It must be a policy that will clearly recognize the constitutional limitations of the National Government and require of the National Government that it shall do only such things as are clearly within those constitutional limitations and for which precedents already exist in legislation heretofore enacted.

It must be a policy which will unite in its support the Ohio River Valley, which requires flood prevention, as well as navigation; the upper Mississippi River Valley, which requires a sufficient enlargement of the reservoir system on the headwaters of the Mississippi River to regulate the river flow for navigation and for water-power development; and the Missouri River Valley, which requires storage reservoirs and flood-water canals for irrigation, navigation, protection from overflow, flood prevention, and water-power development.

The precedents already exist for the doing of all these things by the National Government, but its work through the different bureaus, services, and departments lacks cooperation, and is for that reason inadequate and wasteful.

In the lower Mississippi Valley, if the National Government will protect the banks, prevent caving and the destruction in that way of existing leeves, preserve and maintain the navigable channels, construct adequate outlets and controlling works, and build the large canals necessary for navigation and as part of a comprehensive drainage system, the rest of the work of the reclamation of the swamp and overflow lands will be accomplished through State, district, and local action.

In the State of Louisiana the recent decision of the State supreme court sustaining the constitutionality and validity of drainage bonds issued under State statutes provides the way for securing the capital necessary for the local drainage work, and it is neither desirable nor necessary that this work should be undertaken by the National Government, even though it were within its constitutional power.

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It will thus be seen that the object of the National Drainage Congress will not be to strike out any new and radical national policy, but its slogan will be Cooperation and harmony." It will aim to bring into cooperation, coordina tion, and harmonious and united constructive work all the agencies which are now at work in an inadequate and disconnected way.

It is in this work of bringing order out of chaos, eliminating controversy, and perfecting a broad working plan which will unite territorially the entire Mississippi Valley from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, with the Ohio River Valley on the east and the Missouri River Valley on the west--a vast region embracing more than one-third of the entire area of the United States-that the National Drainage Congress so much needs the cooperation by attendance as a delegate at its meeting in New Orleans on April 10-13 of everyone who would be benefited by the development of the Mississippi Valley.

Those who contribute to the success of this great movement for uniting so many heretofore divergent ideas and plans in one great workable whole that will solve the problem of navigation, drainage, protection from overflow, and flood prevention in the lower Mississippi Valley, and at the same time apply to similar conditions anywhere in the United States, will help to do the country a service as great as any which can be rendered to it in any way in this generation. The problem is so vast and far-reaching in its importance and magnitude that it overshadows every other public question. It dwarfs into compara tive unimportance even the Panama Canal.

In the State of Louisiana alone there are 10,000,000 acres of land that can be reclaimed for agriculture by drainage, protection from overflow, and flood prevention. Louisiana is larger by 10,000 square miles than the combined area of Belgium, Holland, and Denmark, has greater latent agricultural resources. and will sustain a larger population than those countries. Their combined population is now 16,000,000, while that of Louisiana is only 1.600,000. The annual agricultural production of Louisiana to-day is $85,000,000. If its 10,000,000 acres of reclaimable land were drained and cultivated it would increase the agricultural production of the State over a billion dollars-more than twice the entire gold production of the world. And these stupendous figures show the possibility of development by river regulation and land reclamation in only one State.

If the western boundary line of Mississippi were extended south to the Gulf of Mexico, that part of Louisiana lying to the east of that line would embrace an area as large as Belgium. If the unreclaimed lands in that territory which are now an uninhabited waste were drained and intensively cultivated, as are the lands of Belgium, by a densely settled rural people, there would be within a radius of 100 miles of New Orleans a population as large as that of Belgium,

The population of Belgium is 7,200,000. What would that mean to New Orleans? It would mean that it would rival Antwerp, the third great seaport of the world, in its commercial prestige and world trade; while Baton Rouge would grow to be as great and beautiful a city as Brussels.

Every smaller city, town, village, and hamlet in the whole Mississippi Valley and Gulf States would grow and develop proportionately in population. Every merchant, wholesale or retail-every manufacturer--every professional man, engineer, lawyer, doctor, or dentist--every real estate owner-every planter, farmer, fruit grower, or truck gardener, would be correspondingly benefited. All would share in the enormous prosperity that would be created by this stupendous development of wealth from natural resources.

