Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-07-22

pi valley. So far distant. we are apt te
look at a Western problem of vita
interest, much as we look upon far
away candidates for political prefer
|enee-not well enough acquainted to
excite us; we don't know just how
much water there is in the stock for
sale.
But the conversion of great floods
into moderate floods saves money and
human life on both sides-saves much
of the wasted energy we need at the
start for mills and shops, light and
heat; saves destruction of levees, de-
vastated farms. wrecked homes and
drowned live stock far down the big
rivers.
Walter Parker has written a valu-
able article for the public press, whic
has been read and approved by the
National Reclamation Association and
many others interested in the develop
ment of the United States. 1t treats
of the economic aspects of floods in
the Mississippi Valley and tributary
watersheds. We quote below some of
his truth impressinig paragraphs:
Four hundred million tons of silt.
the surface soil, is washed from the
lands of the Mississippi River water
shed 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 Mis-
souri, when in flood stage to irrigate
fifteen or twenty million acres of the
dry plains or bench lands in the up
per watershed of that river
More than enough water goes to
waste down the Ohio River each flood
season to supply dry season naviga-
ton and millions of electrical horse
power units. The same thing is true
of the upper Mississippi River.
All of this water, concentrated into a
raging uncontrolled torrent, combines
sea, carries waste and destruction in
its wake in the shape of broken levees,
devastated farms, homeless terror
stricken people, and retarded develop
ment.
Reverse the picture. Harness the
cource streams. Conserve the freshet
waters for dry season navigation.
Draw power from dams and reservoirs.
Turn the floods of the upper Missouri
out over the dry bench lands. Build
strong levees from Cairo to the Gulf
that will hold the partially controlled
floods in the lower river. And what
will be the result?
The reservoirs will supplement the
flow and thereby provide at
all times an adequate supply of water
for the system 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 coal. the iron,
the steel and the manufactured pro-
ducts of that portion of the country,
while the power developed will go
long way toward increasing the econ
omy of manufacture.
In the upper Missouri river country
hay will grow on millions of acres of
land now devoted to grazing and the
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 navigable stage through
out 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 a complete and we'll
levee system on both sides
of the river the farmers and planters
will no longer fear crevasses and over
flows and limit their investments Tor
accordingly.
The silt waste will be checked be-
cause no adequate system of hood
control can ignore soil erosion. Then
the farms of the north and middle
west viii not annually lose in fertility,
and there will be fewer bars and mud
Jumps in the lower river to check the
flow and obstruet navigation.
With floods and overfiows abated,
development in the Missippi Valley VIII
start on a new scale, and gather head
way every year because there VIII
then be no periodical disaster to check
and hamper it.
With such development, the tens OF
millions of acres of lowlands which are
not now cultivated will be brought I'M
der the pillow, and the food produced
thereon will appreciably reduce the
cost of living. aid in maintaining the
national trade balance on the right
side of the ledger. and greatly assist
in removing the cause of the social
unrest in the factory towns by supply
ing desirable homes to the underfed
and discontinued people who cannot
now make both ends meet.
The chief of the water resources
Branch of the United States Geologi-
cal Survey, Mr. M. o. Leighton, esti-
mates that the average annual damage
by floods on the Ohio River and all its
tributaries averaging the damage over
ten-year periods, is not less than S5o,-
nm mr.