The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-12-23

Like the traditional Missourian. there
THAT are a large number OF Wichita tax
81 asTs payers who will be wanting ito be
t----l shown" before the city council ex-
ponds six thousand dollars food gate at that
little old hpile dam which originally put in
for a Chisholm creek MILL but later utilized sewer
flush These taxpayers of the whom editor of the
Eagle estimates himself at least will be wanting
to know more than was disclosed in the proceedings
Of city council reported in the Eagle yesterday
morning Wichita has got money to throw at the
birds but throwing money at birds would be wisdom
compared throwing it at that little OLD tacky dam
with any pretence that it would protect Wichita from
disastrous floods In the first place. Wchtas location
site constitutes guarantee that the city will
be swept subjected to a disastrous food The
city site and the wide ow-level adjacent valley may
be overlooked, they once but foot fifteen
inches of sluggishly moving water cannot prove men
acing life destructive of property. So we will
to "be shown before there is any dam graft
stuck
The Sullivan dam had nothing to do with Wichita's
former overflow cut figure in the matter to speak
o. The lower portion of the town from Central
south was Hooded by backwater in the Little Arkansas
river from the Big Arkansas That is the Big Arkansas
bankfulI that the waters of the Little river
could not be discharged with sufficient rapidity. The
of the north Of Central and of the
Santa Fe grade came Of the Little river low
place the brickyards south of Twentyrst street
The Chisholm creek overflow, which partly made
up from the Sullivan dam vicinity. spread the
present site Of Burton works and escaped by
the channel Of the Chisholm without discommod
was relieved by lot of volunteer citizens, headed by
the late J. P Allen who Dug bitches through the Santa
Fe grade north Murdoch Yesterday morn
ings report doings of the city council is the first
hint that this people has had that that brushpe
obstruction known Sullivans dam, five miles north
Of tcwn, did could any figure in food
menace in this city
The little levees thrown up along the banks of the
Little Arkansas subsequent that overflow Of years
ago. referred have to the present time protected
the city from everything Of the kind In spite Of the
well known and defined cause OF the former overflow,
this city authorities for twenty years, or
more permitted individuals to fill in the banks and
the channel CT the Big river The Eagle has
protested against this its Sec
Rotary War whose department has supervision of the
Great Arkansas. appealed to Senator's all in vain.
The reasonable practical and attractive thing to do
Is TO the boulevard discussed by the
people and contemplated by Mayor Mclean and the
city spring. So far the report of yes
terday morning referred to- shows it would be just as
feasible pump and throw the excessive storm
waters the Little Arkansas back of the Attca
hills as to try to regulate them with dam gate.
The truth, however is, and about everybody under
stands it. no disastrous flood sweep wien
tia the length of her rivers and the extent Of
her watershed such food swept out the valley CT
the spring is impossibity here. 1t is true
If individuals are permitted keep choking the
Big river channel the embaukments the levees
Of the Little river not heightened Wichita may
experience inconvenience the and nasti
ness of an overflow, but disastrous food, never.