Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 73.djvu/31

Rh the engineers themselves comes the statement that the average life of a levee is not over twenty years, which means this and no more: in two-score years, at the most liberal estimate, the present system, completed, will have disappeared entirely and a new series of levees constructed at the cost of another $60,000,000 will have taken its place, with conditions then no better than they are now. Considered solely on their own merits from the standpoint of control afforded, the present system has nothing, and the reservoir plan has everything, to recommend it.

In order to bring the river route to its highest possible degree of efficiency, it would be necessary to combine the reservoir system with a straightened course for the lower river, by which combination every evil would be removed and absolute control for all time would be insured. The reservoirs would make it possible to regulate the flow of the streams, preventing both floods and very low water, and at the same time, through developed horse power, pay for the improvements. The corrected or straightened course would shorten the route and effectively put an end to caving of the banks with all the difficulties arising from it at present. Together the reservoirs, with the necessary forest conservation and corrected course, would remove the sand bar problem—the one greatly lessening the actual amount of sand carried into the river, the other giving the current increased power to sweep its own channel clean.

It is undeniable that this plan calls for a large expenditure for its completion, but in the long run so does the levee-revetment system, without anything tangible to show for the outlay in the end. The whole question narrows itself down to a single issue: whether it is not better policy to do the right thing at the start, even if it require great initial outlay, rather than follow a plan which means the reconstruction of part of the so-called improvements every decade for centuries, with the region concerned always chafing under the handicap of a mediocre, inadequate waterway and-suffering heavy annual losses from uncontrollable floods. The waste of money on levees and revetments ought to cease once for all. Let the federal government authorize the completion of the entire reservoir system with a straightened course for the lower river, and loose the bonds which every year are drawn tighter over this heart of our nation.