The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-04-21
BILL TO PREVENT
FLOODS IMPORTANT
Ransdell and Humphreys Ask
Appropriation to Improve
Navigation.
palladium Specially

ing the early days of the first session
OF the Sixty-third Congress, and
which proba bly, have escaped attention
by reason Of the change in the admin
istration of the Government, providing
for the relief of flood sufferers in the
Ohio and Mississippi Valleys. for flood
prevention through the building of
reservoirs. for the deepening of rivers,
etc, probably none will command
more general attention than the bills
introduced by Senator Ransdell of
Louisiana, and Representatie Hum
phreys of Mississippi on the first day
of the session appropriating funds to
prevent floods on the Mississippi river
and to improve navigation.
These bills are identical and provide
for an expenditure of S60000,00O to
cover a period of five years, $12, 000,-
900 to be made available July l, 1914.
OF this $12,OO0,00O, and for every year
thereafter until the full amount is
utilized, three-fourths, or 100000,
are to be used each year for the pro-
lection, repair and construction of
levees and the balance for bank revet-
ment work and for work in the interest
of navigation.
The appropriation of this large sum
of money however, is conditioned
terested, appropriating a sum equal to
one-third allotted to each levee district
affected by the bill.
This amount, carried over a period
of five years, it is believed, will COM
plete and so strengthen the levees be-
tween Cape Girerdeau and the head of
the Passes as will give immunity from
everything but extraordinary floods,
and safeguard against such floods as
that of last year and the one now
sweeping down the valley.
In this connection, it may be said
that the bill embodies the ideas of the
Mississippi River Commission, which
has been studying this vast stretch of
water for upwards of thirty years, and
it contains the best thought of the best
minds of the Mississippi Valley,
brought in frequent consultation to de-
wise practical plan for the prevention
Of flood devastation.
And what are the interest behind
this bill of Mesrs. Ransdell and Hum
phreys? 1t will be supported with
practically unanimity by the people in
the overlooked delta of Missouri, Ken
lucky, Tennessee, Arkansas. Missis-
sippi and Louisiana, with the especial
backing of the powerful Mississippi
Levee Commission, with headquarters
at Memphis, Tenn.
So varied are the interests the
people of the United States have in
the Mississippi Valley that it is only
through a concrete recitation of them
that the country gets fair knowledge
of their extent and the ramifications
of their activities.
The overlooked delta of the Missis-
sippi Valley contains $4,000 square
miles in round numbers 100000
acres of the most fertile soil in the
republic. Within this dominion there
is a large section especially adapted
to the production of the long staple
cotton so largely used by the New
England mills. If this section could
be thoroughly protected from overflow
there seems to be no reason why an
other pound of long staple cotton need
be imported from Egypt, but instead,
it would raise enough cotton not only
to supply our own mills, but to change
the balance of the long staple cotton
trade in our favor
When an overflow occurs, however
not only is the immediate country laid
waste, and one hundred different in
dustries put out of business, to say
nothing of lives and property destroy
ed, but the farthermost commercial en-
terprise feels its effect, for the people
of the Mississippi Valley use vast
quantity of manufactured goods, fab
RIGS of the richest, as well as the plain
est kinds, machinery, farming imple-
ments, live stock, etc, commanding
the attention of those who are in trade
and commerce from the Atlantic
Ocean to the Missouri River.
According to figures obtained from
the Board of Engineers of the U. S.
Army, the present levee system on the
Mississippi has cost about $91, 000, 900,
of which the local communities have
furnished more than two-thirds, which,
with an addition of 100000 900, as pro-
posed by the bills of Senator Ransdell
and Representative Humphreys, would
make a total of s151, 900, 900. The ex-
penditure of this sum will have extend
ed over more than half century.
On the basis of 100000 acres pro-
tected, there being about 100000
acres at the mouths of various tribu-
taries of the river which are not sus-
ceptible of easy protection, this would
mean an average cost to reclaim this
magnificent land of less than nine dol
lars per acre. Contrast with the
splendid work of the Reclamation Ser
vice. According to Professor F. H.
Newell chief of the Service, about
1,000,0 900 acres have been reclaimed
and 10000 acres are in process of
reclamation at an expenditure of about
s70,000,000, or an average cost OF
forty dollars per acre.
In the hight of the Mississippi river
floods, last year the flow was 100000
cubic feet second, or twelve times