The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-04-11
Protection Against Floods.

Protection Against Floods.
The POLICEMAN on the Mississippi! flatboat
caught the main idea when he Remarked:
"God Almighty made dis yer ribber an
tole 1t to go whar it wanted to, an it has
been goin' thar ebber sence." 1t is equally
obvious that the intelligent negro hit the
nail on the head when he told the Senate
Commerce Committee In 1890 "Now, il
you will keep your water up here, we will
have no trouble down there" There Is
truth as we'll as humor in both these obser.
v~ations; but there seems to be neither
humor nor accuracy in those comments on
the present Mississippi foods. which take
the ground that the protective effort of
the Mississippi River Commission is a flat
failure and the levee system a delusion and
a snare, n go so far as to d~isapprove of
every other safeguard thus far adopted.
The 1900 miles of levees on the river,
south Of Cairo. are rendering enormous
service, on the whole, as a safeguard against
most of the large area subject to overflow,
south Of the Ohio, would be inundated
every year. All the levees constructed by
the commission or by army engineers under
its direction have now withstood the floods;
their efficiency has steadily improved since
their building or reconstruction began in
accordance with the plans Of the commits
sion. This will be again demonstrated by
the facts of the present flood, when they
can be accurately set forth, as it had al
ready been proved by the flood of 1890,
which was considerably higher han the
floods of 1882, 1883, and 1854, though the
total length of broken levees in that year
was not one.twentieth as great as in any of
the previous years.
Hundreds of miles Of the levees were
built by States, by counties, and by private
enterprise, and were Of all degrees Of excel
lence or instability. Before the national
Government took part in this work the
main idea seemed to be to pile up as much
dirt as possible in the cheapest way; and
there are still long stretches of levees whose
foundations are far from being such az a
competent engineer would recommend. To
these deficiencies in the system are still to
be attributed most OF the shortcomings in
the ~levees, and their failure, here and there,
to Withstand the tremendous pressure to
which they are subjected by great floods.
A civil engineer has just appeared in
print with q condemnation of the levee
system and one Of his chief arguments Is
that leveed rivers raise their beds higher
and higher as the levees are raised, and
rapidly render the levees Ineffective as a pro-
tective agency. The fact is that experience
has thoroughly exploded this notion. Abb4
Hue was responsible for n long -prevalcnt
LoIl.f AIuA A.. Ill "a Al " II
risen along the leveed portions of the river
until 1t was higher han the surrounding
country. The complete inaccuracy Of this
assertion is pointed out in Gen. j. II. VIII.
SONS book o. China, and in his letter, writ
ten in 1890. to Gen. CoMsToCK. President
Of the Mississippi River Commission. In
eighty years the bed Of the River Pc has
risen only two.hundredths of a foot n year
where 1t Is leveed. The Rhine has long
been leyeed below Dusseldorf, and In one
hundred years q rise in the bed of only
eight inche is recorded. Such statistics
cut nc important figure In a system of
levees. AS for the Mississippi, the records
do not thus far indicate that the bed has
risen at all, though they do not yet extend
over a period long enough to makes sure.
Every means for safeguarding the low
lands of the Mississippi, which, thus far,
engineers have deemed worthy of examina-
tion, has been most carefully studied and
discussed. The scheme of building rescr-
voirs In the upper part of the Mississippi
tributaries to confine the waters for u por-
tion of the year derived much prominence
some years ago from Major PowELL's tcnta.
tive advocacy of 1t; but the idea now COM
mands no considerable support. 1t could he
carried out only in the mountainous por.
lions of streams, for nowhere else could
locations be found for the extensive arti-
fetal lakes required. The artificial pro-
vision of more outlets rs a means of re-
ducing flood heights has often been pro-
posed, and seems to be condemned by the
general voice of expert photographic tcsti-
mony. ut is our conviction, says the re-
port signed by sixteen engineers to the
Mississippi Levee Convention of 1890,
that such a system would prove destruc-
tive to all the interests which are sought TO
be conserved and improved In the treatment
of the Mississippi River" Artificial out
lets had a fair trial In Holland, and were
wholly condemned. The conclusion reached
was that a river must carry off Its own
water, for artificial outlets mischievously
slacken the current and encourage deposits
and Swallowing.
1t IL = great problem, and not even the