee are lost, and every few years
the floods necessitate fresh expenditures of vast sums of money. Hence
this patchwork policy is shortsighted and in the long run the most
expensive. The carrying out of a comprehensive plan for permanent
improvements by the erection of impregnable levees and the governing of
the currents by dikes and spurs, would give us a territory, now
absolutely useless, which would annually add hundreds of millions of
dollars to our national wealth.

The great arid plains of the West and the levees of the Mississippi are
merely examples of internal improvements of a perfectly legitimate
character which could be undertaken most properly by the general
government, under Sec. VIII of the Constitution, which authorizes the
"raising of revenue to pay the debts and provide for the common defence
and the _general welfare_ of the United States." By such internal
improvements as those mentioned above the nation's wealth would be
increased to a far greater extent than by the amount of outlay required
for the completion of the work, while these enterprises would at once
give productive employment to our millions of out-of-works, and this
army of employed would put into immediate circulation large sums of
money which would at once stimulate business through all its
ramifications and bring about the long-hoped-for good times.

But at the very threshold of the discussion we are met with the
declaration that we have no money in the Treasury with which to carry on
these great projects. Before answering this objection I wish to point
out the fact that we have millions of dollars to spend for a useless
navy, a navy which in the hands of our senile government does not
protect the life or the property of American citizens, a navy which is a
constant and an enormous expense. While almost unlimited sums can be
raised for the building and equipment of battleships, we hav