The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-03-30
F OOL|SH POLICY
CAUSE OF FLOODS
General Bixby Tells How Great
Deluges May Be Pre-
vented in Future.
Especial to Tho T!mes-Dspntoh.


Washington, March 2s.-"The foods
will continue with oil their disastrous
CONSEQUENCES while the foolish policy
maintains of reducing the width and
depth OF rivers and trying to force
them to carry of an impossible guam
tity OF water"
l. That was the conclusion reached by
General William II. Blxby. chief OF
engineers of the United States Army,
as he discussed the foods through
out Ohio and Indiana and pos
sible methods of controlling such
streams as have devastated those two
States
The most feasible and reasonable
plan TO prevent such floods Az we arc
now having" said General Bixby, "is
inc deepening, widening and straight
enins OF the rivers. especially the
widening OF these streams 1t is
easier to prevent floods than to rem
edy their consequences"
General Bixby explained how the
rivers themselves used to care for
their unusual burden by OVERLOOKING
INTO the natural national basins found
along their course
But. he continued, men puilt
cities with streets like canals. and
sewers. ana drain pipes from the roofs
OK their houses. The farmers along
the rivers furrowed the land to the
'ei eoee' Good roads have been
constructed. over these the water
races madiy to the nearest streams.
Great factories have been erected
aions rivers. Obstructive brldges
Win numerous piers impede the
"eters 10 point whore now every Inn
por,ant river is required 10 do five
times the work that nature Intended.
nii these evidences fertilization and
commerce and trade permit the
waters TO how in a very few hours
rapidly into rivers that Under differ
eht conditions would be days reach
Ing the streams
The reservoir system will not do
~ would take a reservoir as large as
'he state OF Illinois. Indiana and Ohio
"''h oept MOI hfteen or twenty feet
10 nave held the water that was emp-
ten into the Mississippi at the last
great HOOD. Only recently the people
OF omaha asked permission to dunn
earth taken from their cellars int,
the river. We refused II would have
damned up the river somewhere and
decreased the carrying power OF tho
stream IN time OF high water. In
Austria, think, they have solved rho
proolei on the Danube by straighten-
ing and widening that river and nut
ting IN a system OF levees parallel TO
the river"
Prof Moore. chief OF the weather
bureau says 1t IS n difficult problem
You can restrain the xaters in reser-
voirs" he said, but in so doing, Won
store up disaster for tho future. In
times OF abnormal ra.lfall these reser
vo'rs arc likely TO break as they did
in Ohio with all their resultant dam
age and loss Of life
Lcvees Will restrict the waters to tho
channel. but as the river beds All tho
'eEees must be built higher and high
er and guarded with care. Reforesta-
| ton, In my Judgment, is ridiculous.
Facts and figures prove this many dis
tinEuished men to the contrary not
understanding. Some OF our greatest
floods have come from forest areas
Secretary of the Interior Lane has
evolved general plan that in effect is
enormous reclamation project 1t de-
pends upon the widening and deepen-
ing OF all channels of streams liable
to food conditions
IL would not do for two States like
Ohio and Indiana TO spend their money,
no matter how generously in clearing
tho beds of the streams within their
boundaries. That would merely car
ry the Hoods more swiftly to the State
lines TO the south, and the water would
back up more angrily than ever into
what you'd quickly become great
lakes. The subject is too great for
States alone to deal with it.
"A harmonious system must he
worked out by the Federal authori-
ties. and the State must then make its
contributions in the way that would
do the most god to the whole valley az
fected."