, 1901-01-17
MONDELL ; FIGHT

The Congressional Record of Jan.
10, 1901, contains CONGRESSMAN Mon
dell's argument before the house, in
committee of the whole, on storage res
ervoirs. 1t was a stulv7Iudulike pres
entation OF the entire question, and
from it We make a i,w excerpts which
will be of interest to the readers of
The Republican, the entire speech be-
ing too lengthy for reproduction at
this time:
Mr.. Chairman, IN the last twenty
years the United States government
has spent approximately $50, 000, 900
for the Improvement Of the Missouri
and Mississippi rivers, and the bill now
before us adds near $l2, 0O0, 900 to this
sum-. In the same period of time the
various riparian states have expended
for levee construction on the Lower
Mississippi about $50, O0O, 600. OF the
fifty-two millions which the govern
ment has spent on these rivers, v
fifteen millions have been for levee con
struction, making u total for levee
construction alone in the past twenty
years IN the Lower Mississippi of up
ward of s35. 900 900. This in addition
to the vast sums which were expended
by the levee organizations of the vari-
Gus states bordering the Mississippi
prior to 1882, an expenditure which
amounted to many millions.
OF all this vast expenditure by the
state and by the nation, amounting to
over S72, 000, 900 in less than twenty
years, to be augmented If this bill be-
cones a law to eighty-four millions, the
major portion has been expended to
minimize and repair destruction by
floods, to remove flood-formed obstruc-
lions to navigation, and to guard
against flood foundations. The jetties
themselves were built to remove the
silt which the river brought down in
its spring flood, to deposit where the
mighty volume of the gulf checked the
onward rush of its turbid waters.
Each year vast expenditures were
required to emove flood-built bars and
shoals and flood-deposited snags, while
the expenditure for levees is neither
more nor less than an enormous out
lay by the general government for the
protection of private property, for In
stead OF permanently improving navi-
CATION, their effect is quite the contra
~, as they confine the %silt-laden waters
within parallel banks, compelling the
deposit of all solids within those mar
row confines Instead of allowing 1t to
be deposited over the surrounding
country as the waters spread.
a greater portion Of this expenditure
is not only Intellectual as a permanent
remedy, but, in the case of dredging
of food built bars. it must, under the
present system, go IN annually forev-
er. and the building Of l~evees, as is
well understood, simply ~aggravates the
situation. for as the lood-borne silt,
held in its narrow channel, Is annually
deposited in the stream bed, the levees
must. year after year, rise higher and
higher in order to control the floods,
pOstpOning but making more certain
and terrible, the inevitable disasters
OF that fatal day when the mighty
stream shall break the walls of its
built.up channel and carry death and
destruction in it's wild rush to the sea
Now, Mr.. Chairman, l am not here to
c~riticise the appropriations which have
been made for the Improvement of nav
igation or for the protection Of private
lands from i%nundation along the Mis-
sissirpi and Missouri rivers, but rather
for the purposes of calling the atten-
ton Of this house to the fact that the
appropriation which I have asked
strikes at the root of the flood evil and
tends to remove the cause, whereas the
many millions which have already been
spent have sought only to minimize
the evil effects of the foods. While
making these vast expenditures in an
almost fruitless attempt to control the
Hoods and repair their effects, why
should not this government, In the In
terest Of navigation and in order to
minimize flood destruction, hold back,
at the sources and along the courses
OF the tributaries of the Mississippi
and the Missouri, a portion, at least,
Of the waters that now go to swell
these streams in time of flood?
The appropriation proposed is for
certain reservoirs at the head waters
OF One of the tributaries OF the MIS-
souri,, and this location Is selected Tor
the beginning Of this important work
owing to the fact that the proposed
reservoirs have already been, IN &C.
cordance with a provision in the river
and harbor bill Of 1895, survsysd and