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areas must be given as complete protection from fluctuations in water levels as | 
is possible. But landowners along the greater part of the frontage should con- | 
sider that these fluctuations are normal and that any structures built in the area 
subject to fluctuation should be temporary or able to withstand the action of the 
high waters. 
The condition is analogous to that in the flood plains of the larger rivers. 
We know that floods will come and, as certain as death and taxes, when these 
rivers decide to do a little reclaiming they will do it despite levees. This has 
been proved abundantly, andis gradually being accepted by the public. The Des 
Moines Tribune contained the following on April 22, 1952: 
Most dogmatic of all--and least welcome--are those who 
say nobody ever gets flooded unless he is rash enough to build a 
home or a business in the natural flood plains of rivers. The ir- 
ritating thing about this last told-you-so is that it is true. In fact, 
it is a truism, because that is what a flood plain is--a place that 
floods occasionally, or has flooded..... We are foolish to build 
on spots that are likely to be flooded every few years--or to re- 
build. We are foolish to perpetuate attitudes toward river front- 
age that stem from the days when rivers were our sole easy 
routes for long distance freight and travel. 
The Chicago Tribune printed aneditorial on April 15,1952, and we quote 
in part from it: 
It certainly doesn’t cure anything at the moment, and it 
may seem cruelly pointless to tell a man who has just lost all 
his worldly goods that it is his own fault, but that is the fact. The 
people who are being flooded out gambled with the river. The riv- 
er doesn’t gamble. It may lie low for years, while foolish men 
move closer and closer to its banks and restrict its flow for their 
selfish purposes, but sooner or later it takes back its own..... 
People tried to protect themselves against the river by building 
dikes and levees. The more they crowded the river, the higher 
they had to build. The higher they built, the more they crowded 
the river. Sooner or later, the river always wins. Then there is 
a great hullabaloo, and pork barrel congressmen cry for more 
MIMLIONSS «veeet Only one thing is necessary to solve the flood prob- 
lem: That is to give the river back its channel and its old flood 
plains. If the people want to build on them, or farm them, let 
them do so at their own risk, and not expect the government to 
bail them out, literally and financially, when the river takes over. 
The above quotes deal with lake waters by close analogy. Now let us hear 
what Langlois (1952) has to say concerning an area on Lake Erie: 
There are short stretches of clay lands between Sandusky 
and Toledo, and these areas have been occupied by homes or cot- 
