304 FORESTS, RESERVOIRS, AND STREAM FLOW 
the means? If the ends sought could be attained in no other way, 
possibly they might; but they can be, and for a small fraction of 
the reservoir cost. Consider the estimate, already given, of $500 
000000. Take $40000000 and reinforce the entire levee system of 
the Mississippi. That will make it impregnable—as safe as any of 
the proposed reservoir dams. Take $60 000000 and revet the banks of 
the Mississippi wherever necessary from Cairo to the Gulf.* The 
reservoir project does not touch this important matter at all. Devote 
whatever sum is necessary to the protection of the bottom lands of 
the Ohio basin. Give Cincinnati and Pittsburg each $10 000000 to 
assist in local changes necessary for complete flood protection. Devote 
a sum to navigation such as our engineers have never dared dream 
of, and the Government will still save more than Mr. Leighton’s esti- 
mate of the whole cost of the reservoir system. The more closely this 
reservoir proposition is scrutinized, as a scheme for flood prevention, 
the more impracticable it appears. It is only a trade-off at best. It 
is giving up to perpetual overflow valuable lands to save others from 
occasional and even rare overflow for short periods. Now if, at less 
cost, these lowlands can be better protected by other means, thus 
leaving both the valley lands and reservoir sites open to productive 
use, how much better it will be! 
If the writer were to venture a criticism on Mr. Leighton’s atti- 
tude in this matter, it would be that he has not fully appreciated 
his responsibility in bringing forward again this old proposition 
without fuller consideration of its organic defects. This is well 
illustrated in the opening paragraph of his paper, in which he says: 
“This report will be confined to a statement of possibilities. There 
will be no attempt to prescribe methods for treatment of each local 
modifying condition that will be encountered in the prosecution of 
the plan here proposed. Such features are merely collateral, and their 
proper disposition is a matter of ordinary engineering.” 
This is a complete reversal of his obligation in the matter. The 
“possibilities” of reservoir control have long been recognized. The 
logic of the plan is well understood. It has always appealed to the 
popular mind. In particular, reservoir control of the Ohio floods has 
been advocated for more than 60 years, and its possibilities have 
often been investigated. The plan has been uniformly rejected on 
*Report, Mississippi River Commission, 1896, p. 3457. 
