Show y PROBLEM OF THE FLOODS Congress has been trying to devIse ways and means to prevent the floods which sweep the homes from the MississippI Mis-sissippI rIver bottoms now and then 1 and render the richest farmIng land in the world perhaps a dangerous soil to l nettle on Every few years the giant rIver 1 bursts its earthen bonds and roams at wI1l over mlllions of acres or farms and gardens devouring stOck and crops and leaving deathand desolation in its wake I The subcommittee sent on a tour of investigation last year by the senate I I committee on commerce reported to the l senate last week It gIves a compre 4 hensive history and description ot the levees and jetties along the Mississippi but sees no relief in the suggested k iIii i 1 building of reservoirs or danger in the destruction of forests aJ the headwaters I of the 1J5So1rl From eperlence wit the great flood of 1897 tIle conimitteehas formed an I opinion that a completeenclosure or all the river basins will require from three to urfoot hIgh levees in Louisiana and from four to six feet on the Yazoo i levees No substantial relief is possible through the medIum of outlets or overflow over-flow conduits says the committee wherefore levee construction on a large scale Is recommended A complete leee system would require about five rears In the builtling and involve m outlay of something like 20OOOOOO Immediate steps should be taken to afford the people of this rich section the needed relief A war against these overflows in the defense of our own people would be certainly in the interest inter-est of humanity Thousands of home seekers homemakers taxpayers landcultivators and fellowcitizens were drive n from their homes in 1897 droIled or scattered as refugees broken bro-ken discouraged bankrupt It so happens hap-pens every few rears and when it comes it is worse than a pestilence and the ruin that It wreaks is greater than an amy of iIwaslon could cause These people are entitled to relief immediate substantial relief They are entitled to as much consld ration as are the afflicted anywhere There are superstitious super-stitious people who may say that provl fence sends the snow and the rain causes the overflow and the misery inflicts in-flicts it as a punishment with which science and industry should not interfere inter-fere But in the old days they regarded a plague in the same light Knowledge and skill combined their forces and checked the ravages of disease when it dawned upon the people gradually that their own Ignorance laziness and lack of precaution brought them aflllc tions no power sent Preventionwas what they needed it is what the people of the Mississippi bottoms need now If a levee system is the only way to protect them from the floods congress should vote the necessary relief at once 4 |