Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-12-10
WOMAN'S CONGRESS.
National Rivers and Harbors Session.
"Get Back-to Nature"

1.-TWO hundred trillion cubic feet of
water on an average falls on the sur
face of the United States every year.
This startling statement was made by
DR.. W. J. MCGEE, secretary of the In
land Waterways Commission, and an
expert connected with the Bureau OF
Soils of the Department of Agriculture.
ITO be more explicit, it equals about
ten Mississippis, and that volume of
water is the true basis of our pros
perity.
THE United States has an area of
three million square miles, but that
area could be cut directly in twain and
we could sustain the same population
that we have today, conduct the same
enterprises and raise the same pro-
ducts, condition l do not believe
most people appreciate. We know very
well, if we stop to consider, that the
market price of any commodity is de-
pendent on the water supply. We buy
land in the eastern half of the United
States and say that there are so many
acres in this parcel or that, but IN
reality we buy water power. This is
fundamental. Water is the first of our
resources. 1t is the natural resolVent.
1t is power, fertility, everything. And
being fundamental, values begin with
the water supply.
"What we want to do is to minimize
the waste of water and maximize the
benefits which must accrue to the citi-
zens and country by proper conserva-
ton of water supply. 1T we so control
the water that the rivers shall flow in
s,4. xt-in a h
lem of inland navigation and make the
United States richer by a thousand
per cent than they are today. In or
der to do this we must equalize the run
of the streams at the heads of the riv-
ers and this may be done by dams and
reservoirs and scientific cultivation of
the soil along the courses of both
streams and rivers. The levee of tie
lower Mississippi have done a magnifi-
cent work. but the prevention of floods
is better far than all the levees in the
world.
What we want to do is to get back
to nature in dealing with water. First
to prevent floods, and second to con-
pei the water to run clear and pure.
1t is Il fact that each year the rive-s
of mainland United States pour into
the sea a thousand million tons of
richest saltwater in the form of SUI
pended sediment. an impost greater
than all our land taxes combined and
q commensurate injury to commerce in
the lower rivers which are rendered
carricious and difficult of control by
the unstable load
THE difference in the power value
alone controlled and uncontrolled
streams would in ten years pay the en-
tire cost of stream control in the Unit
ed States. And this, coupled with the
billion dollars loss every year through
soil erosion, due to floods. would con-
struct comprehensive system of WA
ter control in the United States.
1t seems to me in view OF these state
ments that the Congress should au-
thorizc the control over the waters in
order that this wealth might contribute
thousand fold to mans happiness and
prosperity. notwithstanding all that
has been said am in hearty sympathy
with the President when he said that
there was a twilight zone between the
Federal government and the States, sc
far as water control is concerned. Both
the Federal government and the States
have shrunk from assuming contro
over inland waters because they have
been fearful of invading each others
rights. What we should aim to do IL
to so coordinate the work on the prin.
ciple Of the greatest good to the great.
est number for the longest time, and .
comprehensive policy, such as is urget
by the Woman's National Rivers anc
Harbors Congress, toward the naviga.
bile waters Of the nation would bring
untold prosperity and add immeasur
ably to the nations wealth.