HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 2038 
Our river stations cost us about $7 a month for the report. We 
established a gauge, and then we employed some man living right on 
the river front and he reads the gauge every morning and telegraphs 
the reading. 
Losses by a single flood, such as the Kansas River flood of 1903, where no service 
is maintained on account of lack of the necessary funds, amount to more than the 
entire expenses of the river and flood service would amount to for a generation; and, 
conversely, the value of property saved by flood warnings where adequate service is 
maintained, such as that on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers during the spring of 
1903, amounts toas much or more. These instances of the value and usefulness of this 
service are by no means isolated ones, but are repeated in greater or less degree 
several times annually. In the spring of 1897 the value of property saved during 
the Mississippi River flood as a result of the Weather Bureau warnings amounted, 
according to competent authority, to over $15,000,000, and during the present year 
even these enormous figures were exceeded. 
No one can doubt the tremendous importance of this work or belittle its effect 
upon the economic progress and development of the country. The watershed of 
the Mississippi River alone comprises two-fifths of the total area of the United States 
proper, within its confines dwell more than 40 per cent of our population, and the 
great bulk of our staple crops are grown here. It is easy to perceive, therefore, that 
whatever effects the well-being of this vast area will be reflected, now for good and 
now for evil, throughout our entire domain. To properly conduct a service of this 
character demands ability, both scientific and executive, of a high order. It is a 
work that requires many years of education and study, a life work in reality, and it 
is not fair to expect that a capable man should continue in it with the extremely 
small salary of $2,000 a year, a compensation much smaller than that given to many 
other Government officials whose duties are much less arduous and whose reponsi- 
bility for each day ends with the close thereof. 
I am making an earnest appeal for those two men because of the high 
talent we exact from them—the long years of study. They are not time 
servers. These men often work from eight to twelve hours a day. 
They are enthusiastic in their work and the importance of the flood 
service to the country demands that we properly treat them. 
My. Scorr. I think it would interest the committee if you would tell 
them briefly, what you have told me personally, in regard to the man 
in charge of your river business at Pittsburg and the police of that city 
being under his control. 
Professor Moorr. We have 18 river districts, each in charge of a 
local forecaster. I will describe the Pittsburg river service. The 
river at Pittsburg is formed by the junction of the Allegheny and the 
Monongahela. Wehave about 20 river or rainfall reporting stations 
in the Pittsburg district. There is no patronage in it for us or anybody 
else. Each morning at these 20 stations the men measure the rainfall, 
if any, and read the gauge, and these readings go right into the Pitts- 
burg office; they do not come to me, because they are of no impor- 
tance, except to the river commerce of the headwaters of the Ohio. 
The messages cost about 10 cents each; we get agood rate. The rain- 
fall on the watershed indicates when a dangerous height of water is 
imminent at Pittsburg. 
Often we can only give to the people a warning of from six to 
twelve hours. At such times the official at Pittsburg is right in his 
office and has a telephone, and the whole police is under his direction, 
absolutely under his direction for distributing flood warnings. Every 
man with property along the stream has somebody who is designated 
to immediately go to work when he gets notice from the patrolman 
on his beat. Through the cooperation of the police force, the Pitts- 
burg papers say that we often have saved millions’ worth of property 
between midnight and daylight. In the last Spring there were several 
big mills, employing large numbers of men, which were notified a few 