[From the Gulf States Farmer, April, 1912.]

THE NATION-WIDE NEWLANDS PLAN-SENATOR NEWLANDS'S BILL BEFORE CONGRESS TO AID DRAINAGE-ITS WIDE SCOPE.

Four billion dollars more in farm products each year; this sum added annually to the wealth in the United States for the prosperity of its farmers, merchants, manufacturers, railroads, and bankers and their employees; this is the result of a national business investment under consideration in this Congress. It is proposed in the bill for river regulation drawn by Senator Newlands and known as the Newlands bill.

Four billion dollars per annum in perpetuity from the investment by Uncle Sam of $50,000,000 a year for 10 years-$500,000,000.

The Newlands bill has a scope big enough to perform as a harmonious whole the big tasks to which the Government has set its hand.

The bill is considered one of the broadest and most comprehensive conservation measures ever drafted. By coupling all the work proposed by it with the idea of promoting interstate commerce by means of navigable rivers its brings within the constitutional limitations of the Federal Government such tasks as the drainage and reclamation of swamp lands, the irrigation of arid and semiarid lands, the protection of forests, the elimination of dangers from floods, etc.

The Newlands bill has received the enthusiastic indorsement of many public men and associations. It was indorsed unqualifiedly at the nineteenth meeting of the National Irrigation Congress held recently in Chicago. It is being earnestly supported by the Pittsburgh Food Commission. It has just been indorsed by Edmund Perkins, president, and Isham Randolph, vice president, of the American Reclamation Federation, at the annual meeting in Chicago. It has the support of most of the members of the National Drainage Congress, organized in Chicago last month, and probably will be officially indorsed by that organization at its second meeting, in New Orleans, April 10 to 13.

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DECLARED CONSTITUTIONAL,

Many expert constitutional lawyers have pronounced the bill constitutional, They say this is about the only way in which the National Government can undertake such work as drainage and reclamation of swamp lands, irrigation works, forest preservation.

Edmund T. Perkins, of Chicago, vice president and acting president of the National Drainage Congress, who was the engineer of the Reclamation Service for several years, is an ardent supporter of the Newlands bill. "It is such a splendid constructive measure, and with such far-reaching beneficial effects to the entire country, that it ought to be passed immediately," he said. "It is all that the irrigation advocates could want, all that the drainage enthusiasts could wish for, all that the forest men could desire; it provides for the conservation of the water, forest, and soil resources of the whole country." George H. Maxwell, director of the Pittsburgh flood commission, is more enthusiastic even than Mr. Perkins. Mr. Maxwell is a member of the executive committee from Pennsylvania of the National Drainage Congress. "The Newlands bill," says Mr. Maxwell, “unites every aspect of conservation in a comprehensive plan that can be carried out by the Federal Government for the benefit

of the whole Nation; and does it in what I consider the only constitutional way such a work can be done-under the policy of aiding interstate navigation and controlling, regulating, and standardizing the flow of navigable rivers."

Mr. George H. Maxwell, executive director of the flood commission of Pittsburgh, writes as follows to the Spectator:

"Is not $100,000,000 added to the value of property in the Pittsburgh industrial district a proposition large enough to merit the active and vigorous cooperation of every business man in the district? The figure I give is the conservative estimate of the benefits that would immediately result if the Pittsburgh industrial district were safeguarded against floods. That would be done, beyond all question or peradventure of doubt, if the Newlands river-regulation bill were enacted into a law by Congress."

The bill which Senator Newlands has before the Senate at Washington has attracted a great deal of favorable attention and provides for the construction by the Federal Government of storage reservoirs and irrigation works wherever necessary to furnish water not only for irrigation puposes but for the prevention of devastating floods.

It is this latter purpose that is specially applicable to the Pittsburgh district, for with the Newlands bill made a law the work of constructing great reservoirs at the headwaters of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers could be carried on, with the splendid and profitable result of ending the costly ravages to Pittsburgh and suburbs by great floods.

Such a proposition should receive the prompt, hearty, and generous support of business men and all other citizens of Pittsburgh. Certainly the adding of $100,000,000 to the value of property in our industrial district is a grand thing, and yet to attain it nothing is really needed but the support of the people.

