Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-05-31
Disastrous Floods Of the
Mississippi VIII Receive
legislative Attention
Claimed That Wet Lands of
That Valley Can Be Easily
Drained
Robert M. McWade.

bismarck tribune washington bureau.
WASHINGTON, May 31.-1n view
of the terrible destruction of life ant
property caused by the disastrous
floods of the Mississippi during the
last couple of month, the proposed
! naturalization of the levees is in al
likelihood to be made one of the burn
ing issues before congress.
Day in and day out Senator Elect
Ransdell, of Louisiana, has been tax.
ing it up with one Senator and one
representative after another, until he
has wellnigh completed personal
canvass of the senate and the house.
His state has been the hardest nit
by the floods, and he is leaving no
stone unturned in his continuous and
persistent efforts to induce congress
men without distinction of party, to
take hold of the matter promptly and
energetically. At his suggestion a
conference of all members of congress
from the low.ands sections of the
Mississippi valley is to be held in the
course Of q few days, with view Of
preparing an submitting a compre-
hensive and intelligent plan for the
complete protection of the over-fowed
lands along the general lines which
were carried out SO successfully in
constructing the Panama Canal
Speaker Champ Clark, who has tax.
en- decidedly lively interest in river
and harbor Improvements for the last
twenty years, fully recognizes that
governmental control of the levees Is
the only hope for meeting the ext
geant situation, and that the piece
meal methods followed in the past are
now wholly inadeqllat . Speaking on
this subject, he says:
"My congressional district lis in the
point between the Mississippi and the
Missouri rivers, and has in it the
mouths of five other rivers, navigable
by the act of congress. That I am
deeply interested in river and harbor
Improvement always have been and
always will be. admits no question.
From the very force of circumstances
have studied much about floods, and
the destruction Of human lives,
homes, and property they cause. In
the great flood of 1903, food damages
in one county in my district were
estimated at s30O0,OOO, and as all of
the ten counties. except enc, border
on the Mississippi or the Missouri.
the total damages must have been six
or seven millions of dollars.
"The question of reducing flood
damages to the minimum lis too big
for individuals. or even state. to
wrestle with alone The federal gov.
eminent only IFS strong enough to
handle it. The old saying an ounce
of prevention is worth pound of
thaiscure' applies with peculiar force in
this case. 1t is awful to contemplate
the enormous damage done by the
present floods.
Government control Of the levees
means to be the only hope. And,
closely connected with the flood ques-
ton, is that of drainage. On the
mississippi and its tributaries is
enough of over-flowed land of the rich
est fertile quality to make state as
large as Missouri, and that, too, in
the heart of the continent, and in
the middle of a great community of
churcheS, school4houses, railroads,
mad other facilities of communication
and transportation, indeed, with every
known adjunct of modern civilization
land enough to support 20,000,00O
people.
"Wet lands in the Mississippi val
ley can be rained at a less cost per
acre than any lands can be irrigated
in the arid regions. Somebody ought
to have brains enough to devise a
feasible scheme of raining them.
There is a great common sense in the
of the United States, the
general welfore clause, which the
wise constructors of our organic law
expressly provided for inevitable en-
ergenc:es are now obvious in govern
ment control of 1evees and the kind
red problem of drainage easy enough
of practical and profitable solution