Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Practice of the Improvement of the Non-Tidal Rivers of the United States: With an Examination of the Results Thereof
That the practice followed by both political parties, when in pos session of one or both houses of Congress, during eighteen years past, of thus applying amounts varying from one and a half, to nineteen millions of dollars, should be suddenly dropped, because an active and intelligent opposition has shown, by argument, this practice to be wrong in principle, and inexpedient; can hardly be the fact.
That an organized and persistent minority can defeat legislation, to which it is opposed, has been repeatedly shown; especially during the closing hours ofa Congress; - that this course would be pursued if it could be shown that such legislation were for the best interests of the country, is in the highest degree improbable.
That men from every section of the country should devote months of patient work in the preparation of these bills, and the necessary study of the subject; and that successive Congresses of different political parties, following the same course, should each and all of them wilfully conspire to waste the public money, or worse yet, mis apply it; is logically and humanly impossible, and yet this assertion is shamelessly repeated year after year. But that errors may be made in the conception and execution of these plans, and the making of the bills, is but an instance of human fallibility.
That a business which legitimately calls for an expenditure of fourteen or nineteen millions of dollars in one year, can be safely left the next year without any resources, is a question of importance.
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