DISCUSSION: FORESTS, RESERVOIRS, AND STREAM FLOW 353 
“While it is perhaps physically practicable to build reservoirs of Mr. Harts. 
sufficient aggregate capacity on the water-shed of any stream, even so 
large a stream as the Mississippi, as to exercise some influence in dimin- 
ishing the height of floods, the great cost of such works, as compared 
with the results to be expected from them, will always prohibit their 
construction, unless it is called for by other and more direct causes.” 
The effort to combine in one plan the improvement of depths in 
navigable rivers, the diminution of flood waves to a safe point, and the 
utilization of the stored water for electrical power can never be satis- 
factory to any single interest. To prevent floods, the reservoirs should 
be empty until the danger of floods is past; and, for furnishing water 
for navigation or power, they should be full when the dry season 
approaches. The difficulties attending the operation of a single reser- 
voir to meet these divergent demands may be guessed at; but what shall 
be said of those involved in the combined operation of many? 
Captain E. H. Schulz, Corps of Engineers, states in his report on 
the reservoirs of the Upper Mississippi :* 
“Tt is endeavored to operate the reservoirs to the best advantage 
for the general welfare. Daily reports are received from each of them 
and from gauge stations along the river, and the orders to the dam 
tenders are changed from day to day to best meet the requirements of 
the situation. The reservoirs affect seven different interests which 
often conflict—steamboat navigation below St. Paul, steamboat naviga- 
tion above St. Paul, logging, mills at Minneapolis, mills above Minne- 
apolis, riparian owners on the river, and riparian owners on the reser- 
voirs. It is impossible to so manage the reservoirs as to suit all con- 
cerned, because each party minimizes or ignores entirely the interests 
of all the others. The reservoirs are being so managed as to benefit 
in the course of the year, every one of the seven interests concerned 
except the riparian owners on the reservoirs, who have been, or are 
being, compensated in cash. Each of these interests is materially better 
off than it would be if the reservoirs did not exist, but none are 
entirely satisfied, and some very much dissatisfied, because each would 
like the reservoirs managed exclusively for its own benefit, so that it 
might receive, if possible, all of the great public good which the reser- 
voir system is intended to accomplish and does accomplish.” 
It is well known that powerful corporations are at present eagerly 
securing the best water-powers available for future development, for 
their own benefit, on the best terms obtainable. The earliest surveys 
of the reservoir sites of the Upper Mississippi were undertaken at the 
instance of the private companies owning water-power dams at Minne- 
apolis, and although this work was ordered by Congress and done under 
the direction of General G. K. Warren, the expenses of the first 
examination and survey were paid for by these corporations. 
This project, being urged as it was from its very inception by the 
water-power companies at Minneapolis, has never inspired the usual 
*Annual Report, Chief of Engineers, 1907, p. 1584. 
