The Forrest City times., 1913-06-13
LET'S NOT QUIT.

days and seven nights of hard work on the water-soaked levees, along with 4 few such men as H. Coldren. of Parkin, and II. B. Weiss, of Proctor and Memphis, who had sand enough to get down in the teeth of the threat ened breaks and hold the dykes in the dark as well as in the day If the people who are finding fault with the ieyee system would get out on that kind of fight once, they would quit trying to punch holes in the levees :: they would quit jumping on the backs of those who are fighting to keep the floods from swallowing up the homes of our people.
 No doubt some are honest in find ing fault-that is the pitiful part of it 1 believe they would change their opinions if they would see the levees the real facts. If they should see the levees holding more water than they were built to hold, how could they call them a failure? Mir. Critic, when you open both eyes and look squarely and steadily at the fact that the levees do not break when subjected only to the strain they were constructed to bear. how can you say they are fail ure? Don't dodge the facts.
 Let's quit treating this question as though IL were one of pure theory. It was once, but not now. The en- qlneers said dirt leyee of a certain size would resist a certain water pressure, and it does. 1t never does anything else. Go and inspect our leyee when the water stands forty feet on the Memphis gauge. When you have watched it a while, if you live behind it, you will go home and go to bed at night, and never once turn over with anxiety about it.
 If the water goes higher than forty feet, the maximum stage for which it was built, quit expecting it to hold, if you want to be fair. Don't find fault with it if it breaks, until you are ready to find fault with a half built house because it will not shut out the storms, or light farm wagon because it will not carry the load of logs you can safely put on big log wagon built for the purpose, or shal- low ditch because 1t will not carry off the water where deep one is needed
 When the ieyees are once built to hold forty-seven feet water on the Memphis gauge, they hold it. No fair-miuded man can md fault with them for breaking under that strain, until they are so built. Add five feet more to the heighth of the evees, multiply the width of the base by three. or therea bouts, and your grand children, tilling their fertile acres in the valley, will tell their children about the wisdom and energy of their grandfathers. who redeemed the rich farms from the forests and the floods.
 One other thing I learned in the high water fight, viz: the people own- ing land next to the levee are entitled special credit for the hard work they do 10 keep the water out. They serve the people farther back by doing hero ic work. such men as Lee Wilson and Earl Biggs fight the clock around dozen times with wink or two of sleep when their eyes will stay open no longer. The Christian preacher from Parkin was down in the mud behind the levee, along with the men, all right, with the rain pouring in torrents The Methodist preacher from Marion did the same kind of splendid service.
 At night, some of the big, black fellows were afraid of the wall of wa ter hanging above them, with levee only half as thick as 1t should be- to AihN' u AelN h ibuC " tiSS anu lIIt others said, Come on, boys: we will not ask you t0 go where we do not go ourselves. And the boys went
 Suppose you people of the valley send such men IS these out to hold a Ieyee built as ours should be, do you think they will hold 1t? They'll hold It as surely aS ever you give them a Whole legee to hold
 Somewhere before finishing these le" paragraphs l wanted to put in something l discovered last winter about the cost of our levee. Lots of people are finding a lot of fault about the waste of money. Some of them are honest, too. Did you ever stop to consider that one-fourth of all the money paid by levee taxpayers has gone Tor interest, because, since the louf-cehtS-a an-acre tax was far too small 1t was necessary to borrow money, or go without levee? De ouct this and money paid for right ol-"ay' hlgh-water fights and the money furnished by the government, anu you Will find the taxpayers have ac(9aliy paid only about l33 cents per eu'ic yard for the levees as con Slrucled' ct an old and experienced .eYee contractor, Ben Talley, told me the ieFees could not be duplicated now TOT =o cents cubic yard. After all o5 tlle real hgureS, it appears that the taxpayer, have not fared so badly
 Hlace the levees were begun, values III the St. Francis valley have in creased creased Hoo per cent. Again the tax p@yeIS nave Jared well. This is just f'le 6 pafl Of the valley in Arkansas Population has increased 100 per cent every i've years.
 Let s go on with the levees Let's issue iH,1 the bonds. Let's keep pound rnE n1t tni nc,e sam till he gives us 100 htlaIIoi han,.I., dollars for the levees. Having ofisun lhe leYee-building project, let s glye IL fair try-out by building re al
 some evening, if convenience serves, d,,aol ,Woola like to come down to Forrest nbpey' tbeyg', meet my friends there and give vaGl v,enl picture of what l believe our tSo,f! ta.G! "IIl be when we get this pro- sectlon completed. and all the broad