The morning call., 1892-10-04
A BATTLE WITH NATURE.

A curious story comes from the prairie
States. At a point few miles south OF
Omaha the Missouri River has for some
time shown indications of shifting Its chan
mel. long straight reach of water, driven
by three-knot current, abuts against the
Iowa shore and is gradually cutting It's way
into the land. Farmers in the river valley
know what that means. 1t indicates that
next spring, when the freshets swell the
body of river water, the stream VIII WIDEN
and deepen the cut, while 1t eats out Ior IL
self new channel, submerging the iaIho
which lie on the river bank. 10 aver V"''
disaster the Iowa farmers assem- oled-ap-
parently at highland proceeueo ~
| canal on the Nebraska side oil the flVer' W
drou of the stream, and necessarily 10 SO
! 80 80 drovn some Nebraska farms In
.ti, oaso the law of self-preSeryatlon In
| ,.nIyed the destruction Of tother party.
! Tie conflict is not new. In the lower
Mississippi the torrential river in spring
often cuts a Slice off one OF its borders and
enlarges the area of the opposite shore, but
it is not remembered that the accidents
have led to lawsuits. When the Mississippi
| River Commissioned which the present
| President, General Harrison, was chair
man-formulated its plan for the protec-
! ton of the river banks from inGndation.
| the engineers, with Captain Eads al their
! head. carefully abstained from recommend
| ing leyees. which would have had the effect
of throwing the body of the stream against
| the opposite banks. They felt that ooth
| riparian tenants had rights, and that the
one should not be protected at The cost OF
| the other. Persons are not always so con-
| siderate of their neighbors. They usually
| act, like the Iowa people, on the principle
that every one must look out for himself.
and when the work of reclamation is left
! TO them as much mischief as good Is often
| done By their attempts to regulate the I'M
| goyernable stream. Similar errors used to
| be committed in Southeastern France, be-
fore Napoleon devised his scheme of dlkes
and irrigation canals and trouble anu al
| most civil war resulted.
The regulation OF the Mississippi and the
| Missouri will eventually be undertaken by
| the General Government. 1t cannot we'll
| be undertaken by the States, because it
! must be conducted on uniform plan, and
the territory affected will extend from Da-
kota to Louisiana. Canals will have to be
constructed from points where there is a
surplus of water in the spring to regions
where there is a scarcity, and embankments
will have to be built TO confine the river
within a giYen channel. What changes the
river flow makes in the geography of the
valley may be inferred from the experience
of recent traveller. He proposed to write
history Of Grants campaigns on the Mis-
sissippi, and lie engaged the services of an
ex-Qfficer who had fought under Grant to
serve as Typographical guide. But they had
not been many days on the ground before
II. A,I ft.oE hi, Il Lot oil
his bearings. Neither New Madrid nor
Island No 10 nor the Yazoo Valley moi
the bayous opposite Vicksburg were where
he expected to find them. They had changed
their place within thirty years. The river
had added land here, taken away land
there. obliterated a channel in one place
and dug a new channel in another; SO tha
the Typographical MAPS which were made
when Fort Donelson fell were of little
value. A river subject to such eccentric
behavior certainly calls for regulation.
Nothing strikes the traveller more forcibly
than the neglect of waterways which The
development of the railroad system ha:
caused. The Missouri River is one of The
noblest streams in the world-long, broad
swift, with an immense body Of water in its
bed. But it is neglected by commerce. l
ought TO carry on its bosom the great bull
of the wheat and corn and beef grown il
Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and the Dakotas
The business of which it should be the thor
oughfare has been absorbed by the rail
roads. Yet il is an axiom that bulk,
property should never seek railroad trans
portation when if can get water transporta
ton. Some day the American people. il
the struggle for existence which is impend
ing, viii wake up to the value of thei
rivers, ana then riparian owners will no
try to drown their neigh5ors out in strug
gle to save themselves from drowning.