Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-09-21
THE FOOD PROBLEM
BY Frederic j. Haskin.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21.-Repeatedly during
the past summer the front pages of the papers
Hundreds of lives have been lost and millions
of dollars worth of property destroyed. Two
good-sized American cities have seen floods tear
the hearts out of their business districts, many
smaller places have been damaged and countless
farms have been flood-swept.
Any one can see that a great engineering
problem faces the country. Leaving out the
question of human life needlesslyd destroyed, the
loss of porperty is enormous. The floods of
1913 are estimated to have done damage to the
amount of $163,546,793. In Dayton alone the
damage amounted to s73,249,040. Between 1900
and 1908 the damage done by floods in the
United States, as estimated by the geological
survey, varied from a minimum of about $45,-
900, 900 to a maximum of about 37,000,0 900.
Plainly enough such losses are tntolerable, and
large expenditures for flood prevention would
be an economy.
The facts of this large loss and of the need
for doing something about it are generally rec
ogniZed. Wide publicity has been given to both.
The House of Representatives has recently Gre
ated a special committee on flood control, which
may be taken as reliable evidence of the popu-
lar demand for some action in the matter. Mil
lions OF Americans have had the flood menace
impressed upon them, not only by puoLclty put
by actual experience. The number of Ameri-
can cities that have been flood-swept at one
time or another is surprising.
Adequate action is Of course dependent upon
this public recognition of the need for 1t. The
trouble seems to be that a great deal OF misin-
formation has been disseminated as to the cause
of floods and the means of preventing them,
with the result that there has been no public
demand for a really sound method OF flood con-
troll.
A Public Illusion.
Briefly, the public has been led to believe that
floods have been on the increase for some years
past, and that this increase is due to deforesta-
ton Of the land, and to methods OF cult1vatlng
it. Hence it is generally believed that retorestao
ton and proper agricultural methods are the
real methods of flood prevention.
AS a matter of fact studies of floods made by
scientific men both in this country and In Europe
seem to prove conclusively that neither the size
nor the frequency of floods has generally In.
creased with deforestation and the cuitlVation OF
lands; that our flood disasters are due to the Iact
that we built our cities on flood plains without
adequate protection, and that the only solutloh
of the problem is G to pret for f rnese n e,1es tpis
1t seems clear that forest conservationlsts
have contributed a great deal to the popui he
challenged. Neither is the Importance or con
serving the forests we have and OF planning oth-
ers to be questioned. But the condItloa OF tn nn
floods which the public has been LED TO oeneve'
This seems to be established by all the sclen-
tifc studies that have been made OF the matter.
Fairly complete flood records for the Missls-
sippi river at st. Louis have been studied from
1880 to 1910, with some earlier RECORDS. III
ali that period the whole Mississippi basin was
being deforested. Yet the greatest 1loods DC
cured in 1914 and 1885, and a diagram SHOWS
that great floods have occurred at reguta IONS
with no general increase or decrease IN eien a
or frequency. The same thing mas peen
found true for the Ohio, Missouri and Connec-l
ticut rivers. A study Of floods on the Merriinac
river has shown that a deforestatlon OF 20 pei
cent. had no effect on them. studles OF alo4 for
on the Seine and the Danube In Europe ior
much longer periods corroborate these conclu-
sions.
The real cause of our flood disasters IS that
civilization has drawn the cities and MONIES
down into the path of the floods, and thaL We
have not given them protection. Railroads haSe
followed the bottoms of valleys because the
easiest grade is there. and the cities nave oe1n
built down by the railroads instead ol u pv huilt
hills, where more primitive men seheianS ~"
their homes and cities. -
Our valley cities are sure to De oestroyeu a
reguIar intervals until all of them have peen
properly protected against floods. rms IS tne
fact which must be driven home. tlooos ar
enc form of history which may pc cohnuenns
relied upon to prove it. Any dweller IN an uh-
protected city or town in one of our great val
ieys can study a chart of the fioods tnat naov
occurred in the past and predict with accuracy
when he will need a rowboat or a life preserver;
least, he may predict how often he Will neeo
it in a given period OF years; Sc1ef finoss! nA It
NAV be calculated that floods of the greatest
size on a given river will occur, over a CONSIDER
able stretch of time. once INC In every : 1--WE swen mssgnie
tudo half as often on an average. and SO on
down. In the diagrams which nave peeh Pr
pared, it is remarkable now regularly h-eA
water marks occur. oda-
There is no space in this articie LOT an ~
auate discussion of the methods OF 1904 pr q
There are two chief methods-dikes or
levees and retaining basins. We have one o. ~
greatest examples of the former IN the Jetties
of the lower MISSISSIPPI. IHeoe hoso
of such works. They anord locai
but often serve to back the waters up
in other places, causing floods where otherwlse
there would be none. T. those
Example of retaining basins Is seen In tnose
on the head of the Mississippi river, Wnlch WERE
built primarily as aids to navigation, put nay
had a most important use in preventing 1iooas.
There are no retaining basins in this country
built primarily for flood control. but numerous
basins crea>ed for irrigation purposes. or TO pro
duce water power, have shown the great possio
biiities of this method of control. In Europe
retaining basins have been used for flood control
for a long time. +h.+
1'le best engineering opinion seems TO De tnas
what the United States needs is a great unnleu
of flood control, especially Tor the MIS-
sissippi drainage. Most persons 90 not Teaine
what a large part of the United States TINS EN-.
braces. Waters rising to the surface as lar wess
as Montana and New Mexico and as far east as
Pennsylvania and West Virginia ultimasesy
reach the Mississippi. 1t is in this great sys-
fem of rivers that most of our floods occur.
The Pueblo flood was a Mississippi basin fiooa.
obviously flood control in this great area
must be handled as one problem. The methoas
adopted in each locality must be suited 10 us
needs, but must also take into ac-
count it's effect on the whole system. 1t IS prop
able that retaining basins, many OF which VIII
serve other purposes, such as irrigation or poWei
~ n 10 hTI