Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-05-16
FLOOD PREVENTION.

"The problem Of hood control OF the
Mississippi river Is no greater than
the problem which confronted us when
We began the control of the Nile
foods and harnessed its runaway
waters for irrigation purposes chang
ing the desert into a paradise Sir
William Wallcocks, one of the most
eminent engineers in the world, the
builder of the great Assouan dam
which backs the water for more than
200 miles up the Nile, wholesome,
good natured, witty Englishman, who
Is on his first visit to the Mississippi
river as the guest Of U. S. army en-
xineers. thus testified before the rivers
and harbors committee of the house
the other day.
While he is looking upon the. Missis-
sippi valley for the first time, Sir Will
liam said that the problem Of the
Father Of Waters" was an old one to
him. as he has been close reader OF
the opinions of the engineers of the
Mississippi river commission for years
and ia an old subscriber to several
American engineering journals whose
paxes have been full of scientific dis
cussions Of how to control the Missis-
sippi foods.
Coinciding with the generally &C
cepted theory that the floods on the
Mississippi can be controlled by
series OF bikes, or levees, Sir William
gave it as his opinion that the present
dikes are too narrow on top. Con
sidering the river and the richness of
the country you ought to make dixie
four times as wide. You are making
your bikes eight feet wide; anything
under twenty-five feet, 1t seems to me,
would be rather small The Baby
lonians made their dikes hundred
feet wide at the top. Then a food
could do practically no damage, even
If the worse came to the worst. II you
have a width of 100 feet you can dig
into it and you can get means OF
quickly filling it up. This great mass
OF stun, about level with the water, Is
a great asset for the purpose of stop
ping any seepage.
During the course of the hearing.
which was probably one of the most
interesting the members Of the rivers
and harbors committee ever partic1-
pated in. for they were listening to one
Of the worlds greatest authorities on
river control, Sir William suggested
that great monoliths be constructed
along the banks of the Mississippi
where the greatest breaches might oc-
cur, these monoliths to be made of
brick or cement and the brick to be
burnt on the ground, thereby saving
the cost of transportation. He be-
lieyed that these immense monoliths
as big as the house Office building, as
he described the monoliths on the Nile,
the Tigris and the Euphrates, would
solve the problem of the Mississippi
and create behind the bikes one OF the
richest empires OF the world.
Sir William said during the hearing
that the Assouan dam, which is 6,400
feet long, brings to the government
$1,5OO,OOO a year In the way OF irriga-
ton charges. Land In the vicinity OF
the dam Is worth from $3.50 to $1,000
an acre. which Of course could not be
called cheap. On this acre can be
raised five hundred weight of cotton
worth 500 and then ton of wheat
worth from $35 to $40, so that in one
year this acre will produce about $40
worth Of cotton and wheat. One year
they plant cotton, the next year they
plant corn Cotton never grows two
years in succession, because it is con-
sidered fatiguing to the soil.
Speaking of the vast opportunities
for development that lie in the lands
along the Mississippi, Sir William
used typical Englishism, "You have
such crowds of good land in this coun.
try that you have done nothing with.
We do not waste anything: not sin
gle thing In our country (Egypt),
11.OO0,O00 people live on 100000
acres Of land and they pay a tax Of
17.ooO,OOO pounds ($S5.000,000) year
AID ont at those 100000 acres only