The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-29
|rRADEsMAN's WEEKLY REVIEW
Of New Industries and Industrial Development in the South.

Chattanooga, Tenn, Sept. 26.
 Mississippi river levee conditions and the convention to be held in New Or leans the last week in October, are ably discussed in a letter to The Tradesman by H. M. Mayo, secretary of the New Orleans Progressive Union.
 For upwards of 180 years" MT Mayo says, "the levee situation has existed to a greater or lesser extent. The neces- sity for permanent bulwarks to stay the resistless waters of the Mississippi dur ing the flood period was apparent in the very year following the institution of the city of New Orleans. when the little village was almost swept from the banks of the river by the floods which threat ened the interests of the new colony. "Levees were at once constructed sur rounding the town and this work prac- tically represented the inception of the magnificent chain of entertainments which serve so effectively to protect the agri- cultural interests and the vast property values which lie In perfect security be- hind the levees.
 'Year by year, however. in proportion to the gradual cutting away of the vast forest system which. in great degree. prevented the rain waters and melting snows from too suddenly overcharged | waterways and tributaries of the great Mississippi river, which. notwithstanding its gigantic proportions, was inadequate to carry away the floods launched into ] its current. witnessed an aggravation of the situation.
 With the extension of agriculture, the opening of drainage and the thousand and one other causes brought into be- | ing by the rapid settlement of the trib- utary areas, the rains and melted snows
 found no impeachment in their rush to seek a common level. Yet while at one
 time the rise in the Mississippi and the | flood stage covered a period of eight or
 ten months due to the gradual percola- | tion of storm waters into. its bed. the obliteration of restraining influences com pletely changed natural conditions, and
 thus the Mississippi rose from it's aver age heights and level to almost unpre- 1 cedented heights and in a comparatively
 short period of time. the river rising. as
 chronicled by the records of last year. l from two to six inches daily.
 'The necessity for controlling the hood conditions became more apparent as the fertile. alluvial lands of the river states were put into cultivation. and thus the levee system progressed the entire length of the low lands along the Father of Waters. and the height of the levees gradually increased, marking an equal ratio to the causes which produced the necessity.
 "The expense incident to the construc- ton of the levee systere slowly assumed and at last reached vast proportions, so much so that the taxes levied upon the land owners or upon the dwellers in the alluvial places subject to overflow be-
 came such as to be a severe drain upon the individual and upon the States them selves. These were forced to these large expenditures for levee building and re-
 pair and were compelled to divert large
 sums of money from public improvements
 and the extension of school systems so
 urgently needed by the several States
 and demanded by the residents thereof
 in order to keep abreast of their sister
 communities in the march towards pres
 ent day civilization.
 Up to the year 1882 the levee system.
 while comparatively good, was frequent-
 Iy badly damaged by crevasses and the
 consequent sweeping away of many miles
 of entertainments. The periodical floods
 of the Mississippi gave birth annually
 to fear and anxiety that the levees
 would break. and of the partial or com"