The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1909-08-27

The following report was submitted
by President John H. Diers to the Min
nesota River Improvement league in
session in this city yesterday:
The first thing it did was to have
the state drainage board make a com
plete survey of the river from Big
Stone Lake to Mendoza.
I'VE next succeeded in getting the
state drainage law amended so as to
take IN all of the rivers within the
state, for improvement for the purpose
OF taking care of the additional wa
tiers caused by the construction of
thousands of miles of drainage bitches
leading into these rivers. This law
was declared unconstitutional by the
attorney general of this state.
"a test case of the constitutionality
of the drainage law has now been com
menced by our attorneys and we think
the supreme court will render a decree
in October.
Through the influence of this league,
last winter, the state legislature sent a
committee to Washington, ID. c., for the
purpose of inducing the national gov
eminent to make survey of the Min
nesota river for the purpose of naviga-
ton in which the committee succeeded.
Francis r. Skunk, major, corns of
engineers, United States, stationed at
st. Paul, Mimi, at once made pre-
liminary examination of the Minnesota
river with view to it's improvement
Tor navigation purposes and the con-
struction of reservoirs, and while his
report submitted was favorable to the
improvement and the recommending of
survey for obtaining further dSAa,
the board of rivers and habors did not
| concur in his recommendation.
Major Skunk informed us that an
appeal from this conclusion to the board
of engineers for rivers and harbors, a
permanent body sitting at Washington,
ID. c., to which all examination and
suvey reports of this character are re-
fered, could be had. The Minnesota
River Improvement league at once gath
cred all the necessary data and sent
Mr.. A. L. Poehler and Mr. George A.
Ralph, state drainage engineer, to
Washington, d. c., to confer with our
congressional delegation and as result
of their combined efforts Ma or Skunk
was instructed to make the necessary
surveys for which the engineers are
now in the field.
Surveys recently executed under the
direction of the state drainage board
show that it is entirely practicable to
create empounding reservoirs on the
Minnesota river having a capacity of
from twenty five billion cubic feet,
which reservoirs could be created at
created, be of great value in aiding
navigation OH the Mississippi and Min
nesota rivers, as well as preventing de-
structive floods, and the creation of a
large power. The natural watershed of
the Minnesota river comprises an area
of over ten million acres of land, com
posing about forty large counties or
one fifth of the entire state of Mime
sofa.
1t is practicable and not at all costly
to maintain a uniform depth of wa
ter of the Minnesota river, thing
almost a physical impossibility some
six years ago, because of the undevel-
oped condition of the natural water
shed of the Minnesota river. But since
the commencement of the construction
of the drainage system, over 5000 miles
of drainage bitches have been construct
ed and it is conserva lively estimated
that within the next four or Eve years
at least eight thous"nd more miles of
drainage di chcs will have been con-
structed, draining large swamps an
lakes, the water from which finds it's
way into the Minnesota river of from
twelve to forty eight hours after pre-
cipitatin and without any control VIII Mt :
ever
at is obvious that without the pro-.
er control CT this drainage systeE'
through a proper reservoir system, the
spring floods, caused by the sudden
melting of the snow, by rain or any
OOHCi Id'OidDle COnulUlOI Will, SOlHt
day in the not distant future destroy
every bridge from Mankato to Savage.
1t will likewise cause the lowest stage
of water in the Minnesota river ever
known.
''The value of navigation in the way
of furnishing competition and the con-
sequent reduction in freight rates is a
matter of common knowledge, but a
little information along this line will
not be out of place.
''The average freight charges on the
railroads of the United States, accord
ing to a report of the interstate COM
merce commission, is rs mills per ton
mile. Along the Ohio river above Louis
vile, freight is carried at a cost of
only .76 of mill per ton mic. Be,
tween Louisville and New Orleans, on
the lower Ohio and Mississippi, freight
is moved at a still lower cost, 81 of
mill per ton mile, less than one
eleventh of the railroad charge.
Taking the average over the entire
country, water rates are about one
sixth of the rates by rail. The COM
merce of the country, moved by rail,
has amounted in a single year to l,3O9,-
100000 tons. If it could have been car
ripd NV uator tho SAVING would have