Evening star., 1915-03-14
WHAT THE GOVERNMENT IS DOING

Floods from the Lower COLORADO river
should never again inundate the won
t- drous sly rich I'M
Fighting Indian pertaI valley of
Valley Floods. the Ge'A1ss sast cn9aasa, con@ress
appropriated 100000 as a preliminary
sum for the control of the troublesome
river. and Gen. w. L. Marshall. con-
su1ting engineer to the Secretary of the
Interior. has left Washington for the
purpose of starting the initial work.
The project also is of social interest
inasmuch as another 100000 must be
raised in the Imperial valley irrigation
district II the government allotment is
to be used. If at least temporary safe
guards are not erected before the pc
riodical June flood, the whole valley
will be flooded, even including the old
Salton sea area. Only hasty emergency
repairs saved the valley last summer.
and now Gen. Marshall reports that
the river Is against the levee or near
its toe for two miles and threatens its
destruction for five miles"
Mexico and her muddles also enter
into the Colorado river project. Some
of the work must be done on Mexican
soil, and the American authorities are
in doubt how formal permission for
this peaceful invasion is to be OBJ
tanned. since everybody in general and
nobody in particular is running the
country. Last summer the work in
Mexico had to be done by Mexican la
borers. and 1t Is said that some of the
American materials shipped across the
line purely for construction purposes
were assessed customs duties as high
as 1900 per cent.
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Litigation feuds between farmers and
owners OF plants for smelling ores,
which in the past have
The Smelter cost millions of dollars,
Nu;,o,oa may in the future be
settled without resort
to the courts If the federal government
has its way. Already in two instances
the federal authorities have taken up
the quarrels between the two industries
and have suggested settlement based
upon the findings of expert commits
sions.
One commission, which inquired into
the nuisance at the Selby smelter in
California, has already made its report
to the courts and has proven to the
satisfaction of the farmers that
through their efforts no nuisance is
no" OelnS COIQnlIteu ny lho SlHellel
The commission makes the further sug-
gestion to the farmers that the damage
for some time past has been psyche
logical and not real; that, in other
words, the farmers, believing that the
smoke from the smelter was damaging
their crops, failed to do their work
properly, with the result that insects
came into the farms and practically
destroyed the crops.
A second disinterested commission
appointed by an agreement between the
United States department of Justice and
the Anaconda company of Montana has
already begun study of the smoke
problem in Montana. The prime mover
in an attempt to adjust the differences
between the farmers and the smelters
is DR.. Joseph A Holmes. the director
of the federal bureau of mines. In
report recently issued DR.. Holmes says:
"It ia well known that mining and
metaIiurgy are often the advance
agents of civilization and the pioneers
in establishing industrial centers. In
smelter supplied by them were essen
TALLY the only locators within great
stretches of territory. Around them
grew communities and cities dependent
upon them for a livelihood. Agricul-
ture was relatively of small impor-
tance. But conditions changed with the
increasing population of the country
and the closer settlement of the west,
and coincident with this increase an
Agricultural industry has grown which,
in the vicinity of the smelling plants,
naturally suffers in some degree from
smoke. Still, the area damaged Is COM
paratively small, and even this damage
can be much lessened by the adoption
of proper means. The solution of the
problem is not yet at hand and much
work still remains to be done. AS the
mineral industry Is one of the great
basic industries of the country and OF
necessity is entitled to full considera-
ton, it should be accorded freedom to
work out the smoke problem to the
benefit of all concerned
1.-THE same time, the bureau of mines
does not attempt to deny the magnitude
Of the problem. In describing the
Washoe plant of the Anaconda COM
pany in Montana, the government engi-
neers declare that the smoke from the
plant each day is equal to 2,092 tons
Of sulphur-dioxide gas. and If convert
ed into sulphuric acid would yield
3,427 tons of acid. or about one-third
Of the total production of the United
States.
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