DISCUSSION : FORESTS, RESERVOIRS, AND STREAM FLOW 327 
Regarding reservoirs to restrain floods on our Western rivers, the Mc. Roberts. 
writer’s opinions may have been perverted in youth by a parent who 
was in open opposition to Colonel Charles Ellet, the distinguished and 
able advocate of reservoirs. M. O. Leighton, Assoc. M. Am. Soe. C. E., 
has again raised the standard, but upon more specific and detailed lines 
than those of his great predecessor. It is a subject which should be 
considered apart from forest problems. Engineers must necessarily 
discuss its merits by weighing the cost with the advantages to be 
secured. If, for instance, it can be shown that levees along the Ohio 
can be built protecting all the property exposed to serious flood damages 
for one-fifth, or even less than one-fifth, of the cost of reservoirs neces- 
sary to secure that result, the engineers will be very apt to recommend 
the levee method. It requires no further surveys to hold tenable opin- 
ions on the questions herein involved. The matter of power develop- 
ment is, of course, a part of Mr. Leighton’s project which should not 
be overlooked. At the same time we may have to content ourselves 
with fewer horses in our ‘‘power stables”’ than he hoped to provide. As to 
cost of flood-storage reservoirs in the Ohio Valley, readers are referred to 
an article* by Major H. C. Newcomer, Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army. 
If Mr. Leighton’s studies for the improvement of navigation do not 
meet with the results he expected, he can, in any event, congratulate 
himself upon showing the country where some very valuable water- 
powers can be found. The engineers fully appreciate the value of the 
elaborate topographic maps of the United States Geological Survey. 
Colonel Chittenden argues that the water-powers should be under 
the control of the authorities managirig navigation interests. They 
are certainly related in the cases where the powers are located im- 
mediately at dams with locks, and it seems to be apparent that the 
shutting down or stoppage of flow in other cases, resulting in possible 
detriment to transportation interests, should be under the control of 
the navigation engineers. 
The author’s final argument that all the interests of forestry, power, 
and water transportation are within the purview or jurisdiction of the 
National Government will appear reasonable to most thinkers. The 
revenues of the individual States, and schemes of taxation, cannot 
well be adapted to projects of this nature, where State lines would so 
frequently stop an adequate exploitation. At the late Governors’ Con- 
vention in Washington no strong voice was raised against this con- 
ception. What everybody wants in this country, one would think, 
should be constitutional, and in the few brief words of the preamble 
of the Federal Constitution our wise forefathers did not forget to say 
something about the promotion of the general welfare. Away then 
with the foreign criticism that our Constitution has caged a giant 
incapable of development in response to modern demands. 
* Engineering News, October 8th, 1908. 
