Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-04-25
SUFFERERS II HOME
The Great Flood In the MlssIsslppl
and What u MsaNs--is the Levss
System q Fallure7-Thousan
Of People Homeless
BY GEORGE NOx MCCAIN

BY GEORGE NOx MCCAIN
THE Federal Government has appropri.
1 ated 81 100000 for the relief Of flood
sufferers In the lower Mississippi Valley.
In addition It is rushing aid from every
available point to the submerged districts.
A Hood In the Mississippi doesn't mean
much to the people Of Pennsylvania beyond
lot Of interesting news dispatches; s,
however, 1t spells loss, danger, semi star.
walton and possible death.
Any one who has never witnessed the
Mississippi In flood can have NO conception
OF the scene and its attendant horrors.
Memphis to New Orleans. possibly, is en-
listed In the work of saving human life and
property.
Tens Of thousands Of people are camped
yellow floods, or else living in hastily con.
structed shelters along the levees.
7 HAD the unique experience Of travelling
l for week on the crest Of a Mississippi
flood
It was thirty years ago.
The voyage was made rs a newspaper cor.
photographer and two Negro boatmen.
The latter were roustabouts on one OF
the Lee Line steamers whom Mike Melon.
aid, the mate of the r. L. Lee, picked up
for me on the levee in Memphis.
Two colored men whom had engaged the
Day before backed out Mt the last minute.
They were afraid Of the river.
=. ThPy were willing to work on a steam.
boat, but they drew the line at a skif--end
the river thirty five miles wide In places.
levees at night, with the river. as yellow as
god, stretching away for miles to right and
With us on the tops Of the levees were
men, women, children, horses, cattle, poul.
try and what household belongings the
wretched humans had saved from the clutch
OF the Father of Waters.
THE present food is said to be the worst
L the Mississippi Valley has ever known.
OF course, the greater the food the more
widespread the devastation, the loss Of life
and property, and the ensuing misery.
The subsistence Of the waters does not
mark the end Of the trouble.
New homes must be built. Pantations
and farms must be restocked. The varied
life of great communities must be established
anew.
RTas ne Was last II sfsSt s,c flood in the Mississippi
War was impending. however, and the
catastrophe. did not attract the attention
that the present one has done.
Every great food in the Mississippi VAL
ley demands heavier appropriations for
The population affected by the floods is
growing larger year by year.
AS far back as the great food Of 1882
rations costing 500, 900 were furnished the
needy.
In 1884 Congress appropriated $500 900
for the relief Of the sufferers.
This year 1t is million-and it MAJ be
more.
A FTER every great inundation there rises
"A the recurrent CRY against the levee
system.
Engineers, newspapers and sufferers from
the floods cry out against the futility Of the
levee system upon which the Government has
been spending countless millions of dollars.
From the time the Mississippi River Com.
mission was formed in 1879 until the begin
ming of the present century the total amount
s43.572. .8os. "
Opponents of the levee system claim that
| the Government itself is responsible for the
Mississippi floods.
The work of Government engineers, which
seeks to control the waters Of the mighty
river, actually causes its recurrent over.
flows and floods, they say.
A ND what is the levee system?
"A What is it supposed to do besides
erecting hundreds of miles OF dikes to re-
strain the river within bounds?
The Mississippi pursues a winding course.
1t flows through hundreds of miles Of fiat
| country.
Like every great river, It brings down a
vast mass OF sediment in solution and
| spreads 1t along the bottom of its channel.
The Yukon River has reduced the depth
| Of Bering Sea to five feet at a distance Of
| three miles from the rivers mouth
The natural effect Of the settling of this
sediment IL gradually to raise the bottom Of
the river.
This causes changes in the channel and
produces overfows when the spring foods
! come.
| BY confining tho river within prescribed
limits by means OF rigid artificial banks or
dikes. its overflow Is prevented and the low
| lands are protected.
But. it Is pointed out, as the deposit Of
sediment raises the bottom Of the river
| higher every year, 20 the dikes must con-
| tinue to be raised
This involves vast expense. the river chan
mel is ultimately raised above the surround.
ing country and greater danger to life and
| property Is incurred.
TT IS the theory OF the engineers who favor
L this system that by confning the stream
within these levees the current will scour
out the channel and keep 1t at one level,
At tho delta. where the river makes its
way to the Gulf through dozen mouths, a
ship canal can be kept open by a channel
that scours itself out between the walls of
jetties.
| For this reason 1t Is assumed that the
| same process will be repeated between the
levees or dikcs along its banks from Cairo
| to New Orleans.
Meantime the foods grow worse each
year.
The present has been an unusual spring.
Everywhere near the headwaters Of the Mis-
sissippi persistent rains are reported.
The precipitation has been unprecedented
all through the watershed of the vast stream.
Only the periodic overflows of the Yellow
River of China can equal the disasters in
the Lower Mississippi.
Millions Of lives have been lost In China
| fhnnph comnnrpd with In ndroLa Il. M.