The Forrest City times., 1912-10-18

i tie r. . government in closing the breaks in the levee caused by the l 1912 flood. Mr Coyiugton said that all this work would be completed by i Christmas at cost of something like l Sl25 00O. leaving a balance of the gov
 ernment appropriation of Sl50, ,000 toI 1 be expended in making permanent levee improvement. Coyington ex
 plained To the meeting that while ] the government was closing the
 breaks the board had to put up the
 money to buy the right-of which amounted to s25,000 this year in se- curing new right-ofways for the loops which were being built around
 the breaks He said that the govern
 ment appropriation for closing all l the breaks in the leyees caused by
 the 1912 flood amounted To sl, 900, ,000
 and that of this sum the St Francis 1 levee district got s300,0o0. NIT. Gov 1 ington speech was fail of statistics, 1 figures and convincing facts about levee construction and he said that the accepted policy of all leyee dis tricts in the matter of levee construc-
 tion was to build the leyees up gradu- ally from lower 10 higher grade in order that all the people afflicted might be given equal protection as 1 funds were available.
 U;,l f i.a try the ieyees must be built strong enough to guarantee the people be-
 hind them absolute protection even
 with stage of forty-seven or forty
 eight feet at Memphis. The fact was brought out in Covington's speech that the St. Francis Levee District
 was the youngest district in tine 1 Mississippi valley by ten or twelve years.
 President O. N killough followed MT. Covington in a speech of more than an hour in which he proved 1 himself to be great harmonizer. When he arose to speak the meeting was keenly antagonistic to bis views l but be fore he left the rostrum. the majority had been converted to a neutral attitude upon the proposition. killough loomed up large in the dis cussions as parlimentariah and showed himself 10 be master of diplomacy by the manner i'll which he coddled and caioled those who
 were fighting him from enemies into l friends.
 President kiIiough said that lie l had come 10 discuss the matter Of
 leyees in calm, dispassionate and
 neighborly way, and try to find oat
 what was best to be done, and ts be
 more explicit, what the landowners
 and taxpayers wanted to do whether
 they wanted leyee 8t whether they 1 did n0tH As for himself. he wanted
 good Ievee or none al all He said that if the people wanted 70 abandon l the levee, he would,til be "ith theta l because he could swim as good d. anybody and that he owned all old
 Beck mule that he did not believe could be drowned in the overflow
 But want to say 10 you geut.e-1 nlen. who don't want the .eyee that you should offer Us something iu its stead. Al are agreed that the people ot the basin. must have protection from the food; if We can deyase a better scheme than the Ieyees through which to give il to them Iet 's get busy and put it into practice Every authority in the whole valley the l uited States government included. l are a unit in declaring thal tAe only i solution If the problem Iie> iu the building of adequate leyee~ There are any number ofmuch smarter men ! than am who favor and stand up for the levee system, and, while am self-opiniouated and "sot iu my ! ways when once make uP my mind | on proposition, am willing ta be F guided hy their judgment and am [ inclined to believe that the big men ! of the various levee districts many of | whom are living and putting all their | strength and energies into the caGse | Of levees together with the hest en- gineers of the r. x. government, know what they are doing and talk | ing about
 There is great uproar about gov ernment control and supervision of the leHees, why bless your hearts, men; the levees are already under government control,a said President | kilIough, if you so much as stick your walking cane in that levee and | the government finds il out, the gov ernment will put you in jail It is not so much government control that we need as government cash. and when congress meets in December