a long study of the
whole subject of reclamation and conservation, and who speaks with
authority on the subject says:

"The appalling disasters in Ohio and Indiana bring home more forcibly
than ever the conviction that our present method of dredging, levees and
bank revetment in limited districts is fundamentally inadequate. These
things will not protect dwellers on the lower reaches of our rivers so
long as there is no control of the headwaters.

"We must adopt an adequate system for the control of the run-off at the
headwaters of the tributaries of the Mississippi. The people of
Pittsburgh and Dayton are entitled to this, no less than the people of
lower Mississippi are entitled to levees. I trust these floods will
rouse the American conscience in these matters."

Senator Newlands has urged that $50,000,000 a year be used for the next
ten years to develop a comprehensive scheme of storing the excess flood
waters at the heads of rivers.

The Democratic platform contained a plank which promised the support of
the party to a national scheme of river control. This has already been
brought to the attention of President Wilson. With the horrible scenes
of the inundated towns of Ohio and Indiana before them, this pledge is
likely to become a living promise to the party in power.

A PROBLEM FOR THE PANAMA ENGINEERS

There is one thing to remember. Our stupendous enterprise of the Panama
Canal will soon be completed. Its vast equipment of the world's newest
and best machinery for digging and filling will be unemployed. The
world's greatest engineer, Colonel Goethals, will also be at leisure.
Why not then provide for the transfer of all the wonderful machinery at
Panama, under personal charge and direction of Colonel Goethals, to the
supreme necessities of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys? The whole
American people would applaud and approve this disposition of our great
engineer and his great equipment.

This new national necessity is as vital and even more pressing than the
Panama Canal. It is worthy of the great Republic and of the great
engineer--an achievement if successful which would twin with Panama and
make Colonel Goethals immortal and our country's beneficence and
enterprise famous through all time.

We have no force and no leader in this tragic emergency more potent for
the defense of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys than Colonel Goethals
and his Panama machinery. Let us send cheer to the flood-ravaged re