Hattiesburg daily progress. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 18??-1909, 1903-03-19
editorial is here reproduced:

sity in the United States has demon
strated by physical tests that the
current of q stream Is on the top aud
not at the bottom; that in deep and
swollen streams the water resting on
the bed is either dead or moving
slowly, and that there IS not a bit of
securing of the bottom at any
stage of the game. 1t is notorious
fact that in periods of extreme high
water mud Jumps form IN the passes
at the mouth of the river, and when
the river falls and the current has a
chance to drop from the surface
nearer to the bottom these mud
Jumps are secured out" Why?
Because in the ietties the river is TO
certain extent confined, and the
current following the laws of nature
does It's work.
But 1t is not SO with the river as a
whole. No engineer, no matter how
eminent he may be, has yet
demonstrated that the building of
high levees deepens the bed of the
river. On the contrary, the evil
dence visible and disastrous year
after year is leading the people of
the delta away from this dangerous
delusion. The Ievees today are
higher and stronger than they have
been in ten or fifteen years, and yet
breaks are reported at several points,
and more are predicted. Now why
should these breaks occur, if it be
true, as claimed, that the "levee
sytemn causes the bottom of the
river "to scour and Deepen The
eminent engineers tell us this,
but we know better. We know, ii
we know anything at all, that what
they say does not fit with physical
facts that can not be overcome by
any spacious argument. If the bed
of the Mississippi river is getting
deeper every year as the result of
the perfection of the levee system, y
why is it that the levees have to be
made higher every year? This is
what we are doing and will continue
to do until we realize the humbug of
the whole business of the eminent
engineers" aud get down to a basis
Of hard common sense. If IN the
future we are to escape serious dis
aster by flood, we must face and
we'll as levees are absolutely essen
tial to the safety of the delta, and
the more outlets we have for the
mighty river the greater Will be the
public security. What we have said
will no doubt distress the "eminent
engineers" and worry the levee con-
tractors, but, nevertheless, we be-
lIeve the time has come ito talk out
plain in meeting" The levee sys-
tenn is failure as system. With
it must be combined outlets. The
people in the delta will, before the
month is out, take our view of the
river question, if they have not done
so alre ady."
A long time ago when the editor of
the Progress was in temporary
charge of the editorial department
of paper published on the Missis-
sippi river he took precisely the
view in this matter taken by the
states and he was hooted at Gen,
Miles of Helena, Ark, wrote long
communication in reply to our edi-
torial in which he said we knew
absolutely nothing about the Missis-
sippi river or any other river and
that our theory was not only i'm
practical, but hurtful to the best in.
terests of the delta country. HIS
| idea was that the levees should be
built higher every year and there
should not be any outlet except the
one main stream of the river that
empties into the gulf. He con
tended that by confinding the water
the channel by levees it woulc
eventually scour out the bottom Of
| the river and make that stream
deeper so it would hold the waite
that might pass down 1T. That has
been many years ago and instead o
the securing process, as he predicted
the bed of the river is higher nov
/ than it was then and in some place
higher than the surrounding land
The levees might be built to the top
of the trees and in the course of tim,
the bed of the river would be nea
the top also. AS the States says
every college and every university
teaches this and how are we to ge
around it?
| We do not contend that the levee
| should be removed, but there shOul(
be more outlets--the more the bette
land although the river might over
| flow at times, as it does anyhow, tn,
lower the levees would become tn
lower would become the bed of th,
| river, for take it as a general propo