Los Angeles herald., 1908-06-28

proved their aD1llty TO successfully
combat all but one. The flood problem
has not been met and grows bigger
every year.
Dwellers In these river towns and In
the valleys have learned to expect q
flood at periods of three, I've or, at
most, ten years. The more intelligent.
those who have really awakened to
the gravity of the situation. are ask
ing government aid In defending them
selves against these floods They ask
for great storage reservoirs at the
headwaters. of the principal rivers,
where the surplus from thaws and
spring rains can be held and sent
down the rivers later, or. in the west,
diverted to the irrigation projects. They
ask for tho building of levees and cut
offs on flood plains as q temporary
measure, but above all they are ask
ing for preservation OF the forests
on mountain and hill, and careful
reforesting of all denuded slopes.
The total area of the watershed OF
the Mississippi is 1,259, 900 square miles,
and during great floods 1t discharges
100000 cubic feet of water every Sec
ond. It carries an alluvial deposit that
has formed new land from forty feet
deep at Omaha, to 300 feet deep below
New Orleans, covering $4,000 square
miles, surface the size of the state
of Montana, with an average of 40
feet of ailuvial soil, and using material
stolen, unchallenged, from hills and
farm lands. The yearly decrease OF the
habitable part of the whole earth IL
reckoned at $500 square miles. 1t
goes to the seas In the form OF silt
and much of 1t can be charged to
mans carelessness.
Floods come from early spring rains
falling on frozen ground, from the
forming OF sudden ice gorges in
streams. from unusual local rainfalls,
from landslides. and like phenomena,
but the usual ones come from the lack
Of means for holding the early spring
waters on the mountain sides. The
floods of the Missouri and Mississippi
usually last longest, sometimes from
January to July, because OF the slow
advance of the sun over the widely
diversified headwaters. Those OF the
Ohio. "the most terrible on the earth's
surface" are usually precipitated sud-
denly by the releasing of all the SHOWS
at once in the headwaters which lie
parallel to the equator. The water
released, forms a volume 100 feet high,
800 feet wide and 300 feet long, to be
hurled suddenly at civilization.
Last spring the loss caused by the
Ohio foods aggregated over 800. 200. 0O0
about one-fifth of the sum that con-
gress would have to appropriate TO
purchase the whole Appalachian sys-
tenn OF river headwaters, and establish
enough reservoirs to hold the spring
surplus and protect billions of dollars
worth of property indefinitely. The
geological survey shows that the flow
OF 1850 square miles, or 35 per cent or
the drainage OF the MonongaheIa can
be stored and released In dry weather,
to increase the depth OF the channel
six feet and incidentally protect Pitts
burg. Forestation there and on other
watersheds Of the east would cause
storage OF from four to six inches
more water annually. A minimum of
2,S00,0 600 horsepower is developed in
these headwaters every year. and. ac-
cording to the geological survey, 30 per
cent or more is available for economic
uses and would bring q rental OF $685.
100000. By storing tho spring floods
and releasing them for deepening tho
water in the river enormous sums for
dredging and improving river beds
would be saved. The government has
spent $30,000,000 improving the rivers
of the Appalachian system ana Is
spending s5s,000.00o more. expecting to
increase the 100000 tons of freight
shipped annually over water routes to
a much greater amount.
Floods bear direct relation to BUSH
ness depression, and the relation to hp~,
man suffering, property loss and sprea
OF disease Is vital. During the 1917
spring flood 100000 working people h
Pittsburg were rendered IDLE for a.
average period of a week, and mar
were homeless. The floods of 1847, 1Ss
and 1883 were followed down the Miss
issippi valley by cholera and other cpl
denies. In the spring of 1903, 100000
acres of land were laid waste in tk
west and s40.0o0,000 worth OF propert
destroyed. In 1901 and again In 1870
the southern Appalachian district los
$40, 100000. In 1883 the loss to Cincinnati
alone was s1,500.000, and the Mississippi
valley suffered to the extent OF $780,
100000. The food OF 1897 cost the valley
| $15,000,0o0, while the flood in the Mo-
nongahela valley cost Western Penn.
sylvania 100000.
The lesson Of the old world is before
us. Southern Europe and Asia are as
skeletons of former selves, for each
nation in turn has given its forests to
misguided civilizers. Northern Africa.
once having a climate of our Gulf
states. is now 95 per cent sterile. Greece
Is becoming more barren, Sicily is ty-
plus infested, France had been dam
aged to the extent of untold millions be-
fore she undertook to afforest her hills.
The Rhone. the Pc, the Adige, the Ebro,
the Guadalquiver and the Martha, To-
calities where floods were almost un-
known In the worlds dim dawn, now
annually threaten to depopulate their
valleys Storage reservoirs have re-
Gently been tried by various European
countries to conserve the flood waters.
but all, with the United States, will
eventually be driven to the plan of
Mehmet All of Abyssinia. who set out
IL, 0O0, 900 trees on his barren hills over
half century ago to hold the floods
and redeem his country.
Copyright. 1908, by Frederic J. Haskin)
Tomorrow-National Educational Associa-
ton.