Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-06-12
Hoover Discusses Problems of Flood Control
Continued from First Page.)


City of New Orleans were protected
by deliberately blowing up the levees
below the city
In the flooded areas an enormous
loss of life was prevented only by the
organization of every device man
could command - river steamers.
barges. motor boats; railways, air
planes, radio and what not.
Thousands of work animals and cat
tie were drowned, homes and crops de-
strOyed and menace to public health
through contagious diseases will only
be prevented by mobilizing Of all SAM
tary science.
No one can at present calculate ac-
cnrately the economic loss. 1t will
probably run from $200,000,000 to
$400, 100000.
That 1,500 900 of our countrymen
should continue to live in such jeop-
ardy is unthinkable. Nor can the
Nation afford to abandon to disease
producing mosquito swamps 20,000,000
acres of its richest lands--an area
nearly as large as the State of In
diana.
This flood has been the greatest dis
aster of peace times in our history.
! But what will it be if we have 10000
~ ardy instead of 100000?
It is unthinkable. and engineering
science is capable of its remedy. 1t is
question of cost, and the cost will be
but small part of the losses.
Nor are the losses borne entirely by
the people living under the levees.
Our economic system is so interlocked
that the loss of even $1,000, 900 in any
one spot reflects over an enormous
area. In consequence of this disaster
we will spend $30,000,000 on relief in
one form or another. And that is but
O small part.
The manufacturers of New England
and Ohio, the orange growers of Cali
fornia, the wheat growers of Dakota,
viii all of them sell less goods in the
flood area this year than last. There |
; will be less products from the area
this year than last.
Every worker, every farmer, every |
investor in the whole United States
will bear some part of the shock, most
of them perhaps in so small an
amount that they will not know it;
but. it is there, nevertheless. More |
over, what we need for stable employ
ment and stable agriculture is free |
dom from such economic shocks.
All the engineering plans for food
control of the river must, Of course, |
be revised in the light of this expert
ence. And they must be revised as
against any combination of floods from |
the tributaries.
President Coolidge has, through the |
Secretary of War, directed that the |
Corps of Engineers and the Missis- |
sippi River Commission should pre- |
pare such a plan for submission to |
Congress at the next session.
The main thing is a plan bold and |
strong enough to deal with the ques-
ton in finality, for we have to live /
with this river for thousands of years I
yet.
The Mississippi Valley and the coun-
try are fortunate that Secretary of
War Davis comes from the banks of
the Mississippi, and, moreover, that
1t possesses so able a, chief engineer
as Gen. Jadwin and a score of engi-
neers who have spent years in dealing
with high water"
The execution of improvements is
in the hands of the Mississippi River
Commission, under the able chairman
ship of Col. Potter. This commission
is appointed by the President-three
members from the Corps of Engineers,
one engineer from the Department of
Commerce and three members at
large.
The Department of Commerce natu-
rally has a profound solicitude for
the prevention of such huge ma
tioEal economic waste and business
shock as we have witnessed in the
last three months 1t is further con-
cerned in the. great additions to ma
tional wealth that can be made from
adequate handling Of flood prevention
and improved navigation of the Mis-
aissippi.
Beyond all this, as a citizen who |
has been called upon to guide the |
organization of an effort to mitigate /
this catastrophe. my mind is filled |
with recollections of the suffering and |
misery which come from it. AS one |
whose livelihood has been built on |
engineering science, have technical |
interest in its problem.
There are many alternative engi. /
neering proposals. Up to the present |
we have sought to control the lower |
Mississippi floods almost solely by the /
use of leveeS. Some one has sug- /
gested that inasmuch as breaks in the |
levees create the danger we must find |
solution which will not involve the |
ievees with their consequent lifting |
or the surface of the river above the |
surrounding land in flood time.
The only alternative to levees would |
be to build a sufficient storage of |
water in the States above to hold a |
whole flood and thus enable it to be |
let down gently during the dry season |
when the surface is below the level |
OF surrounding lands.
Reservoir sites of a capacity large |
enough to hold this flood do not exist |
in the drainage area. The water must |
ne conducted to the sea mainly when |
It arrives and it will either flow over |
these % nfln fnn acrnr &c h.44. -