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Show TO NEUTRALIZE THE FLOODS. Russia is quietly pushing the construction of a canal to connect the Baltic with the Black Sea. The intention is to .make a water-way through which there can be cheap freightage for the products pro-ducts of western and central Russia to where, north and south, the deep sea ships will receive them, and through which what Russia has to purchase abroad can be delivered at the lowest cost to her people. The recent awful floods in the Missouri valley val-ley are reminders that before very long the United States must undertake a work quite as extensive as that of Russia the building of a great canal from the coast of Texas 1,000 miles north with convenient reservoirs along its course, for the three-fold purpose of relieving the pressure of the upper rivers in flood time, for irrigation and for cheap transportation to and from the Gulf. By enlarging and utilizing the rivers on the way, such a work would not be so very expensive and the benefits to be derived from it cannot now be estimated. The damages inflicted by the flood of this and last week would probably pay Government Govern-ment interest on $400,000,000. That sum ought to hew out the bed of a new and great river through that region, and make a new great port at its southern terminus. It is not too soon for the Government to have its engineers nake preliminary surveys and estimates of costs, that the practicability of the work may be demonstrated dem-onstrated and the people begin to contemplate its cost. It should be borne in mind 'that the western west-ern ccoan has been reached; the preliminary work of subduing the continent has been accomplished, accom-plished, end now the work of higher improvement should begin and this artificial river to hold the Red, the Arkansas and the Missouri in check should begin to be considered. |