In this great work the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce is taking an active, aggressive, and splendidly efficient part. Let its work be backed up by the influence and the financial support of business men and all people of the Pittsburgh district. The chamber of commerce flood commission was originally organized with 34 business and professional men, and is now being enlarged to include representation of the various industrial, commercial, and manufacturing interests.

[From the Fresno Morning Republican, Sunday, Apr. 7, 1912.]

CONTROL OF FLOOD WATERS.

EDITOR REPUBLICAN: We have noticed very recently accounts of the old and often-repeated story that Pittsburgh is flooded again; and this week the old, old story comes again that the Missouri, La Platte, and the Mississippi Rivers are raging torrents and doing millions of dollars of damage to the people in their vicinity. We may not this year have such reports of the Kings, San Joaquin, and Sacramento Rivers, but under usual conditions we shall hear of such things in future years; we had it last year and will again. Because of these everrecurring floods Pittsburgh some time ago raised $100,000 to make surveys and estimates to store the flood waters that do so much damage (we might say annually to their city), and out of a large number of sites for reservoirs we understand they have selected 17 of the most favored ones, and that if these are built the flooding of Pittsburgh will be a thing of the past, and the flood waters that do so much damage will be made a useful servant of the people. And Pittsburgh is preparing, if in the event they can not get the Government to aid them in this work, to go on and do it alone. As Pittsburgh in the past has been one of the most favored cities in the country to receive benefits through the Government's protective policy, they have good grounds to continue to plead for aid from their point of view on this matter. One of their Congressmen has a bill now before Congress for a large appropriation to help in this work. Of course, if it became a law it would be a local matter, yet of great benefit to a large section of country. But if Congress would pass Senator Newlands's river

regulation bill, known as S. 122, which appropriates $50,000,000 a year for 10 years, it would become a national affair, and as this bill provides for cooperation with States, counties, and even small districts, for the benefit of the people all over, wherever they take enough interest in such work to do something to help themselves. This great constructive measure should become a law at the earliest possible moment.

Some people say it is well enough to appropriate the money, but where is it to come from without more taxation of the people? We answer, let the Government stop building battleships costing about $15,000,000 each before they are ready to leave our shores on a peaceful mission, for we have no wars on our iands and not the slightest prospect of one; yet some of the "chair warmers at Washington want to-day to spend $20,000,000 on a single battleship, and they want one or two of this kind every year. These chair warmers are men on duty keeping their seats warm and imagining all kinds of disasters are going to come upon us as a nation if we do not keep building these engines of destruction. Congress now being in session, we hear from these infant industrial "chair warmers" that we are in danger again of the Japanese invading us, which is all "bosh and rot" to many of our great and notable men. is time the people wake up to the enormous expenditure that our Government is spending every year preparing to kill people and only giving a paltry few dollars in helping the " mainstay" of the Government, to wit, agriculture. It is well to remember that 70 cents out of every dollar collected by the Government every year is spent in paying for past wars and preparing for future ones that will never come. This leaves 30 cents for all the rest of the work. We constantly hear of the high cost of living, and if the same policy is carried on as in the past we will hear more of it.

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We need more land under cultivation, and we have it here at home if the Government only turns its attention to it. We have 80,000,000 acres of swamp and overflow land made so by these ever-recurring floods, and nearly every acre of these lands could be made a garden spot for our people to live on in peace and plenty. It must be reclaimed, and it will be as soon as our people wake up to its advantages and its great possibilities.

The great national drainage congress that will be held in New Orleads the coming week will be one of the largest congresses ever held in this country, and we have no doubt it will speak in no uncertain words a demand that our Government does take notice that in this great work a substantial start shall be made and that at once in the work to reclaim these vast areas of the richest lands on the face of the globe. In a short space of time our Government will have an abundance of material and machinery on hand when the Panama Canal is completed, and this could be brought home and put to good use in this reclamation work, in preparing these lands for homes, and it must be done. We are glad that Mr. Frank Short is going to that drainage congress, sent by the Panama fair commission; by this we know that our State will be heard from. The writer of this communication holds credentials from the head officers of the drainage congress, but it takes more than credentials to go so far to attend, no matter what the great object of the gathering may be. We are positive, knowing some of the leading men of this congress, that Senator Newland's bill, S. 122, will be strongly indorsed by that congress, and this we know every county board of supervisors and every chamber of cemmerce, board of trade-in fact, every organization of every description in this State and other States-should pass strong resolutions indorsing the Newlands riverregulation bill, and every resolution should be sent to every Congressman and every Senator at Washington and a private note that this measure must be passed and become a law this session of the Congress. If this were done we could be in line for assistance, not only of drainage but of irrigation—what our west side so much needs.

