The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1882-03-11
Protection Of the AlluVial Lands.
lTimes-Democrat.!

mony 10 the proposition, made by
us last fall, that il is simply throw
ing away moneyto attempt to keep
up a system of levees through the
independent action of the States
bordering the great river. We
made the assertion that the effort
is ehimerical; that it amounts,
simply, to draining the riparian
communities Of vast sums of mon-
ey; that it involves an expense
which can never be made to as.
sumo the form of a permanent in
vestment, but must be annually
repeated, constantly provided for,
regularly wasted. The protection
of the alluvlal lands of the valley /
can be accomplished only at vast /
cost and by systematic and cour-
ageous work beginning at Cairo
and carried through to the Gulf.
1t is not enough for each State or
county to erect eaithen embank-
ments across low places, the natu-
raj escapes in time of swollen
floods. These frail defenses are
swept away by the angry nver |;
the land upon which they are built
is undermined until it slides into
the torrent, carrying with it the
work of patient months, the earn
ings of many laborious seasons.
Year after year the capricious
river shifts its channel, eating into
the land here and forming sand
bars there, until the cost of keep
ing up levees has assumed such
gigantic proportions as to be be-
yond the compass of local means.
An indispensable precedent to
anything even remotely resembling
a substantial and enduring protec.
ton is the systematic bringing of
the river to a uniform width
throughout its entire length, and
the absolute and permanent de-
fense of the banks against caving.
Not until these two ends are Sc.
cured can the building of leyees
be regarded as other than prodi-
gal expenditure-as a drain upon
our resources which must ulti.
mately exhaust them without ac'
complishing more than the most
precarious and temporary results
We have seen that after squander'
ing enormous sums of money to
protect such outlets as Asht0n's,
Morganza, Kempe's and Bonnet
Carre, the emergency of o great
food almost invariably overthrows
the barriers we have erected. We
have found ourselves, year after
year, compelled to build dykes
around gaps caused by cavine
banks, or to throw up entirely new
lines of levees for long distances
because We see the river encroach'
ing upon the old line and know
that it is but o question of time
when the fruit of our labor and oul
money will vanish into the suller
river and leave us to the mercy o.
the food. There is no end to the
outlay. The work Is one which
can never be finished after eacl
high water season, even If we es
cape inundation, the effort has t.
be renewed, fresh drains upon ou
, resources are opened. There arr
} old levees to strengthen, new
levees to construct, gaps to b.
} filed and caving banks to be pro
: vided for. The struggle neve
I ends, the anxiety never relaxes
> the expense never pauses. w
1 are upon the rack always, and on
I money flows from us in a streai
0 as steady and relentless as tn
river itself. No community can er
Q dure such a strain upon its means
i Sooner or later the battle mus
Q end in defeat, and all that has gon
!. before be wasted.
We hold now, as we have alread
+ declared, that the effort of tn
d States, acting independently, ca
I result in nothing more than pos
Q poning for a very little while u
+ inevitable calamity. Working a
!. we are now; building upon thes
y shifting, caving banks; at the mel
b cy of the gigantic caprices Of th
y river; the victim of its mysteriou
e hydraulic evolutions; sure of fnotf
9 ing save that we are wasting ou
]: lives and squandering our none
d in an unequal strife-the convi'
e ton cannot be escaped that th
d prospect is most discouraging
9 that we are pursuing a chimer'
d It seems to us beyond controvers
that, until the government takes i
d hand the problem of the grea
Q river and furnishes us with lin
: of permanent banks upon whic