The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1913-03-15
STAND FOR THE ltvtt system.

united action is necessary to OPP
crate on the national authorities
who can get that relief.
There is a movement to turn
from the well known and largely
relia bic levee system to scheme
which involves complicated pro-
ceedings far distant from the
region to be protected. 1t en-
braces proposition to build num-
erous dams on the tributaries and
upper reaches of the Mississippi
TO arrest and store up the excess
sive waters until the danger
should be past. The idea seems
to be that the floods stored up
in the artificial lakes could be
used for water power which is
growing in great demand, while
it could also be used for the
irrigation of arid lands. Thus,
it seems that any work dOue UNI
der the proposition of Senator
Newlands, the author Of It's new
scheme which is being pushed,
would in many cases thousands
of miles from the lowlands for
which protection floods is asked.
The Newlands scheme possesses
possibilities, but it is wholly I'M
tried in this country, and has
only been put i'll operation in
Egypt, not to protect the country
from floods, but to store up the
waters Of the Nile for use in az.
riculture in a country which.
without the Nile freshets, would
be a desert.
! The history of the levees il
Louisiana goes back to the first
white settlements in territory
bought from France, when town!
and plantations were protected
by building entertainments arounC
each separately. This system
was found to answer every de
mand in the beginning, but a
the country was settled up, state
support was found necessary t.
supplement- the local and neigh
bhrhood work.
! A state system of protection
was organized Immediately afte
:. | the close of the Civil War, am
much levee construction was &C
,omplished, or under way, whel
the great food IF 1882, tearin,
way the unfinished levees, flood
I'd wide region Of country, an
there were crevasses twenty AM
cOrty miles wide, instead Of on
o" two miles, as was the case o
the recent hr,aks that have cal
| led for so much attention.
| The late Major Henry B
Richardson, long the able stat
t engineer Of Il III siana, charge
with the const uction of tn
levees, in q report on the wor
of his department, related tina
no to 1890 some $50, OO0,O 900 ha
: been spent on levees by the Stat
of Louisiana, and at that time
, continuous line of embankmen
extended from Amos Bayou, i
, Desha County, Ark, to tn
Jump" near the mouth of TIL
: Mississippi, some CO., miles lon
on the west of the river, an
, while rot as strong and solid a
1 was desired, they gaze great pro
, lection, with only an Occasiona
crevasse.
But the great enemy to tn
levees, as he declared, and as al
who are familiar withe the sui
c ject know, is the caving of tn
= banks Oh which the levees stanf
This caving caused by the erOsiv
action of the current occurs wher
ever the banks Overlie quick
sands, and all the deviations c
j the river from its regular char
t mel are thus caused. What
/. wanted to make the levee pr
p lection sure is such prot action ft
, the caving banks as will saw
them from the erOsive power
the current.
{ This done with national al
a and the levees honestly al
/, solidly constructed, and kel
r from injury by animals and 9TH
external causes, flood prOtectrc
will be complete, and the currel