The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1922-03-23
THE RESERVOIR TO BE
OR NOT TO BE

THE RESERVOIR TO BE
OR NOT TO BE
While the people of the Snake
river valley are trying to decide the
question of whether they should
build the American Falls storage
reservoir or not it is plain that the
one great question to be decided is
whether or not it will be paying
proposition. Whether it will auto
matically put enough wealth into the
hands of the people of the valley for
its own cost.
In new countries and new states
it is very important that they get
started out right and that their en-
terprises shall be of nature that
will be productive and will keep on
producing useful things thru long
terms of years or If possible thru the
ages.
People who are in doubt about this
proposed enterprise of ours are
sincerely wishing that they could
step down twenty years and then
look back and study conditions, but
1t is not at all necessary that they
should be troubling themselves over
matters like that. History furnishes
plenty Of Examples that are similar
to it,, and by reading the pages of
history we get to observe to I cer-
tainty lust what has happened when
simflar enterprises have been under
taken. ' " a. >t,f, 4,
Oldest Existing Reservoir ~ :
The oldest example We have re-
lated to irrigation Is that Of the val
10y Of the Nile. For 10000 years or
%. the valley Of Nile has been irri-
gated by q storage proposition that
was as reliable and as serviceble. -
the proposed American Falls storage
reservoir. z The great expanse OF
table lands on the headwaters Of the
Nile ana the two great lakes that
form the storage reservoir In that
high altitude, Victoria and Albert
ii that vast empire of highlands in
the winter season the downpour Of
rain submerged great areas and the
drainage system was SO sluggish that
the foods in their natural movement
reached the valley of the Nile just at
irrigating time. During the food
period when the Nile spread out over
the wheat fields it not only irrigated
the field, but it fertilized them. This
valley Is probably the only piece OF
territory on the earth where they
have continued to raise one crop
without exhausting the soil. The
Creator in his wisdom gave us this
one demonstration that has lasted
thru all the centuries and made
Egypt rich country and kept 1t
rich.
Fields Became Sandy Deserts
During all the ages when the
countries of Asia we're rolling in
wealth during the time when they
exhausted the soil of vast empires
and eventually turned them into
deserts that are now sandy wastes,
Egypt remained the one rich spot in
all the world, free from famine and
pestilence and the dying out or dis
appearing of its population. When
other countries we're overcome by
famine and one people followed an
other in rotation requiring hundreds
VI ycdIO lOI LuO uOpldCOlAOhJ VI OhO
by another, Egypt remained the
same. Turnout the reign of all the
dynasties before and after the
Ptolomies it was the granary of the
world. In our little school readers
we all read how Joseph and his
brothers went to Egypt in time Of
famine and that experience is re-
peated thruout the centuries.
In contrast to that is the expanse
of country reaching from the desert
of Cobb southwestward thru Asia
into Europe, where one civilization
after another exhausted itself by
squandering the resources Of the
country and by not making perman-
ent works to conserve the elements |
of nature.
In the last few hundred years we
have a demonstration in India that
brings things very clearly to our OBJ
servatiOn and drives q lesson home. |
Stopped the Famines of India
India by nature is a very rich |
country, and about $50 years ago
the British empire began taking |
parts of it over and controlling It.
The people of India were at once
very rich and very poor, the masses
beng poor and the few being very
rich. Those who constituted the
aristocracy and the governing power
made the fatal mistake of not invest
ing their wealth in the things that
would be productive, and help the
general public. They expended their
wealth lavishly on jewels of the
mines and on palaces and temples,
things that produce nothing. For
example, at the city of Delhi there Is
a building that is known as the Hall
of Audience with throne of gold,
studded with fine jewels and the
building inside is finished off with
saphires, rubies, emeralds, pearls,
and all the costly things running into
many millions of dollars. The roof
alone cost between five and six mil
lion dollars or nearly enough to con-
struct the American Falls reservoir.
This is only one of many expensive
buildings in the one city situated in
a country where generally there
were large numbers of people insult
fciently nourished because there was
not an 0uUh fOOd RI on round Mil