The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-07-09
advertiser Correspondence, Copyrigh
by Frederic j. Haskin.)

pie of the United States lose by fooC
each year an average of 100000, geo
A few weeks ago the 10000 inhabitants
of Armourdale, in Kansas City pack
ing house district, had to abandon thei1
homes as the water backed in. Dowr
the valley of the Big Sioux 100000
acres of farm land were laid waste the
early part of June. Cedar City, Mis-
souri,, saw its population move out er
masse when the Missouri River left its
banks on June a. Two-thirds of the
bottom lands within sight of Jefferson
City were under water, with wheat
fields swamped in from six to eighteen
inches of water,-a million dollars loss
to farmers. The usually harmless little
Shunganuga surrounded Topeka with
water on June Is, and wrought havoc
next only to that of the flood of 1908
The Columbia, encouraged by heavy
rains and melting SHOWS in it's head,
waters, rose until the pumping station
of Wenatchee, Washington, was carried
away, and lumber interests were great.
ly threatened. At Emporia, Kansas,
the Neosha, and it's tributary, the Cot,
tonwood, brought the worst flood that
section has experienced. The far north
western flood plain suffered most. Con
tinued rain and snow of early June days
set the rivers and creeks rushing from
| their banks, telephone and telegraph
communications were cut off and trains
on the Northern Pacific were tied up
for ten days. Anaconda, Butte and
Helena were cut off from the rest of
the world, until the old time pony ex-
press was revived to meet the situation.
Mines in that region were closed and
business operations in the city suspend
ed. At Missoula giant mill was in.
iured to the extent of $4,000 or more,
and communication with Spokane cut
off for days.
And so on through the list of floods
that have recently swept a wide area
of the country in the West, the low.
lands of Arkansas and Texas, the val
the Atlantic slope. In the trail of each
overflow has come loss of property in
the shape of crops, homes and stock,
and sometimes loss of life. In the traif
of all has come a greater and more
abiding loss in the shape of eroded
mountain and hill-sides, corroded river
banks and silt choked river beds. And
greatest of all has come the great waste
of water that rushes unimpeded toward
the seas, depriving the earth of the
moisture it needs for the summer and
fall crops, defrauding the rivers of the
water necessary to maintain that even
current and depth throughout the years,
so necessary to the support of that great
traffic which the nation hopes to see
on her inland waterways.
And the deplorable thing about it,
the thing which is sad commentary
on our national thrift and intelligence,
is that the greater part of this great
waste and incalculable loss is our own
fault. The headwaters of these over
flowing rivers lie among the mountains
which in the beginning of things wise
Creator set with forests that were de-
signed to conserve the winter SHOWS
and vernal rains, and then release them
later through underground springs and
rivulets to the thirsty valleys below.
The river courses lay through plains set
with trees and underground that would
hold the water from an overflow and
keep it safe in the sponge of fallen
leaves, the roots, and old logs, until
such a time as the winds or the soil
asked it again.
Man, in his misguided idea of pros
perity, is denuding the slopes of their
trees as rapidly as human and mechani-
cal agency can effect it, and when the
SHOWS and heavy rain-water find no
abiding places as in olden days, and
rush down the valleys to bring death
and destruction in their wake, this
same man sits and wonders at the dis
of a Providence that will so
interfere with his material prosperity
and happinessl As the first settler Of
he country, the white man began the
work of deforestation as a protection to
lis home from Indian ambush, and as
AiCdHn VI dCduiilHS bAAIdDIS 1dH0' 1jat-
r he did it to acquire needed building
fuel, etc.
In the three centuries of his progress
IS an axe-man and path-maker for com,
nerce, he has in his ignorance increas-
d the flood evil from a practically /
negligible volume to its present start,
ing strength With Old World lessons
n flooded areas below naked hills fresh
n his mind, he has nevertheless proved {
title better than his Indian neighbors. I
I was the Indian who first deprived I
merica of part of her forests. Seien c
lists tell us that the great prairies of 5
he West were once forest lands, from 5
hitch the prehistoric American burned r
ne vegetation when gathering nuts.
estrOying trees on countless acres t
trough countless centuries At the a
BOT of the Appalaehians the flames t
aused, because the vegetation was a
amper there and less easy to destroy v
With the increase in floods comes the
early increase in danger to the riparian d
ties of the nation. The earliest cities 81