Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-09-27
Tanght by Floods on The
Mississippi Rive.
Col. Roosevelt for National Con-
troll Of Water Of That River.
Scores Democratic House for Not
Giving Prompt Relief.


state problem.
The former President, citing the dis
astrous floods, last spring, as IAN aw-
fui lesson" asserted that prospects
of relief were no brighter than they
had been before. This he said was
true lin spite of the fact that Con
gress was in session FOR five months
after the beginning of the last food
disaster that the House, which orig
mates appropriation bills, was in CON
troll of Democrats. mainly Southern
men, during all that time, and yet
not one measure of permanent relief
or lasting help was enacted in your
behalf"
"As long as The habit of doing things
piece meal. sometimes known as the
states rights doctrine. stands in the
way, nothing effective will be DONE"
he continued.
Mr. Roosevelt further criticised Con-
gress for failure to act favorably on
recommendations for inland water
way Improvement contained in re-
port of the Inland Waterways Com
mission, which he transmitted to the
Congress, in February. 1908. urging
that adequate funds be appropriated
for waterway Improvement and for
est conservation.
Congress, however not only failed
to act favorablv ON these recommend
atoms" Mr.. Roosevelt declared, but
it passed a law which attempted to
make it impossible to continue the
work of commissions of this kind. The
Republican and the Democratic par
ties alike We're content to trifie with
the vital needs of our people. The
fundamental information necessary 10
formulate an adequate, well consid
cred. and thoroughly complete plan
for dealing with the Mississippi is not
yet fully at hand. We have been
spending large SUNS of money in the
Mississippi valley, but instead of us
ing it, or part of it, to get the ply
steal facts upon which sound gem
eral plan of development must be
based, that money has been spent in
the furtherance, of small and discon
neoted schemes, which never could
measure UP to a problem so large and
so important"
Mr. Roosevelt further discussing the
"haphazard and piece-meal fashion" of
treating the waterways problems of the
nation in the past. predicted that such
method would mo longer commend itself
TO the national Judgment 100 sesl55
More and more we are growing to
think nationally he said. More and
more we are growing to realize that
many of our problems are by their very
nature such that they can pe dealt with
only as a whole and only by the exercise
of the national power. Half the states
I'm the union have a vital concern IN the
treatment of the waters of the Missis-
sippi and its tributaries. and a portion
of the great basin drained by these wa
tiers 1t outside our own limits, within
those of Canada.
cit is evident that no one state can
so much as make efficient beginning in
the endeavor to grapple with this sub
ject. Fortunately the matter has be-
come one of prime and pressing import
ance at the very time when this nation
has learned by actual experience that it
is amply able to undertake tne most
colossal engineering job and has, as an
incident thereto, collected the plant with
which it can undertake another job of
the same size. The Panama canal is
now nearing completion and the skill and
in it's construction are available for use
within our own borders in developing a
proper national control of the waters of
the Mississippi basin in their entirety" -
1t was contended by Col. Roosevelt
that it would be useless to go into the
matter of waterway development and
Improvement "unlesss we go into it on
broad scale and on a thoroughly sound
basis
I'm dealing with the Mississippi he
continued, I'VE ought not To think of
levee work along the lower course as
our only end. The problem is much
greater than keeping the water off the
| lnads of ANY one set of men. tt really
concerns changing the conditions un-
der Which half the continent is drained
and turning our giant internal river
system into one of the greatest ma
tonal assets. The problem is a nation
al one not for the state, because what
threatens each state with ruin is aft
en- not anything which can be made
beneficial to that state The federal
government should harness the waters
of the Mississippi river drainage bas-
in. No one state can do even a small
| part Of the work in first-class condi-
ton. Take Louisiana, for instance: al
though tie great drainage ditch of the
| Mississippi flows right through Lou
. isiana, the drainage of Louisiana her
self does not How into this ditch, but
| into the gulf. Louisiana spends mill
| lions to keep the drainage of other
states eff her fertile cane and rice
and vegetable plantations She even
maintains a great levee line wholly
within the state of Arkansas as a
necessary link in her protection. Yet
she has no control over the states
where the. floods form. Only the feder-
al government has such control; and
the federal government must not shirlS
it's duty 1T must keep the drainage
ditch in order and prevent the forma
ton of the tremendous Hoods which
threaten ruin to our entire region. In
thus keeping it in order it is clearly
coed business policy to turn it into
m assets of navigation. of power. Of
irrigation. and to make it pay huge
dividends to all our people in the shape
of q, permanent prosperity. I do not
ask that the. federal government con-
fine itself to building levees from
Cairo to tho oulf I clx That tho fad-