I served also from 1873 to 1875 on the Committee on Railroads
and Canals. I have no recollection of doing anything on that
Committee, except aiding in reporting a bill for the regulation
by National authority of railroads engaged in interstate commerce,
in defence of which I made a very elaborate speech. But I
was able to secure the passage of one very interesting and
important measure. James B. Eads, the famous engineer, architect
of the great St. Louis bridge, had a plan for opening to commerce
the mouth of the Mississippi River by a system of jetties.
He had submitted his plan to the Board of Engineers appointed
by the War Department. But he could get no encouragement,
and of the twenty members of that Board, only one, General
Barnard, the President, looked with any approval upon his
scheme. The Board thought that a very long and costly canal
was the only method of securing a water-way which would enable
ocean steamers to reach New Orleans, and the product of the
Mississippi valley to be carried to Europe that way. Captain
Eads appeared before the Committee on Railroads and Canals
and urged his scheme in a speech of great interest and ability.
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