JOHN FAIRWEATHER.

[From the Courier Journal, Louisville, Ky., Apr. 7, 1912.]

CONTROL OF FLOODS.

It is evident that the levee system along the Mississippi River, while a great protection in the case of ordinary high water, is a source of no small danger in times of extraordinary floods.

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Many years ago, when an engineer of some note suggested a system of storage reservoirs for controlling floods and also for increasing river stages at seasons of low water, he was almost laughed out of court. His plan was regarded as visionary and impractical, and nobody gave it very serious attention. The engineer long ago passed to his last account, but the idea has survived, and there is pending in the United States Senate a bill, offered by Senator Newlands, which bears the following title:

"A bill to create a board of river regulation and to provide a fund for the regulation and control of the flow of navigable rivers in aid of interstate commerce, and as a means to that end to provide for flood prevention and protection and for the beneficial use of flood waters and for water storage, and for the protection of watersheds from deundation and erosion and from forest fires, and for the cooperation of Government services and bureaus with each other and with States municipilities, and other local agencies."

A few years ago the Chamber of Commerce of Pittsburgh organized a flood commission to investigate the question of flood control and make a report thereon. The commission delved deeply into the subject, and finally recommended storage reservoirs as a means of flood prevention. As reasons for indorsing the reservoir plan it cited the following:

"The flood relief would be extended over hundreds of miles of tributaries and of the main rivers, including the Ohio, for many miles below Pittsburgh, "The impounded flood water, with proper manipulation of the reservoir system, would considerably increase the low-water flow of the tributaries and of the main rivers.

"This increased low-water flow would greatly aid navigation and interstate

commerce.

"The increased low-water flow would notably improve the quality of the water for domestic and industrial purposes.

"The sewerage problem of Pittsburgh and of many other communities along the rivers would be simplified.

"The public health would be protected against the dangers arising from the insanitary conditions caused by overflow and by extreme low water.

"A considerable amount of water power would be incidentally developed." The commission found that there were many available sites for reservoirs in the vicinity of Pittsburgh. In fact, it selected 43 such sites, and had most of them surveyed. The opinion was expressed that adequate flood reduction at Pittsburgh could be obtained with 17 reservoirs, and the estimate was made that these reservoirs could be constructed at a cost of $20,000,000. In 10 years the flood damage at Pittsburgh has aggregated more than half this amount. The area affected by floods in the city includes real estate of the assessed valuation of $160,000,000. If relieved from the flood menace, it is believed this property would be increased in value at least $50,000,000, or more than twice the cost of a system of reservoirs. The commission believes it would be the part of wisdom for the city to build the reservoirs.

The National Drainage Congress is to meet in New Orleans April 10 to 13. Considering present conditions along the Mississippi River, the congress is likely to devote considerable attention to the question of flood prevention. A discussion of the reservoir plan which seems to be so strongly favored by Senator Newlands and the Pittsburgh flood commission would add much to the interest of the convention.

[From the Chronicle Telegraph, Pittsburgh, Pa., Apr. 8, 1912.]

FLOOD PREVENTION.

Senator Newlands of Nevada, in taking up the cudgles in behalf of the Pittsburgh flood commission's plan of flood prevention, directs attention to the inadequacy of unrelated improvement projects, such as channel dredging and levee protection. If we are to prevent disastrous floods and make the rivers serve their proper function of waterway navigation, he contends each river must be treated as a unit from source to mouth and treated in a scientific and orderly manner. This is the view enunciated by President Taft in his speeches and recommendations relative to river improvement, and it is in accordance with this view that the President has advised the taking up of the improvement of the Ohio as a starter and the prosecution of this work in a logical way until