As our space will not admit of an analysis of all the bureaus on the list, it will suffice, by way of illustration, to consider but one. For that purpose let us take the first, which is that relating to the Improvement of Rivers and Harbors.
The first serious defect in this branch of the government service is, as intimated, in the manner of preparing the appropriation bill. The estimates for works in progress or for those recommended are submitted by the Chief of Engineers, through the Secretary of War, to Congress, and thence referred to the appropriate committee, composed of jurists, merchants, manufacturers, and other gentlemen of culture, but seldom, if ever, of engineers. Yet the excellent practical judgment of the members of this committee is an admirable substitute for a scientific training, and after months of arduous labor a bill is formulated and submitted which is as free from objectionable items as it is possible to have it. This bill may contain hundreds of items, some of which exceed a million of dollars, and it may include any of the navigable creeks, rivers, or harbors in the United States or Alaska. It is not to be expected that a committee of fifteen members, representing as many States, should possess so intimate a knowledge of the requirements of this vast field as to be able to make an entirely equitable or satisfactory allotment of the money to be expended. Without the facts embodied in definite surveys and plans before them, they must be guided by the opinions of others; and hence the influence of parties interested in promoting special, local, and independent improvements must largely prevail in deciding upon the importance of the item and the amount to be assigned to it. Due consideration must also be given to the probable increase in the number of items of the bill in the committee of the whole, as well as in the Senate and its committees, and also to the aggregate of the bill and the probable amount of the "horizontal reduction."
It is true that after a few years the members become well informed as to the relative merits of many of the improvements; but the committee itself is not permanent, its personnel is continually changing, the policy of the government is often vacillating, and it therefore frequently happens that works begun under one administration are neglected and permitted to decay by another, or that improvements carried to completion are so situated as to be of no service to the public, because they are inaccessible, the other links in the chain of improvements not having been made.
Such are a few of the defects in the method of securing the funds for river and harbor improvements. Those which are incidental to their expenditure may perhaps best be stated by a brief reference to the history of the works themselves, as shown by the laws relating to these matters, and by the inherent defects in the executive departments for conducting the works.
On the 11th of August, 1790, Congress passed an act ratifying certain acts of Maryland, Georgia, Rhode Island and Providence Plantation relative to their public improvements.
In 1798 it ratified an act of Massachusetts incorporating a private company to repair a pier at the mouth of the Kennebunk River.
