The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1912-04-25
(From Commercial Appeal

so keenly alive to the yastness OF the
alluyial country its fertility, its unsuI-
passed farming value, and the aDso-
lutte necessity OF protecting this great
inland empire from the ravages of
the Mississippi river.
The entire levee system, from Cairo
to New Orleans, should be taken over
| by the United States government.
This is the time for a great get to-
gether movement in this direction
The possibility of protecting all
this land from the overflow has been
demonstrated. The ievees would
have held against the floods OF any
previous year. There is a limit to
which the flood stage can go, and
that stage was certainly very nearly
reached this year, and it is simply a
question OF more dirt and more sod,
as The Commercial Appeal has al
ready suggested. If the United States
government, with its unlimited re-
sources bad been in charge of the
levees for the last few years, they
would have been sufficiently en-
larged to have withstood even the un-
precedented floods OF this season.
There has been no lack of skill IL
construction, but there has been
lack of money. The large amount of
undeyeloped land in the varIous dis
tricts has made it difficult to aa.
the money fast enc, ch to raise the ie-
wees to the standard which mus. be
reached before perfection Is com
plete. If all the land were under cul-
tivation taxes could be placed at a
figure which would furnish sufficient
funds. Development has been retard-
ed by lack of the protection. These
fertile acres must be made to pro-
duce food and clothing to keep the
cost of living within bounds for the |
masses of the people in this country. |
1t Will be easy enough for the govern !
ment to keep up the levees. with rea- |
sonable taxes, when once fully com
pleted, but this is too nearly a ma
tional question for these wide dis
tricts to be compelled to both build |
and maintain the levees
Requires Best Skill.
They should be managed by the |
highest engineering skill in the coun- |
try. backed by the greatest possible
resources. To be consistent this gov !
ernment must not be divided and dis /
jointed, but should take into consid- |
Grafton the entire territory. The gen
eral government is alone equal to this
gigantic task.
1t is an interstate task because the
leyee system should be a unit from
Cairo to the gulf. 1t is a national
problem. because the increasing n
floods are due to conditions establish
ed by states, which are not directly |.
by these floods
The forests which retarded the
flow of the storm waters from the
hills of Pennsylvania have been
swept away. The innumerable ponds
and marshes, which for weeks held
back the spring floods in Illinois,
are gone. There are a hundred thou
sand miles of bitches in the north
west through which the early rains
now hurry toward the gulf. These
conditions all add volume 20
the yellow torrent that presse3
against the levees of the south If a
dozen northern states are hurrying
the flood waters to the gulf more
quickly every year. does 1t not be-
come the duty of the government to
protect the states which border the
over Mississippi from conditions
hey themselves have not established
md which can be, and must be, kept
rom destroying the most fertile
wenty millions of contiguous acres
II the United States.
Is it not possible to rally every
interest in mighty movement to in
luce the general government to grap-
lie with this problem?
Reservoirs Indicated.
The building of reservoirs at the
eadwaters of the streams which
mite to form the Mississippi will be
he logical outcome, if the federal
government now assumes control of
he levee system. These reservoirs
o be filled in the spring, would take
IF the destructive crest of the rivers
nd make the levees, as now CON
tructed, amply sufficient to pl lotect