Page:Report of the Oregon Conservation Commission to the Governor (1908 - 1914).djvu/21

Rh is not only an improvident and expensive method of conducting any work, but that it has cost the people of this country vast sums of money in delaying the relief they otherwise would have enjoyed. It adds vastly to the actual cost of any work, &sidcs the toss attendant on delay or abandonment, destruction by the tie- merits, and tile repeated organizing and dkbanding of plant and forces. Thdeed. it is hard to understand how as practical a people as we consider ourselves could have countenanced such methods for so tong a time. Ve therefore favor a policy having for its objcct continuous work until completion of all approved projects. We also favor placing this fery important department of our government on the same plane as any other of the great departments, and that annual appropriations, not less in amount than and as much more as may be found necessary, be macic to carry out the foregoing suggestions. If this cannot be done through available funds in the treasury arising from ordinary sources of revenue, then we favor the issuance of bonds in sufficient amount to enable it to be done.

Oregon’s Waterways

The outline map which appears as a frontispiece serves to show the important part the waterways play in the development of the Northwest. The CDlumbia River is the second largest river in the United States, and is in fact one of the great rivers of the world. “Its drainage area is approximately 245, square mites, and its discharge varies from over 5o,o cubic feet per second to ,,soo cubic feet per second or more’

The Snake River joins the Columbia 228 miles above the mouth of the Willamette, or about 328 miles from the sea. The Willamette River joins the Columbia about ‘02 miles from the sea. The two first named rivers drain the Great Inland Empire from British Columbia on the north to the Rocky Mountains on the east. The Willamette drains the rich valley of the same name lying between the Coast and the Cascade Mountai’,s ri Western Oregon. Numerous tributaries such as Hood River, the John Day. Deschutes Umatilla and Grande Ronde Rivers in Oregon, and the Yakima, the Okanogan and the Spokane in Washington, arid the Clearwater in Idahn. flow into he greater rivers. The value ,f this stream svstcni for navigation rrigation and power