The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1912-06-29
Mississippi and Nile.

WIN lut lnltldAlOl vi !
an organized movement TO control
the waters of the Mississippi River |
basin and TO put stop TO such floods !
and disasters as have been one of the |
most pitiful chapters in our economic |
waste of natural resources comes the |
news from Egypt of an important |
plan worked out by the British Gov
eminent to reclaim the delta of the |
Nile.
Organizations interested in the
prosperity of the Mississippi Valley !
have issued a statement of conditions
in their territory through the lack OF
intelligent control of the waters of
the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio
rivers. a statement narrating facts
borne in on us every spring Of lands
laid waste, homes swept away, lives
lost and progress checked through
the floods that sweep down the great
central basin out Of the deforested
headwaters lands, AS the reverse of
this picture the statement sketches
briefly the conditions that might eX
list if the headwaters of the three riv-
ers were controlled by modern me
thods Of water storage and their enor
nous resources utilized for supplying
Cd a nayigable stage of water in the
summer season GU power for i'm
creasing the manufacturing resour
ces OF the country; CD irrigation for
the millions OF acres of dry bench
lands along the upper reaches of the
Missouri
Beyond the work of the Govern.
ment engineers little study of this inn
portant matter had been made until
Pittsburg appointed its Flood Com
mission, which has been at work on
the problem for three years. That
body reports floods at Pittsburg are
increasing in frequency and height.
The loss to the city grows steadily
greater The body estimates that If
relief works are not planned and car
ried out Pittsburg will lose 100000
| 600 through these floods within the
next twenty years. The Flood Com
mission Is Of the opinion that il
would be an economy for the United
States Government and the State OF
Pennsylvania to spend billion dol
lars in conservation works on the
headwaters of the Ohio alone that
estimate being based on the annual
loss in the Ohio Valley, computed by
the United States Geological Survey
Such a sum may be out OF all ques-
ton, but that it is time for our Gov
eminent seriously to take up the mat
ter of controlling the waters of the
Mississippi River basin at their three
sources, instead of clinging to the
wasteful and inadequate levee sys-
TEN, goes without saying. Know
ledge Of how to exercise such con.
troll is at the fingers end of every
| student Of water conservation and
every engineer devoted to that sub.
ject II will take time and a great
deal of money. But il will bring enor.
nous returns TO the country in actu
al wealth, saving life and national
prestige
How differently they do these
| things abroad the new scheme of the
British Government TO reclaim the
delta Of the Nile is a striking illus
tration. II Is proposed to spend 800.
! 100000 In two reclamation schemes
involving a million acres of marsh
and desert. Half Of this sum is to be
spent on drainage works the other
half for irrigation. The work is to
require four years, but IL is consid
cred imperative TO bring back to its
former state the high crop average
OF the cotton lands Of the Nile basin
Several years ago an acre gave 525
pounds of cotton whereas the same
land now produces only 44O pounds
In the lands now TO be drained q
great deal OF trouble has been caused
by the movement OF the subsoil water
and 1t is expected that the drainage
works will so lower these waters that
they will no longer affect unfavorably
the roots Of the cotton plant.
The great difference between the
problem Of the Nile and the Missis.
sippi is that the British Government
is working at the matter. while we
are only reporting and talking
about our graver and vaster danger
TO life and national economies.-New
York Press