Flood control and hydroelectric development

The appalling loss of life and property in the valley of the Mississippi and along its lower tributaries brings to the front the urgent necessity of remedial measures which will effectively and permanently put an end to this recurring scourge. For half a century at least the problem of controlling the floods of the Mississippi has been before the nation, but the awfulness of the present visitation shows how ineffectual the remedy has been. Civilization has greatly added to rather than subtracted from the danger of such floods, because roads, sewers, houses and the cutting down of forests hasten the run-off to the river. It is therefore obligatory in engineers to find a solution to the problem whose seriousness has thus been increased manyfold by civilization itself, and toward that solution the electrical industry can contribute.