The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1914-04-18

the 18th annual session of the Nation
al Irrigation Congress In Spokane,
washington, to bring the drainage
reclamation situation to the attention
OF the country. and from that really
began the movement that now prom
ises to bring the final result. It is
less than four years ago that the
movement gathered such strength that
the Drainage Congress was formed in
Chicago during the session or the
National Irrigation Congress, and all
OF us who have been in the movement
here have not been stopping a mo-
ment since.
"Disregarding the vital question of
the public health. I might say that
this is not alone Southern question.
The drainage area Of the States east
OF the Rocky Mountains amounts to
the enormous total of 1892 square
miles. North Dakota and South Car
olina far apart. have about an equal
area, the one 4,S40 square miles, (of
territory absolutely worthless with
out drainage. and not taking into con-
sideration that which would be rend-
cred more productivity and the other
1870 square miles. Georgia has A.
21O square miles. North Carolina A.
$50 square miles; Alabama 2.31O
square miles, and Florida more than
anybody else. Minnesota is concern
ed to the exent Of 5000 square miles;
Wisconsin. $3.50 square miles, and
Michigan 1900 square miles. In all
thirty-eight States are involved.
Let's look at it another way: In
the eastern portion Of the United
States there are n million acres of
wet lands. This is an area sufficient
to make an empire such as the Brit
ish Isles, an area as large as six of
the New England States. New York
and the upper half Of New Jersey;
an area, as some one has said, that
would make strip of territory 133
miles wide. reaching from New York
to Chicago. and which, IL divided into
farms OF 40 acres each, would provide
homes for one million nine hundred
and twenty-five thousand families of
people. But this empire with it's price,
less soil, for when you consider the
richness OF that soil; II Is an empire,
Is lying idle and unproductive, while
American citizens are fiocking into
Canada to seek homes at the rate OF
$4,000 year, and while the cry about
the high cost Of living Is being heard
throughout the land. and while thou
sands Of our own people are dying
each year as a result of the deadly
malariai germ.
Anybody who quietly digests these
facts and conservatively
estimates the possibilities OF the ideal
soil. rich I'm the humus of ages, the
restoration Of perfect health condi-
tons. and the possibilities of increas-
ed production Of money value crops,
not to mention anything else, need
not ask me or anyone else why we
are pushing us hard as we know how
to get the federal government and the
people themselves under state laws to
draw the water from the land.
II could discuss the bearing OF this
work upon forestry, and 1 could deal
with its bearing upon public high
ways, with its more important bearing
upon the opening Of inland water
ways, and many other phases Of the
matter. but that would take too much
time. The problems Of drainage.
highway construction. improvement Of
natural waterways and water power
developments are nearly always SO
closely related that the solution of
each must be worked out with due
consideration of the others. The
run-off waters Of these great basins
ought to be powerful agencies for in
dustrial development. and not the
dreadful messengers of ruin and de-
vastation that they are under existing
conditions.
I'm short. tho whole movement
means more from an economic stand
point at this particular moment to
every man. woman and child in South
Carolina and every other Southern
state, than any other one thing that
i know OF. politically, sociOlOgically
or economic. Because OF this every
southern state should be largely
represented at the fourth annual ses-
sions of the National Drainage Con-
sress, meeting i'm Savannah, Ga,
Aprii 22-25. All railroads have Civ
en- the cheapest rates possible to the
congress In all the territory south OF
the Ohio and east of the Mississippi.
Our states counties and ci,io. .bo,id