Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1914-03-07
DAM THE DRAWS, PLANT TREES
AND SUMMER-FALLoW.


perimenting of the s'Dam the draw" :"
system of irrigation in the West.
This also provides for the investiga-
ton and feasibility and economy of
pumping from the underhow. Then
he asks for $40. 900, 900 to be appropri-
atedfor the construction of reservoirs
and lakes for the purpose of i'm
pounding water in Kansas, Nebraska.
Dakota, Colorado, New Mexico and
Oklahoma.
Mr.. Bristow, made a short, well
worded Introductory speech apart of
which has been quoted in these
columns, and among other things he
says he is going to push this bill with
a8i the energy and ability he posses
ses, and this means that the bill will
pass Congress, and that there will be
something doing out west.
We are so accustomed to sspork
barrel" legislation, and the barrel be-
ing taken by the fellows with the
biggest barrel that it is a sort of
Innovation, to see a U. S. Senator
stand up and champion such broad
unselfish measure as this will prove
to be. Not only all that territory
lying between the Rocky Mountains
and the Missouri river will be benefit
ted, but all the low lands of the
Mississippi valley, for this measure
put in practice spells head water
control, as we'll as irrigation, and
means the redemption of over flow
lands as we'll as arid lands. Mr.. Bris-
tow calls attention to the fact that
this appropriation will furnish the
country permanent and inexhaus-
tible source of wealth tenfold more
valuable than the coal, the copper
and the gold of Alaska. He says, 81
believe it is not only wise legislation,
that it will have the support of those
who for so many years have been en-
pyfng liberal appropriations to pro-
tect their states from the Mississippi
overflow"
I'VE appropriate millions" says Mr..
Bristew, every year for the improve
ment of rivers and harbors, not only
for tie benefit of navigation but also
to protect from destructive floods the
How then can we refuse with any
degree of consistency to make an ap-
for the protection of the
plains from drought, when it will not
only serve that purpose but also
supplement the work we are already
doing in building levees along our
great rivers to protect the valleys
from the floods
Now that is sensible talk. and when
a great chain of reservoirs are install
led streaching from the Dominion of
Canada to the Gulf, at distance of
about 300 miles east and parallel to
the Rocky mountains, and the lakes
thus formed connected by a great
artificial river. Four great problems
will have been solved, that means more
to the American people than all the
battle ships, all the harbor appropri-
ations, all the coat defences, and in
the Great Panama Canal.
These problems are:
1st- The redemption, of arid and
overflow lands, the former by a sys-
tenn of irrigation, the latter by pre-
venting overfiows, and preventing
erosion. which carries thousands of
dollars worth of rich soil into the
Mississippi delts each year.
End. By regulating the flow of
navigible streams and thus promoting
inland commerce, doing away with
riprapping and snag pulling boats
now maintained at an enormous ex-
pense by the government.
3rd- By creating millions of horse
power, without fuel or primary cost,
to be Disseminated throughout the
country by electricity, which means
the solving of the greatest conserva-
tive problem before the American
people.
4th The stocking of these multi
tudes of artificial lakes with fish
such as tickle the palate of man,
lowering of the high cost
of living, and means the saving of
millions of dollars now sent out of
this country for food fish,
The by-products arising from such
a system of inland reservoirs and
lakes, with such a canal connecting
them, can only be guessed at in this
early stage of the game, the study of
the by-products of the natural lakes
scattered here and yon in this nation
will give some idea of the magnitude.