The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-09-14
CONDEMNS LEVEE
SYSTEM ON. RIVER
General Haupt Says Military
Engineers Have Increased
Danger of Floods.

Last Wednesday, before the ST. Paul
| Commercial club, Gen. Herman Haupt,
| the veteran civil engineer, discussed at
length the Improvement of the Miss1s-
sippi river. The far-reaching impor-
lance of the preservation of this great
| Watercourse as a commercial artery
| was so clearly presented by the gen.
eral that the address should command
general attention. 1t is therefore given
here in full. The subject was discussed
under four propositions, as follows:
FirSt-The present continuous leVee
system, if persisted in, can only result in
disaster and should be discontinued.
! SecOnd-The statement of the govern
ment engineers and of the river commits
sion have been misleading and are not
supported by the facts.
Third-The policy of the government in
regard to its public engineering works IS
the worst possible. resulting in expendi-
lures of hundreds of millions of dollars
without beneficial results, and the plans
of improvement that have uniformly
proven to be failures are still persisted in.
Fourth-The Panama canal route has
not single feature to recommend it, but
its adoption has been urged by the enc
mics of any iSthmian canal to prevent or
delay construction. or if constructed, to
be of so little use as not to interfere
with the supposed interests Of the trans
continental railroads.
In proof of these several propositions
Gen. Haupt said:
1.-The tide water of the gulf once eX-
tended to the mouth of the Ohio river.
The whole country below Cairo is an
alluvial deposit. The deposits from
materials carried by the tributaries has
raised the level of the land at Cairo,
and with it the bed Of the river, more
than 800 feet.
Before the operations of nature had
been interfered with by the army engi-
neers the sediment carried by the over
flow water was spread out over 10000
square miles of swamps and basins,
and the increase in the height of the
floods was only one foot in ninety years.
Since the outlets have been partially
closed by levees and otherwise the in
crease in the flood elevation has been
one foot in two and one-half years, and
a flood carrying 80 per cent less vol
ume than previous one gave two feet
greater elevation of the flood plane.
when all the basins have been
closed by continuous leVees and all the
water and sediment turned into the
main trunk. the quantity of water to be
discharged will be doubled and the
quantity of sediment with the material
washed or abraided from the banks will
be sufficient to make a fill in the bed
Of the stream two feet deep and one
mile wide for a distance of 800 miles.
Yet the army engineers and the Mis-
siSsippi river commission persist in as
sorting that the bed of the river has not
risen and will not rise in consequence
of the construction of continuous
levees
"a prominent member of the COM
mission has said that the engineers in
the beginning of the work had comput+
ed the height which the maximum, con-
fined flood would ultimately reach, and
the results have shown that the calcu-
lations are very near the mark. SO, far
is this from being correct that the pre-
diction has always fallen far below the
actual height of the flood plane. and in
1897 there was a loss Of 100000, 900 in
consequence of the failure of the eng1-
neers to indicate the height of the
levees necessary for protection, which
loss was twice the sum required, under
proper plans, to have secured perpetual
immunity from damage from flood, and,
in addition, twenty foot Navigation
from the gulf to Cairo. -
SIN 1861 the engineers estimate for
complete protection from Cairo to the
gulf, including the value of existing
levees, was $26,000,00, There have
been expended since that time, in levees
still incomplete, more than $5O,000.00O,
and it is now certain that $10O,0O0,0OO
will not secure protection under the
present system.
The Cause and the Remedy.
at is impossible to remedy an evil
until we know the cause or causes pro-
ducing it. 1t is surprising that the
government engineers, with their
knowledge of existing conditions, have
not been able to see the cause and
remedy the evil But, as has been
pointed out, they have no inducement
to the solution of these great problems.
rT,1.o; TncitinnS
are secure there is no competition to
fear or to inspire to greater activity,
and consequently little progress; on the
contrary, a large, not to say lavish,
expenditure of public funds to little or
no advantage.
"The existing levees have been SO
built as to form basins or pockets
varying from few miles to seventeen
or more in width; the narroWs below
being from a mile to two miles in
width. In times of flood these basins
fill, the flow is retarded, the mud is
deposited, the bottom of the river is
raised and the consequence is that
each subsequent flood becomes more
and more dangerous, the levees have
to be raised and strengthened, and
even then crevasses are often made
by the pressure of the flood, to the
great obstruction of life and property.
'All that is needed to remedy the
great danger is to remove the basins
by remodeIing the existing levees,
straighten the river by cutting out
long loops, which can be done in sew
eral places at comparatively small ex-
pense, removing some of the levees
altogether, or, when necessary, build
ing them parallel to sustain a uniform
flow of the floods, thus preventing de-
pOSitS at least in the middle of the
current, increasing the depth Of the
channel and giving a navigation of
some twenty feet as far as from Cairo
to the gulf 1t would be best for public
safety, that occasional reservoirs
should be built In the upper basins
to catch the overflow in high floods
and used for irrigation, and also out
lets and overhows near the gulf.
1.-The range of flood heights is now
from forty to fifty feet. 1t is possible
to reduce them to fifteen or twenty
feet by the simple method suggested
above, whilst no height of continuous
levees, under the present system, will
be able to furnish permanent protec-
ton; the mighty river will ultimately
fill it's bed and rise above them.
New Orleans has been saved from
destruction several times, only by the
crevasSes in the leyees which quickly
lowered the flood plane; and i'm
munity from future disaster can only
be secured by providing permanent
outlets suitably located.
1.-THE improvement of the lower Mis-
sissippi along the lines suggested
would reduce to a minimum the dan
gers from such floods as have been
own Of @x.A-