Omaha daily bee., 1903-06-20
HARNEssING THE FLOODS.
Problem of Vast Proportions and
Great Cost.
St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

st. Louis Globe-D Democrat.
Plenty of water is one of natures great
est blessings, the key to successful agri.
culture, and therefore to stable national
prosperity. The problem of foods is one
OF control, not of a search for a region
where they are unknown, a quest that
would end at Sahara. A flood suddenly
coming out of the Kaw, a minor river,
meeting high waters at other points,
caused a lamentable loss of life and a de-
struction of property worth not less than
$50. $1,000, in addition to widespread human
suffering and interrupted business. The
sea of water that has been hurrying down
the Missouri and Mississippi during May
and June would be of untold value II 1t
could have been restrained and regulated
through July, August and September. In
this connection comes in the immense sig
nihcance of the new irrigation movement
in the United States. Though restricted
at the start to the arid region, there can
be no doubt that eventually irrigated
areas will be found throughout the coun-
try. New England has just passed
through a six weeks drouth, and its crops
for the season must suffer in proportion
What can be done to hold back the sur
plus of rain and melted snow to serve a
systematic, useful purpose. as we'll as to
prevent ruinous floods?
Government officials in charge of the
reclamation policy authorized by the re-
cent irrigation act passed by congress are
studying, among other things, the subject
of storage reservoirs at the headwaters
of streams, as well as the features OF rain
drainage lower down. The secretary OF the
National Irrigation association estimates
that storage reservoirs far up on the Mis-
souri, and its tributaries would reclaim
Sc, 100000 acres of so-called desert lands.
Crops can be made, with irrigation, by the
end of any August. At present they would
be drowned out in the spring and burned
up in the summer. Canals and bitches
aggregating hundreds of miles in length
could conduct off a vast quantity of water
now ravaging its borders in the turbulent
main channels. By means of canals anC
| bitches, says the secretary, almost in.
calcul1ble quantities of flood waters could
be spread out 'to irrigate millions Of acres
OF farming land in Wyoming. Colorado
Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas, thus
reducing the flow Of the lower reaches o.
the Missouri to below the danger point
The canals and bitches would be second
airy restraint to the storage reservoirs a
!
Ground even still more advanced alonl
the same line is taken by the New Yorl
Evening Post, which points out that tn,
conhguration of the sharply sloping plains
from which the present flood came
favorable to the impounding of vast guam
titles of water. The Post remarks tina
this question OF the control and utilization
of the natural waters is now upon tn
country" and that the national irrigation
bill is but beginning 1t declares that tn
whole civilized world is giving more at
tention than ever before to the problem
of water storage and control" and tina
1T is a question almost as pressing 10
New England. and New York and tn
Appalachian region as 1t is for the west.
When such views come from a conservativ
source on the borders OF the Atlantic, con
gress may take up the subject Of irrigatio
and headwater reservoirs with an assuI
ance OF the unanimous support OF IN
country. Levee systems are a branch {
the same methods of securing sure an
, bountiful crops. the foundation Of the nS
tion's wealth, the FIRST great necessary cor
dition Of good times.