1904.J HAUPT — THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER PROBLEM. 89 



belief in the efficacy of embankments for " the purpose of reclaim- 

 ing lands or preventing injury to lands or private property from 

 overflowing" is so innate that the occupants of such tracts are 

 almost a unit in their demands for national aid for protection, and 

 not without reason since they have a right to be protected in their 

 lives, homes and property from the ravages of a common enemy 

 from without. Since, under existing conditions, there appears to 

 be no warrant for the application of the funds to reclamation works 

 pure and simple, the law should be amended and an appropriation 

 should be made directly for this purpose, independently of the com- 

 mercial or navigation requirements. The lands thus reclaimed are 

 among the most fertile and desirable within the Federal domain, 

 and would become the source of a large volume of staple commodi- 

 ties for manufactures and food products. There is quite as strong 

 an argument for the development of this portion of our territory 

 by the exclusion of floods and their devastations, at the expense of 

 the general Government, as there is for the fertilization of the arid 

 lands of the Western plains by the application of irrigation. While 

 one section has too much water at certain seasons the other has too 

 little, and it is unquestionably the function of a paternal Govern- 

 ment to equalize and regulate the distribution of this life-giving 

 element for the general welfare. 



To this extent and for this purpose levees are unquestionably use- 

 ful, yet they are not the only resource of the engineering profession 

 in alleviating floods and reclaiming lands. Drainage is an impor- 

 tant factor, and this is based upon the principle of drawing down 

 the water by gravity to lower levels and voiding it as rapidly as the 

 topography will permit ; but this important expedient has been vig- 

 orously opposed by levee advocates and set aside untried as purely 

 theoretical, hence it is that attention is directed to a few physical 

 facts as to the direct benefits to be derived from the opening of all 

 possible avenues of escape of the flood waters, commonly known as 

 the 



Outlet System. 



There has been much misunderstanding as to the practical appli- 

 cation of this system, and erroneous impressions prevail as to its 

 results in consequence of the deductions drawn from natural cre- 

 vasses. 



As the discharge from these openings returns to the main trunk 



