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Show THE NEWLANDS PROPOSITION. Senator Nowlands of Nevada has taken ta-ken a comprehensive view of tho dis-tructivo dis-tructivo floods in tho Mississippi rivor, which have impelled the Government to send large measures of relief and to spend great sums of money in feeding tho homeless and distressed. He has broucht forward in the Senate a prop ositiou to nrovido what is called "a river regulation fund" of $50,000,000 annually for a period of ten years after the completion of the Panama Canal, and an annual expenditure of 5.000,-000 5.000,-000 in tho intermediate years. This he nroooscs as au amendment to tho river and harbor bill offered by himself. The nlan contemplates tho control at the headwaters as well as at the lower brauehes of the troubled rivers of the Mississippi Valley system. The Senator Sena-tor claims that his measure not only would prevent destructive floods iu all of the great watersheds of the country, coun-try, but would provide for the use of tlood waters on arid lands, for swamp land reclamation, and for the development develop-ment of water power. One-fifth of the nionev appropriated is to be spent ou the lower Mississippi and one-tenth each on Atlantic coast rivers, gulf rivers exclusive of the Mississippi, the Upper Mississippi, the Ohio, the Missouri, the Sacramento aud San Joaquin, and the Columbia and Snake rivers, and tho remaining tenth in connecting the Groat Lakes with the Ohio and Mississippi. The cooperatiou of the great hj'draulic ciminecrs of the country -with the engineer en-gineer corps of the army is invoked, thnv tn work uuder the supervision of the River Regulation Board, which is provided by the measure, and the cooperation co-operation of this board with States and municipalities is provided for. Tho scheme is as broad as the country, coun-try, and its great merit is that it will bring to bear upon the mighty question ques-tion of handling the surplus waters of the United States, the bc:t scientific and practical knowledge in the country, as well as the unlimited resources of the Xatioual Treasury iu the solution of the aucstiou. It is a vast proposition, proposi-tion, comprehensive as to all the river svstems. and aa bcucGcial as it is inclusive. lucre js uo question about the prac ticability of the operations proposedJ)y Senator Newlands. The great deterrent deter-rent is the vastnesa of the labor rc-uuired: rc-uuired: but siucc the engineering skill of tho country ia equal to the task, and since tjie resources of the National Treasury, applied as they would be geu orally throughout the country, are sufficient suf-ficient to meet the cost of solving the problem, there ecems to bo no reasou to doubt the practicability of tho New-lands New-lands programme. The idea has been suggested by many heretofore, but there has been no concrete proposal in i Congress to move for tho solution of the rcal question in a practical way, until now. Mr. Ncwlands now comes forward with this practical proportion involving u wos altogether of $500,000, 000. We believe that this cost would co very far to scttlum the whole question: ques-tion: porhups it would be ample for all the work. The problem is to control the flood waters, store them at favorablu locations loca-tions in the valles of the tributaries of the ureal streams, aud release these stored waters later ou when they would ha beneficial' to navigation. Ou the lower .Mississippi river, the great problem prob-lem i to strcngtliou the banks and to prevent tlu-ir being washed away. This i-au bo done by proper piling and rip-rai.ninc rip-rai.ninc work which Ihc hydraulic ougi-noor ougi-noor fully uudorstaud. and work which thoy have already said will be amnio, for tho purpose. Tin uropouition of Senator Nnwlands is both sUtcumanliko and cmineutly practical. It is, perhaps, to,, much to ojcucet Ibat the avorneo member of CongrcsBwillri.se to tho full comprehcu-Vtion comprehcu-Vtion nnd neoossity of uicotinir the difli-rultifn difli-rultifn ae vnalor Nowland propose-to propose-to meet m-,n iMlt vc ,.IMlnot (uui)t that crnt:,u thiK matter -HI be la F cm up - bt lntJa'h- on t'je lines marked out by Jiim, and that tho country coun-try will show that it is able to handle its rivor systems as wo"ll as the ancients an-cients in Egypt, Chaldea, and Assyria were able to handle tho groat rivers of their countrins. To allow such vast destruction de-struction by Hoods and Mich impediments impedi-ments to navigation as annually intervene, inter-vene, is a reproach to the skill aud practical ability of thr American people, peo-ple, and it cannot be supposed that this reproach will bo allowed to lie upon us for over. |