al
tendency is to come to just such lands.

Q. And the negroes prefer to be there to anywhere else?
--A. Those that come, I notice, never go back.

Q. You suggested the improvement of the levees. What is the
necessity, and in what degree is it difficult for those
residing along the river banks to protect themselves?
--A. I am the president of the levee board of Chicot County.
The plan which has been suggested by the Mississippi River
Commission and Mr. Eads, as their chief engineer, is
unquestionably the correct one for the improvement of the
Mississippi River. We know this not only from theory, but
from long experience with the river, those of us who have
lived there. The Mississippi River being, as it is generally
termed, the "Father of Waters," and passing through several
States, it is almost a national system, and it would be
impossible for any system to be adopted by the States which
would be local. Consequently it is imperatively the duty of
the Government of the United States to take care of the
improvement of the Mississippi River. There are certain
sections of the Mississippi River that are naturally above
overflow, made so by cut-offs. The fall of the Mississippi
River is about four inches to the mile. Consequently, when
there is one of those large bends, where the river runs
around where the cut-off is, no increase of water is needed.
The fall being four inches to the mile, the lands just above
the cut-off are made higher and above overflow, whereas just
below, the lands are overflowed or become liable to
overflow. The improvement of the Mississippi River itself
for commercial purposes, as well as the protection of the
lands, is dependent upon the building of the levees, for the
levees of course confine the water within its banks, and
give not only a greater volumn of water, but greater
velocity for scouring purposes, which scours out the sand
bars that are formed continually on the river. Captain
Eads's plan of forming jetties where the banks cave, saves
this deposit, as it were, in the water, which makes the sand
bars. A mattress is put against the caving banks which
prevents the alluvial land caving into the river which forms
the sand bars below. Then the increased volumn and increased
velocity of the wat