Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1928-01-02

WASHINGTON, Jan. 2.-Out Of
the chaos Of ideals-or lack of them
IN which the whole question OF
Hood prevention, control-or what
you-will-has been involved since
congress took the subject up in pre-
hminary committee hearings early in
November, two broad general
schools Of thought are beginning to
emerge.
They are:
/. The Something has got to be
done" school.
2. The school Of Lets see IL there
Is anything we can do-if SO, what
and then go ahead"
The ablest ~reasoners In both
groups agree that we do not now
know what to do about floods-bie
ones, on the scale Of our Mississippi
valley foundations.
The two schools views overlap 10
this respect.
One Urges Action
The disciples OF school No. /, how
ever, believe we should nevertheless
start Immediately on one program OF
another-take a chance-feei our way
trust to luck to stumble on the
right Of combination ultimately.
They don't express it quite that
badly but that's what it amounts to
The Something has got to be
done schools obvious feeling is that
the public-at least in the recently
drowned-out sections of the country
demands action and must have i;
at any cost-an appearance of "some-
thing doing" whatever may come OF
il.
This school Of thought fellows
holly resent any hint of pork bar.
rel" motives on their part, and prob.
ably think they mean il, but every
body knows that "flood control
necessarily implies enormous expen.
ditures of governmental money
which can be made very useful, po-
litically.
School No. 2 strongly doubts
whether a vast network of streams
like the Observation-Disclosures system
car be effectively regulated by any
single one of the plans suggested
thus far.
Coordination Advocated
Its judgment is that there must
be a combination of many of them
n to coordinate them, so as ever
to promise the desired result-if il
can be accomplished at all-thc
school is convinced of the indisDensi.
bility Of years of study-all directed
toward the same end-not only By
engineers, but by Geographers, geolo-
gists, meteorologists, agriculturists
m perhaps many other specialists
rs we'll.
As expressed to me recently By
one senstor-a p%roponent of this
theory-"We are no nearer han De
Soto to understanding the problem
Of controlling the Mississippi-tak.
ing all its tributaries into considera-
tion.
Each little creek is a problem
by itself. and taken together, the an
swers, by millions of gallons a min.
ute, outweigh the flow Of the Mis-
sissippi at st. Charles.
We've dealt with the Mississippi
a reach here, a stretch there.
sits easy enough. by a leves, sr
divert flood water from one mans
garden patch to another's. on the
opposite side. and for the second
man to shoot the current back onto
somebody else. over the river again
and a little farther down.
Problem In Big One
must know the whole system
60 a bucketful, if we're to control
floods.
when We impound the water In
q reservoir ut Billings, we must real.
ize what the effect will be neal
Memphis. When we open a spill
way near New Orleans, we must
foresee what il will do to navigation
ut Cairo"
No senator is needed to tell us
that an investigation Of this sort
will take a long time.
"And when it's finished" contin.
ued the solon. "what will our in.
vestigators tell us?
THAT'S what our pork barrel-ers
are afraid OF.
"They say j. viii be cheap to con.
troll the Mississippi If it costs a bill
lion. Suppose the experts report, III
can't be done for 100 billions Nufi
said"