aws of nature
because of indifference and greed.

THE NEED FOR ACTION

This country has suffered from many great floods in past years, but none
so awful in its scope and terrible consequences. The present calamity
must bring the country to its sober senses and make us see the positive
necessity--the inevitable MUST--of taking immediate and adequate
measures to guard against the repetition of such a disaster. "Strike
while the iron is hot," has been the battle-cry of men of action
throughout the world! And today, while the iron of adversity is hot in
the bosom of the Republic, is the time to strike upon the ideas that are
to make the heroic surgery of healing.

What is the remedy for these mighty floods that are sweeping and ruining
the interior country? Beyond the supreme consideration of the loss of
life they are the financial tragedies of the century. They occur at rare
intervals in Ohio and Indiana and in New York. But in the valley of the
Mississippi and in the Ohio Valley they are almost an annual or
bi-annual scourge of waters, terrific in suffering and appalling in
cost.

NOT A QUESTION OF COST

No expenditure of public money is too great that will strengthen the
defenses of the people against the giant forces of destruction in the
Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. No cost in national expenditure for
permanent defense against such catastrophes would approximate the cost
in a single decade to the pockets of the people, not to speak of the
uncountable value of human life. Governor Cox, of Ohio, estimated that
the damage in Ohio alone by the recent floods was more than
$300,000,000--nearly as much as the cost of the Panama Canal. The total
cost of the recent flood is vastly greater than that of the Panama
Canal!

The American Government can no longer stop to consider money in dealing
with the problems of internal economy and of elemental humanity. The
floods create an emergency as definite and imperative as war. It is time
now to start some movement for the preservation of life and property
against such occurrences.

MEASURES AGAINST REPETITION OF DISASTER

It is not the mission of this book to prescribe plans for meeting the
situation. That must be the work of a corps of trained engineers who
shall study the whole problem comprehensively and in detail. Rather it
is our purpose here to bring home the overwhelming need for prompt
action. We may be permitted, however, to point in a general way, and on
high