New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1911-05-20
ENFORCEMENT OF THE RIV
ERS BY CAPT. E. 7. KING.

New Iberia, May 10, IL.
| see in Il recent issue Of Tn
: Times Democrat an article b.
Frank G. Carpenter upon the sub
iect of reclamation and improve
nIent Of the overfloWed lands 70
the whole territory Of the United
/ States. giving the number Of acre.
/ of such lands in each of the State,
and the immense wealth the re
clamation and Improvement oi
these lands would bring to the ma
| ton, States and people. He might
/ have gone farther and shown how
much more profitable it would
have been to our government and
the people if the government had
spent one hundred million dollars
of the sum il is spending for The
Panama Canal in the reclamation
Of our swamp and oVeriloWed
lands.
In the first ease we are making
canal that will benefit all the
nations and some of the great
manufacturing states of Europe
even more than ourselves. The
reclamation and development o.
swamp and ovcrflowed lands and
their Improvement would benetit
our own nation and people eX-
clusively. and would add immense
ly to the wealth Of our country
and people.
Louisiana having more OF these
overflowed and swamp lands than
any other State. and which will
be more benefited than any 9th
err State as ] have shown in other
letters in your influential paper,
should be vitally interested in the
protection and reclamation of its
overflowed lands, and no portion
will be benefited as much as the
city of New Orleans, and yet,
strange to see, your Mayor,
Council. commercial organizations
and politicians oppose the divorce
ment of the Mississippi from the
Red and Atchafalaya rivers, which
is the only way of which over 1o0,-
100000 acres in the Atchafalaya
basin and 100000 acres in the
Red river and Atchafalaya and
the Fifth and Tensas districts up
to the Arkansas river, can be pro
tected and reclaimed.
l Irepeat, how can these S,5OO,0Oo
acres of richest lands in the world
be reclaimed as long as the Miss
issippi is allowed to pour its
floods to the depth of fifty feet
into the Atchafalaya, flooding its
entire basin. and at the same time
damming up the Red, Black and
Ouachita and all the bayous and
streams that drain the extensive
section of our State?
I would like for Major Harrod
and those opposed to the divorce
ment to answer this question. The
only answer I have ever heard is
they fear that it will raise the
height of the floods below, fore
ing the people to build higher and
stronger levees and possibly do
them some injury. They do not
know this to be fact, but only
fear it. in the face of the fact that
many Of the ablest and most ex-
perienced engineers in the State
say that it will not and favor the
divorcement.
| will further ask these oppon-
ents of enforcement why the At
chafalaya basin. with its inumer-
able outlets, overflows the basin
every high water from the floods
Of the Mississippi coming down
it, compelling the owners OF 10000
acres of plantations and farms to
abandon them and let them grow
up into a wilderness. ! know this
to be a fact, for | myself settled
in that basin in 1S49, opened one
of the most productive sugar
plantations in the State, as hun
dreds of others did, and we have
had to abandon their cultivation
on account of the floods of the
Atchafalaya, and many of the
owners have been sold ont to pay
the high taxes we have been com
PEELED to pay for protection
against the floods without getting
any proection.
This is why we are all in favor
of divorcement. and we intend, II
possible, TO make it a State issue
in our next State campaign and
not vote for any man Tor any
State or other office who will not
pledge himself to not only support
the enforcement, but to do all he
can to bring it about as soon as
possible. We consider this to be
the most important issue before
the people of the State-the dl
vorcement and reclamation of Tho
millions of acres of the richest
lands in the world, and we feel il
our duty to give to the politicians
and others who generally make
up our State ticket fair warning
so they can act accordingly.