CONTROL OF MISSISSIPPI FLOOD WATERS

...Their effect may not be so apparent or dramatic, because the crisis in other fields has not yet arrived...

...To these may be added a fourth factor, reforestation throughout the whole river basin, but I am inclined to think this is less important than the other three...

...In short, we have not looked at the problem from the standpoint of the public welfare, although beyond question we have at hand, and have had for a long time, the tools with which to do the job...

...If it is decided that the first thing to do is to impound the flood waters in the main tributary streams, who will use the power that i3 developed...

...The best business policy, in the lonff run, is to make business contribute to the public welfare...

...Wc haven't had time, or we have been too busy making money, or the task (quickly disclosed that it would interfere with free opportunities to make money for certain interests or individuals...

...This great Mississippi flood is not only a challenge to our scientific and mechanical ability...

...It is time that the adminstration gave some consideration to the welfare of this country and its citizens and forgot about European countries and their policies," he said...

...Should the cities along the river that have been untouched by the flood, but whose prosperity depends on that of the flooded area, bear part of the expense ? Should the states that havo been devastated bear part of the expense...

...The ground formation along the Mississippi is such that nature-intended it to be flooded at certain seasons...

...There apparently are three chief factors involved in the problem: rebuilding the levees, impounding the flood waters along the upper reaches of the tributary streams, and dredging the channel of the main river to keep the bed down and maintain an even flow...

...By HENRIK SHIPSTEAD (U...

...Impounding the tributary waters involves the issues of power development and water supply in the various' regions affected...

...there is no force or agency that is looking out for the public welfare...

...All being Americans, we have a common problem here that we must solve...

...America stands in the vanguard of mechanical progress...

...These people- need relief now, and not a year from now...

...Many people claim that the whole modern flood condition has been caused by deforestation of the watershed...

...in a larger sense it is a challenge to our very civilization...

...Which Factor to Emphasize THE question is, which one of these factors should be emphasized, and how should they all be combined in a single comprehensive plan...

...Failed to Lay Foundation THE answer is that until now we have not really tried to control the floods of the Mississippi...

...Finally, what agency ehall be set up that is capable of balancing these three chief factors over against each other and arriving at the right plan which utilizes them all in,proper proportion...

...I believe that the Mississippi river then could have shown us greater floods than those of modern tiroes...

...Dredging the channel involves the issue of Mississippi navigation...

...I doubt this argument...

...Skeptical of Forest Argument IT IS fairly plain what the physical difficulty with the Mississippi river is...

...We gave large sums to the suffering Armenians and Belgians and other foreigners, which was all right, but I can not understand an administration that now refuses to do anything for the immediate relief of the stricken peple in the flooded area...

...But when the country was in continuous forest there was more moisture in the air and heavier precipitation than there is today...

...the river became a chain of lakes, coming together to flow in a definitely marked channel where its course crossed the intervening ridge formations...

...Yet here in the heart of our land, across a thousand miles of our richest agricultural section, a huge river is running wild, destroying everything in sight, wiping off the face of the earth every evidence of our culture and progress that lies in its path...

...We should all be glad to cooperate in an intensive and sustained effort to achieve results that contribute to the common welfare and are a credit to our national greatness...

...Rebuilding the levees involves the issue of plantation landlordism in the south...

...Business men of vision, bankers, economists, captains of industry, educators and statesmen all over the country and all over the world are seeing this clearly today and speaking about it i« bo uncertain terras...

...that in primeval days the forests held back the waters and floods did not...

...But floods are mounting just as surely in business and industry as in the basin of the Mississippi, and when a certain point has been reached the levees will break and the surrounding region will be inundated and laid waste...

...Half measures will not do any longer — we must take full measures now...

...I am speaking directly to the business of the country...

...When we first began to build levees and reclaim the swamp lands along the river we inter'ered drastically with a widespread natural condition...

...The same forces which through neglect of the public welfare have brought about the present agrarian disaster in the south, are operating just as actively in the field of industry everywhere...

...And now it seems perfectly evident that we have never done anything in an effective way< to meet this terrible danger...

...Some way must be found to control the Mississippi river in time of flood...

...There is nothing in a forest to hold buck water...

...But now something has to be done about it...

...A series of almost level areas where the flowage is sluggish, separated by more or less distant ridge formations, step down to the sea at the Gulf of Mexico...

...Well, we don't do any rising in America, but there is no reason why we couldn't demand a just and efficient government...

...Wo have stood around long enough, meeting the situation with half measures, watching the mississippi river rise year after year to flood conditions and periodically take its toll of human life and property...

...This country needs an American President that will look to the development of the resources of this country.'' Senator Reed advocated as a flood control measure the construction of reservoirs on the head waters of the Mississippi tributaries, which, he said, could be turned to the production of electrical energy and to irrigation of arid lands...

...That is a work for technical and scientific commissions, after they have investigated the facts./ I merely want to show the exceedingly complicated nature of the issues raised by the problem of flood" control...

...It is not my province to answer them...

...Business that bears too faeviiy on the profit-making function is destroying the chances of making any profits at all later on...

...But everything in human society is a compromise...

...they haven't a decent government...

