The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1927-05-27

the levee work under government
will require q long time II tho an
nuai expenditure Of $lO.OOO,OOO a
, year for flood control-thc rate for
the last three years-is not in
, creased. About half Of this goes
into lcvce building and the rest
into maintenance, revetment and
Although $3o.ooO.ooo has been
spent in the last three years. less
than $55, 900, 900 had been appro-
priated by Congress in the proceed
| ing 40 years. It is admitted by
army engineers that If they had
had $1O,OOO,O0O year to work with
for the past 20 years the situation
today would be in hand instead Of
out of control. OF course, other
large sums have been spent by
! states and cities.
Lcvecs have had to be built
higher and higher because the Mis-
sissippi naturally rose as It was
CONSTRUCTED. The Mississippi River
Commission, composed Of three
engineering officers, three civilians
and an official of the coast and geo.
dctic survey, has, laid down a
standard levec program to protect
all points regarded as of sufficient
Importance to warrant federal in
Standard Levccs
The commission has recon-
lcvees, or grade lcvccs as they
are called, three feet above the
maximum calculated flood height.
Many of these levccs arc success
fully doing business today. On
the basis Of reports received here,
it is said that only one commits
sion grade levce has gone to pieces
and that only because it was
pierced.
In grasping the difficulty of
levee work and the paramount me-
cessity Of constant organization
and maintenance, it must be. real
lied. that utilization Of masonry
! in the operations is virtually i'm
, possible because the river banks
offer no solid foundation. The
alluvial soil used for lcvccs Is
liable to constant wearing away and
penetration.
"If all levcc and river work
were stopped for 10 years." says
one ARMY engineer, lit would take
an. archaeologist to discover that
- except for the bluff towns -
there had ever been any civilization
in the Mississippi valley.
Like Babylonian Days
1T is a work of civilization and
depends on existence of a large
valley to make it feasible and
worth while. 1t is like that Ole
irrigation system the Babyloniani
had. Disorders occurred. the system
was neglected and went to- pieces ant
in 10 years the Babylonians wer,
starving.
! "You have to fight the Missis
sippi 365 days in the year. Yol
can't force it apd you have t
coax it,"
| Obviously, although enough
money hasn't been appropriated +
do the work that is needed, tn
flood control work. already done b.
the government has save6s man
thousands Of lives in the presen
floods. to say nothing of the bene
fits of government organization 70
just such emergencies.
The chief army engineers re
port for 1926 shows that the pro
gram for the Mississippi Rive
commission is S6.8 per cent com
plcted. This figure is not station
airy, however, and will have to b
: revised in the light Of the curren
t floods. 1t did not cover protec
4 ton of thousands Of square mile
!. of farm lands not envisaged in tn
' existing federal program.
d A Gigantic Problem
: About Is per cent of levce cor
: struction in the last year has bee
G done by state, local or privat
G agencies and some of the levces 9
J, built have been the ones tbs
t broke under the strain.
Standard lcvees, the army Ell
: gineers, insist, must be maintainc
: from Cape Girardeau, Mo-, to tn
j. mouth of the Mississippi. An
n way one looks at it. flood contrs
n along the great river is giganti
S problem. As one, aviator tel,
I graphed to the air corps over
O flooded area:
: This isn't river. It's a
ocean,"
n The earliest mirrors were mad
n from polished metal.