Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-09-27

river and its tributaries and make
them useful agents of business in place
of dangerous agents of destruction.
1T is to this work that | would ask
the United States now to turn its at
tention just as it has turned its atten-
ton to digging the Panama canal Let
, us use the expert knowledge and the
plant itself for the control of the waters
of the great inland basin which occupies
over half of the area of the republic.
The source streams must be harnessed.
The freshet waters should be kept in
reservoirs to be used for irrigation and
conserved for dry-season navigation,
while strong levees built from Cairo to
the Gulf will hold the already partly con-
trolled floods AS the Louisiana Legisla-
ture has said, the nation cannot afford
longer to permit its resources of soil, of
power. of water and of navigation. to be
carried as a wastetul and destructive
flood to the sea Since the states them
selves cannot in the general interest pre-
vent this waste, the federal government
should treat the problem as whole, and
grapple with it in the only efficient way
by conserving such floods at their
source and thereby subjecting them at
every stage of their hitherto wasted ex-
istence to beneficial uses"
+ Discussing the relation of forests to
stream flow, Col. Roosevelt declared that
one great reason why floods are growing
more numerous was because of the de-
nuding of uplands of their forests.
Some men of good repute have de-
MED the relation OF forests to stream
flow" he said Others who have firm
ly believed in the truth of it, until re-
Gently have been unable to produce
figures their opponents could not de-
ny. Now, however, the facts are prov
ed beyond the shadow of a DOUBT by
the work of the government in the
White Mountain region of New Hamp-
shire. During three periods of high
water, last April, to use that one eX
ample, the flow from the deforested
watershed, area for area, While there
was deep snow still in the forests aft
CT it had entirely disappeared from the
open. Further Investigations not yet
published shoy still more strongly the
effect of forests on stream flow. These
conclusions confirm the result of the
forest service. Therefore we may re-
gard the question as settled beyond
dispute
Col. Roosevelt recommended the con-
struction of q complete reservoir sys-
tenn.
Flood water conservation by for
ests and reservoirs will meet many
needs" he declared. when it is ac-
complished by the nation, for only the
nation can accomplish it. you of the
lower Mississippi valley will never
again be submerged by great floods
The present leVee system strengthen
ed and maintained as it must be by
Federal AID, would insure you safety
against whatever floods could escape
from storage. The 14-foot waterway
that you desire and need so much
would become a reality less through
artificial channel correction and cam
aliZation then because of increased
summer and fall flow. and the ben
etts of the Panama canal would thus
find their way by water straight to
the heart of the continent. The hydro
electric development of the country
would be increased by many million
horsepower. the benefits of which
would go direct to the people Such
action would mean literally to pass
prosperity around.