Pork and the Columbia River
Tn still another direction the pork-barrel methods of the lawmakers at Washington are menacing the legitimate development of the West. Early in August the Portland, Oregon, Chamber of Commerce sent out an urgent call for help to all civic bodies along the Pacific Coast asking them to use their influence against the filibustering tactics used in Congress to kill the Rivers and Harbors appropriation bill and requesting that the associations bring pressure to bear upon all Western members of Congress to facilitate the speedy passage of the appropriation.
The filibuster against the measure appropriating some forty-two million dollars rests upon a sound objection. It has been shown, proven conclusively, that the bill carries appropriations involving several millions for projects absolutely without merit except in the eyes of their political sponsors. Because of this flagrant attempt
to appropriate public money for private political fences strong opposition has developed against the bill. Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles are all hurt through this opposition; Portland and Astoria have raised half a million dollars for the improvement of the
lower Columbia's channel, the money to be spént in coujunction with the federal funds provided for in the bill. Portland and Astoria have shown their good faith by putting up their own money, yet the very necessary river work may be left undone because some senators object to the expenditure of public funds to increase the depth of Hingham Harbor from six inches to two feet.
The results of pork-barrel methods are even worse. The Port of Portland has spent an aggregate of $11,000,000 for the improvement of the Columbia's channel between Portland and the sea. This money was spent solely for the widening and deepening of a navigable channel; on the Mississippi the government has spent more than thirty million dollars ostensibly for the improvement of navigation. The cold fact is that this money was spent for constructing levees to reclaim and _ protect private overflow lands. There was no money for the legitimate improvement of the Columbia, one of the great rivers of the country, but there was always money to dredge political shoals out of obscure sloughs in remote corners of Congressional districts.
Pork and the Colorado River
A few days after the issue of the appeal for aid by the Portland organization the Imperial Valley Chamber of Commerce, the Imperial Irrigation District and the advisory board of the valley's mutual water companies sent out an S-O-S call. The lower course of the erratic Colorado river, emptying into the Gulf of California at intervals, has a habit when in flood of reversing the direction of its flow and of threatening to wreck a canal system upon which fifty thousand persons and property worth a hundred million dollars depend for their very existence. No damage has been done since 1906, but the residents want the river controlled and potential danger averted. Money will do it, but the control work must be done largely on Mexican soil and is therefore doubly the business of the National government.
If pork were eliminated from the various appropriation measures, there would be abundant funds for all legitimate improveinents. Now is the time for the pork-barrel opponents to get together, to eliminate all fat, to agree upon a bill carrying only projects of real merit and to put the advocates of pork in unlimited quantities on record. Insurgents against the iniquitous log-rolling system of making appropriations will be sure of the public's support.
If shoals continue to impede the movements of ocean-going vessels on the Columbia, if the Colorado continues uncontrolled, if needed harbor work along the Pacific Coast ceases, the blame will rest entirely upon the pork barrel.
Why Not Abolish the House?
Contemplating the rotund bulge of this hoary, roomy receptacle of porcine tid-bits the following question suggests itself not altogether improperly:
Has the House of Representatives outlived its usefulness? Since the election of senators by popular vote the House has become superfluous as a check upon the actions of a body no longer aristocratic either in its composition or its leanings. On the contrary, the House has become so cumbersome, so unwieldy, has degenerated into such a collection of ciphers and rubber stamps of mediocre ability that all important decisions are made or influenced by not more than two-score of its members. The same reasons that caused dozens of
