The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-16
ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF
 FLOODS ON MISSISSIPPI
By WALTER PARKER

Four hundred million tons of silt the surface soil. is washed from the lands Of the Mississippi river watershed into the Gulf of Mexico each and every year. This is waste insofar as everybody now living is concerned, and the farmers and land owners of the Ohio and Missouri valleys are paying the bill.
 Water enough passes down the Missouri when in flood stage to irrigate 15,0O0,00o 10 2O,ooo,OoO acres of the dry plains or bench lands in the upper watershed of that river. More than enough water goes to waste down the Ohio river each flood season to supply dry season navigation and millions of electrical horse power units. The same thing Is true of the upper Mississippi river
 All of this water, concentrated into raging uncontrolled torrent, combines at Cairo. and, on its mad rush to the sea, carries waste and destruction in its wake in the shape of broken levees, devastated farms, homeless terror stricken people, and retarded development.
 Conserve the Floods
 Reverse the picture. Harness the source streams. Conserve the freshet waters for dry season navigation. Draw power from dams and reservoirs. Turn the floods of the upper Missouri out ovor the dry bench lands. BuilG strong levee< from Cairo 10 the gulf that will hold the partially cons frolled floods in the lower river And what -,ll be the result?
 The reservoirs will supplement the sum mer flow and thereby provide at all times an adequate supply of water for the sys- tenn of locks and dams so that there will always be a navigable stage in the Ohio on which to float out to tide water the II ha f,-np f etc al ,f.,s, tured products of that portion of he coun- try, while the power developed will go a long way toward increasing the economy of manufacture.
 In the upper Missouri river country hay will grow on millions of acres of land now devoted to grazing and the production of cattle that will then thrive on that land will be increased tenfold. In addition, summer seepage will return enough water to the river to supply a navigable stage Throughout the dry season.
 The upper Mississippi will enjoy all the year navigation and an abundance of power.
 From Cairo to the gulf the floods will not then climb anywhere near so high as they have done In the spring of 1912 and with complete and well constructed lGvee system on both sides of the river the farmers and planters will no longer fear crevasses and overflows and limit their iRNtStuitnAS Ati improvements dtNbIu- ingly
 The silt waste will be checked because mo adequate system of flood control can ignore soil erosion. Then the farms of the north and middle west will not am nually lose in fertility and there will be fewer bars and mud humps in the lower river to check the flow and obstruct nav tgailon,
 Development Unrestrained
 l opment in the Mississippi valley will start on new scale, and gather headway every year because there will then be no peri odical disaster to check and hamper it.
 With such development, the tens of mill lions of acres of lowlands which are not now cultivated will be brought under the pllw. ana the food produced thereon will apprecably reduce the cost of living, aid in maintaining the national trade balance or the right side of the ledger, and great ly assist in removing the cause of the social unrest in the factory towns by sup plying desi, able homes to the underfed and dscontented people who cannot now make both ends meet.
 Direct and Indirect Damage
 One of the most important economic aspects of floods in the Mississippi valley watershed is the immediate direct and in- direct damage caused hy the floods
 Starting with the upper regions of the tributaries of the Mississippi river, the valley of the Ohio river has for many years been devastated by destructive