...It is not only to the land, to the industry of agriculture, that this symbol applies...

...Business which does not first consider the public welfare is actually pulling the props out from under itself...

...What arrangements can be made with the great private organizations that now control our power situation...

...We boast freely of these things...

...When industry and business center too narrowly on the profit-making function, and forget ill consideration of the public welfare, the time will come when the spirit of the public welfare, which is another natural force running strongly in the hearts of men, will reassert itself, burst out beyond control, and sweep every obstacle out of its path...

...Then our industrial era will need the foundations that it has failed to build...

...Nature has thrown down the gauntlet to us in a dramatic gesture, and the challenge cannot be evaded...

...occur...

...The best way to earn profits is to serve mankind...

...Think what it signifies...

...Then they canned him for human consumption under a fancy name, but the public turned its thumbs down...

...These flood lands, in general, are the ones which have been reclaimed by building levees and attempting to keep the river to a restricted channel throughout its course...

...Something is wrong there, we say...

...Transportation on the Mississippi is interwoven with the problem of the control of the flood waters...

...One large area of the body politic cannot suffer so large an injury without a resulting shock to the normal functioning of the remaining area...

...Now it has been discovered that his liver yields oil containing vitamins...

...But the floods simply extended out into the swamps, and nothing happened...

...ing influences to bear on it from different directions ? i raise these questions without any intention of answering them...

...The economic order of western civilization must begin to consider the primary importance of its social results, or things will go from bad to worse as the years pass, and eventually the flood that runs in men's hearts and cannot be dammed will break loose and work its own will with society...

...These are only a few of the issues dragged in by the heels—issues of great importance, in which powerful interests are at stake and powerful forces are operating...

...The forest did of course establish a more equable and continuous flow throughout the season...

...Looking at the same thing in another country, we would say at once that that country was being ill governed...

...So the present flood stands out as a symbol of an economic era primarily dedicated to haphazard aims...

...they ought to rise and demand a just and efficient government...

...so that, a netful of dog-fish may yet become a valuable catch...

...They, tried hhn for fertilizer, but it didn't pay...

...Hint for Business of U. S. IBELIEVE in private industry, and private industry must live on the profit-making function...

...Should the Federal Government bear all the expense and go into the power business...

...We live in a scientific age...

...and they are the ones that have been devastated by the recent floods...

...Those poor people are being betrayed by their rulers, we say...

...While the immediate disaster may be considered to affect only the south, no intelligent person will deny that such an economic and social calamity will, in the long run, affect the national, economic and social fabric...

...We say exactly that every time the Yellow river breaks loose in China...

...On either s'de of these, stretching away for many miles, vast swamps extended in the old days, which periodically became a part of the river itself...

...there is no getting around this cardinal fact...

...What results from increased navigation might be expected...

...The dog-fish is the greatest bane of the cod fishermen, often half filling the nets...

...Will they bear part of the cost of the enterprise, or will they buy the power after it is developed...

...No good can be accomplished by calling an extra session of Congress a month before the regular session in December, but a lot of good could be done if Congress would meet right now and find out how much money is needed for the immediate need of the suffering and appropriate it...

...These forest swamps were the natural flow-age areas for flood conditions...

...What cities or regions or groups might be the chief gainers, although they have no share of the cost...

...What Agency to Govern OR IF dredging the channel of the main river is the important thing, how should the expense be shared between the federal government and the states...

...What railroad interests might throw their influence into the matter...

...When science dedicates its efforts to individual gain, forgetful_of the social results of what it is doing, it is not true progress that is being accomplished, although for the time being the achievements may seem brilliant and worthwhile and highly profitable...

...How shall this agency be constituted, and under what powers shall it operate?, How shall it be protected from the interests ihat will immediately begin to bring staggerHenrik Shipstead REED FLAYS DEFERMENT OF FLOOD-RELIEF SESSION James A. Reed THE Mississippi Flood situation brings out the need for an "American President and American policies," Senator James A. Reed, Missouri, declared in a statement in which he reiterated his demand for an immediate session of Congress...

...Is National Problem MY OWN belief is that a final solution of the flood difficulty must be reached through a combination of all the factors which 1 have described...

...it sounds too much like pure theory to me...

...western civilisation, the modern era of industrialism, the day of invention and unlimited mechanical l»avr are supposed to have triumphed over the forces of nature on every hand...

...Condition Disgrace to Country IN PLAIN WORDS, the present floods on the Mississippi river are a disgrace to any civilized nation...

...We are looking forward to the day when traffic on the Mississippi river shall relieve us from the high transportation rates from which we are now suffering...

...We who live in the north, around the upper end of the Mississippi river, have a strong bond of fellowship in the river which ties us with sympathy to the devastated areas of the south...

...It is a national problem...

...If vast sums are required of the federal government to rebuild the levees that have broken down, should the landowners of the large adjacent plantations, the ones that have suffered from the flood, bear part of the expense...

...S. Senator from Minnesota) THE Mississippi flood is the greatest natural calamity that has happened in the history of this nation, if not in all modern times, and some practicable means of averting a repetition of this calamity in the future must be found, if any such moans are possible...