The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-12-06
TAFT ON RIVER IMPROVEMENTS

President Taft has put himself dc
cidedly on the right side of the Mis-
sissippi river improvement proposition.
He is in favor of the appropriation
of S5O.00Q,000 TO control the floods III
tho great river which were 80 disas-
trous last year, and which arc Il con-
stant threat Of destruction. He inform
cd the National Rivers and Harbors
Congress. in session Mt Washington,
that the prevention of floods was the
great thing with him, and that tins
must be put before all other cons'dera-
tions. and further. that his endorse
ment OF the improvements would be
forthcoming only, if the work were
placed 10 the hands OF army engineers.
So far as other waterway projects were
concerned he said his approval would
be lacking unless their hackers could
show as good case and as dire a
necessity as could the Mississippi Na''
lev states, and he expressed his ldea
that S5o,000,000 was the proper sum
70 start with in procuring the needed
protection.
In thus placing himself at the heau
oc this great propaganda, President
Taft has done the whole country an
immense service. 1t will be easy
enough TO show, as he asks to be
shown, that the Improvement OF other
rivers will be the best and most per
manent means of preventing the de-
structive floods on the lower Misslss,
ippi. If the flood winters can be heiu
back in the Ohio and the Mlssouii'
and their upper tributaries and IN the
unner tributaries of the Mississippi IT.
self the floods can be eliminated 10
sucb an extent that they Will no longer
he dangerous, and the impoundlhg o'
tbe flood waters Of those trlputafieS
vill serve the further purpose OIL re'
enforcing the channel later on In inc
season. when additional water Is oe'
s;r.bla to make a good depth of channcl
for navigation
r ia to be expected that TINS grano
nroiect must be the next great en'ei
prise undertaken by our Natlonal "o'
ernment That it would be an eco
pomic advantage fully iustitying ltscl1,
there can be no doubt, for the de-
struction by floods along the Ohio river
every wear amounts to millions of dol
lars, and in some years to tens OF mil
lions. The floods in the Ohio and
the lower Mississippi last spring
caused loss well along toward the sum
fixed by the President as desirable to
expend in the Improvement Of the
Mississippi. But as stated, 1T is not
the Mississippi alone that has to be
improved, and, further, that improve
ment OF the Mississippi will depend for
its effectiveness upon the handling OF
the tributary streams above-the Ohio,
the Missouri, and the upper Mississippi.
Along the headwaters Of the Ohio
river there are immense gorges where
the flood waters could be stored away
and held until they are needed later
in the season, and thus the destruction
by spring floods wholly prevented. The
same thing is true Of the upper Mis-
sissippi, and in even greater degree on
the tributaries and headwaters of the
Missouri. With the flood waters of
that immense area impounded, there
would be assured safety from spring
floods and abundance of water TO make
good navigable channel in the main
streams at all times when the rivers
are free from ice.
1t is not too much TO say that the
endorsement by President Taft oil
these great river improvements (for we
consider that all must 90 together IN
any effective National scbemc) will be
the stroke of craftsmanship for which
President Taft name will chiefly be
hopored in later generations,