The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1874-05-15
Lo,sista1.e and the Preshet.

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terrible yisitatiops III the East-the famine
in Bengal and other localities-a similar
calamity is occurring at our own doors. OF
the Bengal famine it may perhaps be pre-
missed that it was unavoidable When a
forJuitous conjunction Of the meteoric ele-
ments occur such as to Ictard if not total
~ suspend the reproduction of the kindly
fruits of the earth, the human race can
only stand aghast TO witness and to bear
up against this pTovidential visitation All
that man can do to prevent an elemental
phenomenon amounts to nothing. The
most that can be done is for the civil gov
ernment, when 1t finds that the dreadful
scourge is about to fall upon the country,
to purchase provisions in plentifully sup
piled districts and forward these to the re-
gion threatened with Starvation and this
work summed up must fall very short of
sutficeucy, leaving i'll any event vast mum
bers of the race to be famished.
But in Louisiana the case is somewhat
different. There the famine is produced
by the breaking TIN ough Of artificial works
originally constructed for the purpose of
Tending off the floods. In a community
like 5hat of Louisiana, depending for its
! harvests on levees and engineering work,
surely the art of their construction ought
to be well understood. Every one knows
how the lands in Louisiana are situated
+ The whole State may be represented as
swamp, with an immense current of wafer
running through it, being the drainage of
many thousand square leagues. 1t seems
strange, yet it is nevertheless true, that
the effect of this vast current of water is
TO make its banks higher than the back
county. This is entlrci natural result,
though difficult to believe. But if any one
viii urge a current Of water through the
/ surface of 4 bed Of sand, even on small
scale, he Will see that the sand, borne down
by the current, that current being Just
high enough TO dIibble over its banks, will
raise those banks 50 that they will be higher
near the stream than at some distance
back from it.
The early settlers of Louisiana perceived
this operation of nature and seeing that
the river every year Just made out to over
flow its banks, the idea occurred to thom
to levee or raise those banks a little above
the highest average flood, whereby the
overflow was prevented and the land be-
hind was allowed to dry itself as it were,
so as to permit of cultivation. SO success
ful were the earl y experiments in this way
and 50 generous were the profits resulting
from the raising of sugar ard cottons. rice
and like products, that the practice of le-
veeing became general and hundreds Of
ruiles of the river were thus treated on
both sides of its banks. redeeming enough
land TO make Louisiana Il wealth producing
area of the first class. But unfortunately
the manner of building and maintaining
these leyees has never been systemauiZed
Their erection ought to have been placed
in the HANDS of engineers of the first class.
and these ought to have been to the man.
ncr born. One of the most important ex-
eeutive aims of the State government of
Louisiana ought to have been minister
or bureau OF levees. As in France thew
have their bureau of Points ct clauses
bridges and rOadways or causewavs.) as
III England they have their board of pub
nc works, so IN Louisiana ought there al
ways to have been bureau of levees. This
bureau should have had money at its dis
posal. An engineer of the very highest
class, with assutficient corps, should have
been employed and this employment should
have been made the most honorable in the
bcstOwal of the government.
y few years would have brought this
bureau to an efficiency derived from neces-
sary experience which could not have been
surpassed in the world IL membership in
1t should have been the highest ambition
oft he most ingenious youth OF the State,
and no higher honor Ought there to have
been than that Of belonging to the bureau
of levceS. Had this system been estab-
lished, the lower Mississippi would i'm all
the terrible catastrophe by food of which it (
probability have been entirely relieved from
has lately been almost annually the victim. /
worl0 which must be kept permanently [
beyond the danger Of overflow. Holland /
has been almost entirely reclaimed from
the cncroachmcut Of the sea by works Of /
art. In the beginning there wrre the same 1
or similar difficulties to contend with in 4
the Netherlands. Unskllful make-sIlift I.
dykes were raised, and answered perhaps I.
for some years, the people living contented 4
and Pre- =peruus below the level of the ocean I
But and AGAIN - L
and IN single night overwhclm a pro
vince. Nothing daunted the inhabitants
would 20 to work again. raise their dykes,
set their draining wIndmi}ls to work, and
again the bottom Of the roaring Iuyder
Ice or some of its inIets would blossom as
the rose.
But the Dutch were taught by experi /
cnce. They at length systomatized their .
engineering. OF late years an overflow is .
almost unknown, and there is not a han
Wer, quletcr. moro industrious people on /
the face Of the earth. But this Immunity
Is purchased By the most watchful care !
The dykes are Supcrintonded by engineers
unsurpassed in the whole world These
have adopted a system which is never de-
parted from and which is made up of pre-
cautions against the attacks Of the ever
present enemy. Had he same system been
eaIly adopted in louisiana the same I'M
munIty would have been enjoyed. Indeed
II Is questionable whether the MiSsiSSippi
is not more managerial than the ocean.
From The first, Louisiana has continued
to apply to the general government for aid
But to build and to maintain levees to save
tho planters from ruin is not the province
OF the government. 1t has been generous
III SenGing its engineers there. Time and
again the lower Mississippi has been inves-
tIgatod by the best engineering talent to
he found on this continent, or perhaps in
the world. But cui B0n0?
Louisiana must put her own shoulder to
tne wheel, her own spade into the muck. if
She wants to make these terrible crevasses
me exception and not the rule Let her
at once establish bureau and appoint its
"iieeIS lor merit and not for politics. She
can thus save herself il tho future and
become independent of the charities of
the general government For the present
1t becomes US all to do what we can 20 re-
iIcvc her necessities. In the future She
can, If she will, avert such disasters as
that from which her DeODIe are now s1, rfor (