Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1911-06-01
THE WASTE oF WATER.

| ibis naLlOu DOdhLb 8tSoS uOeA ~
its water supply. And yet, how We
employ It! Every year we allow 1t
to carry billion tons Of our richest
soil out to see. Mr.. John L. Matt
hews, in his "The Conservation Of
Water" says that a handred thousand
men standing on the banks Of the
Mississippi with shovels and an UNI
! limited supply Of rich earth ct hand
and toiling twelve hours every day
three hundred and sixty-five days In
the year could not throw into the
Mississippi as much soil as the river
annually carries into the Gulf OF
Mexico. Why should not we con-
serve this soll--and other soil too
by draining our seventy-five mil
lion acres Of swamp land? Why
should we not use the water to irri-
gate an equal acreage Of desert land,
to open new channels of navigation,
to furnish white coaY' fuel--that
is to say, electricity? For in our
rivers and streams there 10 still at
least fifty million horsepower That
would represent the equivalent of
six hundred and fifty million tons
of coal burned every year. We act
ually mine about five hundred mil
lion tons Of coal annually. But wei
waste at least an equal amount in
getting 1t out. Hence our undevelop-
ed water power really represents the
needless reduction in our total coal
supply Of no less than a billion tons
a year. Something, Of course, ought
to be done. Something is being done.
individuals are doing something and
corporations are doing something.
But neither individuals nor corpora
lions can do enough Only the sup
RENE power can. The government
can. 1t should take an interstate
river and treat 1t as whole, de-
veloping 1t at every point where 1t
is susceptible of the best develop
ment, whether as a furnisher Of do
nestle and municipal supply, whether
as an irrigator, whether as a source
of navigation or power. Why should
not we have a department Of public
works to do Just this thing among |
others--to take a river and decide
how it shall be developed in all Of
its parts and functions, to carry out
the necessary work by bond issues,
charging the Improvement to pay for
the bonds, and, when this is done,
dividing the income among the cities |
and counties invoiyedg II such
plan were carried out q number Of
interesting by-produots should result.
Among others, we ought to have a
definition Of the extent Of the power
Of congress over navigabIe streams.
Mr.. Matthews thinks that such a
power ought to extend to every tri-
butary OF g navigable river to the
rivers remotest source. As another
by-product. we might expect to see
national pure water act passed.
following the lines Of the pure food
law, and making 1t impossible for any |
city, factory OF individual to corrupt
a running stream our streams would |
then have q fair chance Of becoming |
clean, healthful, and useful, A third |
by-product might BE- some ultimate
realization on the part Of the whole
nation Of what the people Of Oregon
have put In their law; "All water
within the state. from an sources
OF water supply. belongs 70 the pub
he while uomsthing practical vill
doubtless Be worked ont, the diffi-
Guilty IN apply this last standard
would seem 70 Be At present pfae,i-
caliy lnrpperahle.
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