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Show THK BROKEN DAM. The breaking of the ITauser dam, which hns been described in detail iu the dispatches from Helena, Montana, has caused wide devastation to the regions along tho river below.' And yet from the oxpert account of that dam, printed in condensed form in yesterday yes-terday morning's Tribune, it should have resisted the water pressure without with-out any difficulty. The dam was placed upon bedrock; -it was braced with stone aud steel; it was made of concrete, con-crete, re-enforced with many braces and with' overlapping rods. The face of the dam was steel plated," and according ac-cording to scientific opinion tho structure struc-ture was absolutely safe. Theoretically Theoretical-ly it was safe. It. appears to have been the snme with this dam now as with tho steel bridge at Ottawa, Otta-wa, Canada, which -fell apart with such disastrous results about two years ago. Seicntifioally that bridge was faultless, and it has never been ascertained ascer-tained to this day what was the trouble with it. In like manner this llauser dam appears to have been scientifically perfect, and yet it gave way to a pressure press-ure of water which was reported to be in nowise beyond what was to be expected. Tho full force of the Hood had been computed, as was supposed, and ample provision made to resist the weight, of the water that would press upon the dam. And yet the dam gave way, Hooding the country, drowning stock, sweeping away everything that came in its path, and doing millions of ilamnge. 0 It would seem that thcro must have been some fault in material or slackness slack-ness in construction of this dam to ac-. count for its breaking. Where a dam is founded upon the rock, where it is built under such plans and specification? specifica-tion? as are detailed in tho account in engineering papers, and where the best engineering talent pronounced the dam perfectly safe, it should in fact have been safe. It ought to have been secure boyoud any reasonable doubt. Iu fact, no one would suppose from the account given of it bat that the dam was absolutely secure, without any opportunity op-portunity for the least doubt from any direction. It is now clearly up to the engineering engineer-ing experts to show to the public what was the matter with this dam and why it gave way. Jf the experts are not able -to' do this, there will always be a doubt about any dam that may be put in for power or irrigation purposes. Wheu a dam so favorably situated as this was, built of the best materials, strengthened in every possible way that science is able to devise for the purpose, pur-pose, provided with spillways to discharge dis-charge Mood waters, and wilh every possible contingency "provided for when, we say, a dam of this kind gives way. then there would scorn -to be uo assurance of any daui instruction whatever 'Doing safe. There should clearly be a full and satisfactory explanation ex-planation from expert engineers as to this break in the llauser dam. Otherwise Other-wise there is too large an element of uncertainty iu this sort, of work to quiet; the public mind and do away with a nervous apprehension with respect to it that ought uot in exist. Let us have the full facts about that break in the Mauser dam. Tt is of the utmost importance 10 every oue having to do with the storage and use of water in this "Western region that the dams bo absolutely safe; it is impossible to allow al-low of aii3' uncertainty as to construe-, tions of this kind. Let us have tho fjicts statcd -clearb;. sinndv; aml fullv. Such a statement is all that can case the public mind. |