The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-03-21
SATURDAY. MARCH 81. 1895.
FLOODS AND TAXES
PAGE 10
al sCRIPPs-HOMARp MsPAPERl

XXIHILE the floods still raging, we read esti-
mates Of property damages.
AS the waters go down, the estimates go up
s15OooooOo 5000 900. s25OoOOOoO. Of they
are rough estimates We understand they pertain
only TO Improvements on real estate-homes, store
buildings factories bridges and wharves washed out
Add to them the wage losses of those who
driven from their jobs by the floods Add the loss in
income on the money invested Add the losses of
soil. Ut is estimated that year in and year out
average of $500 100000 worth of soil is washed
blown away. That is destruction of national
asset And it doesn't include what it added to the
liability side of the national ledger where the soil
comes to rest as sediment in the lowands and silt
in the river beds)
THE Red Cross and government relief agencies
providing they get adequate funds can do much
to minimize the human suffering, starvation and
disease which trail these floods. They help
the 900 made homeless
But what of those things that should be done to
minimize future Aoods9
The people of Cairo. Ill. for example might re-
cent Pennsylvania after overfowing their property
and leaving deposits of Pennsylvania mud. But no
court give them redress by declaring this trans
gression property rights to be unconstitutional
Neither the Illinois Governor nor the Illinois
Legislature protect them. Even the Liberty League
can't help them; it can't persuade farmers Penn
sylvania hllsides to re-sod and reorest their lands
and build reservoirs to hold the water where it falls
ONLY the Federal government can do those things
- which need to be done to guard the people
of Wheeling and of Marietta and of Cairo and of
Memphis and of New Orleans against future Penn
sylvania hoodwaters and Pennsylvania mud The
Federal government can go up the headwaters of
the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers and there
carry out the soil and water conservation improve
ments that are needed to restore an orderly drain
age of that 1t can do what it is already doing
in the watershed of the Tennessee River Another
tributary of the Ohio River, another segment of
the great Mississippi basin.
And it can do likewise in the Green Mountains
of Vermont for the protection of the people in the
lowlands of Connecticut, and in The uplands of West
Virginia for the protection of the people in the
Potomac Valley.
The present national Administration is the first
to recognize this national responsibility of hus-
banding soil and water resources. 1t has begun in
q small way For the next fiscal year. it has budget
ed an expenditure of $28O0OOOO for straight soil
conservation work, and similar amount for the
forestry service. Conservation is the avowed and
long-range objective of the $440o000OO farm pro-
gram, although the immediate purpose is to balance
crop production and sustain farm income The
CCC, budgeted to spend 100000 900 next year. al
ready has made major contributions to the conser-
walton program
People who in the last few days have seen muddy
hoodwaters swiring around their homes and fac
tories will not think these expenditures a waste of
the taxpayers money.