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On« of (Av Aflaml Vatley'i Empty Flood Reiervolrt. If u Store Wattr for Pouiar, You Haue f/a Flood Protection "I n-lU rcnicmbcr my covcoant . . .

luid the watvni HIIBII DO mon? becomi!

a flood lo dMtrpy all Üi-sh." —OünctilÄ, ix, 15.

T HE heaviest Januarj' rains in history had fallen on the watershed uf the Miami River.

A hotel bellboy drove up from Daj ton for a look at the ordiaanly dry Englewood flood basin, and stared at a lake that looked ñf teen miles long.

"If it wasn't for the dam," he gaspfd in awe, "that'd all be in Main Street!

I'd be swimming!" Several days later, a stranger hailed a policeman at Dayton's Main and Fifth streets.

"Was there," he asked, "any water along: here in 1913?" "See those lights up there?" the policeman said, shakiog his stick at street lights twice a tall man's height. "The water was up to them.

If it wasn't for our dama, there'd have been eleven feet of water along here this time." Dayton's dams!

Visitors found those dams foremost in the minds of residents of the Miami Valley during thi» year's record Ohio Valley flood.

In Cincinnati, an hour's drive from Dayton, tens of thousands of people shivered in darkne.ss and fear. Two-thirds of Louis- \-ille was driven out of house aod home.

The same raina fell in the Miami Valley. But in Miami Valley cities there was not a drop of flood water out of channel.

The thankfulness of these people waa that of sufferers who knew at first hand what it's all about, who were confident it never could happen to them again.

In excess of thankfulness, they exaggerated. There would not have been eleven feet of water in Dayton's Main Street this year, even though the rainfall did exceed all January records.

But without the dams and otber waterway improvements, there would have been a flood. That there was none was due to Dayton's own flood horror twenty-four years ago, and what happened afterward.

A fine story, that. One that America should not forget, especially not now.

Dayton, Exparlanca Wise, Warm Against Haste TV TANY have been saying of the Ohio Valley flood, lVJL"It must never happen again." Hands are clapped to that sentiment. Indeed it must not hap- pen again—if man can prevent it.

Well, then, it is urged, let's get busy right away.

Do not wait till memory of the mud and slime, disease, horror, death, has faded aod the urge for action has grown feeble.

Let dirt fly now!

These are worthy sentiments. And yet triumphant Dayton herself, having reason to know much about such things, ia iirat to say, "Beware of haste." It is well to reconsider the Miami Valley.

To refresh memories.

To recall what was done, and how.

Not only for suggestions as to what might be done in the valley of the Ohio but also, and perhaps more im- portjintly, for what might better not be done or even attempted in that great, and greatly troubled valley.

From the time of the white man's coming, waters of the Miami and of its tributaries have heen im- portant, for good or for evil, to dwellers in this val- ley of abundance in Southwestern Ohio.

A quaint historian who found time, fiftynadd years ago, to compile a volume of 1220 closely printed pages about Dayton and ita environs, tells of an Indian-killing expedition under the leadership of Col.

Georíre Rogers Clark in 1782. Clark forded the Mad River oear its mouth and marked the spot as an excellent site for settlement. Thus waa Dayton thought of.

Another deoade had to pass before anything was done.

But the site was picked.

The mouth of tho Mad—of the Stillwater, too—lies today within the city limita of Dayton.

"Settlers," writes the historian, "were induced to locate on the river bank . . .

from their idea that THE SATURDAY EVENING POST 9 the most desirable property would bo near the landing, from whence in future years must be shipped the Burplus products of the country." So, in the winter of 1799, David Lowry hewed oak planks iu the forests above the settlement, fastened them with wooden pins to a frame of oak logs, built the first flatboat. Spring freahets came. Under flintlock guard, a eajgo of grain, pelts and five hundred venison hams headed for far waters.

Two months later, her cargo and timbers sold, the builder returned overland on horseback.

Other adventurers did likewise. Trade spread by the beneficent friendly waters. Three decades a,fter the founding, a canal to Cincinnati was completed, and Dayton really bloomed.

• But the waters were not ahvays kindly.

It was in March, 1S05, before much of the forest cover now considered so important in flood prevention was cut, that the first great fiood swept in at the doors of the settlement.

"The river is too strong for us," said certain ones. "We'll always be in danger here. Let's move." It was proposed to rebuild tbe settlement on higher ground. Two prominent citizens were un- willing to abandon improvements they had made.

The plan was dropped. Dayton continued to invite her destiny by the side of the waters.

Many a time in years to come, often at night, the ery of "Flood!" struck terror in the valley.

The year 1814 is remembered for high waters, and 1828, 1832, and 1847—this year was worse than most, for the new levee broke, relief parties worked all night, on horseback and in boats, rescuing people from dvelliogs. The historian says:

"The levee was shortly afterward strongly recon- structed, and is constantly being strengthened, and since the watenvay has been widened by the bridge extensions, it is believed that there can be no danger to the city from high waters in the future." He WTOte in 1882.

Still to come was the icy flood of February, 1883, of 1886; the March floods of 1897 and 1898, the lat- t-er accounted the second-largest, fully recorded flood in the city's history. After each, "finis" was written in these words:

"The levees were strength- ened and ext-ended." And then came 1913.

This is not the place to describe that nightmare.

At dawn on Tuesday, March twenty-fifth, high wa- ters had come. Fred Boyer, liigh-school teacher, walking north on Main Street at nine o'clock in the morning, saw a gaunt Paul Revere galloping down the street.

, "The levee's broke!" cried the horseman.

"The levee's broke!" The Promises Made In.

the .Attic T TP AND DOWN the valley, at Piqua, at Troy, at vj Hamilton, as at Dayton, the waters took hor- rible toil.

No one knows how many lives were lost.

Bodies recovered numbered 3G1. Hundreds disap- peared and were never found.

The property loss in Dayton alone was estimated at 506.765,574.

Sug- gestive are the records of the clean-up: 1420 dead horses and 2000 other dead animals removed; 133,- 600 wagonloads of debris hauled away; 98 dead bodies recovered; 12,131 houses, cellars and premises cleaned aud disinfected by the sanitary department; 580,000 Governmeut rations distributed to the stricken.

And this was only part of it.

For more than a century, then, Dayton and its neighbor cities of the Miami Valiey lived under threat of flood. levees were raised.

But the shout- ing nver, when it chose, roiled over man-built works.

Until 1913.

Many old-timers in undisturbed Dayton, in Jan- uary, 1937, reminded one another of a slogan that was popular durmg and aftisr 1913: "Remember the promises made m the attic!" As they climbed higher and higher in their homes to escape rising waters, many reached the attic. Some chopped through rafters and shingles for light and a last way of escape.

Huddling, afraid, hungry, mÍBerable, they mutt43r6d; the emergency passed, but Dayton at thaftime had an unusual number of men of vision, leaders who resolved that these attic-made promises should not be forgotten, that something must be done, that it must be no halfway something.

To name names in this connection has never been popular in Dayton.

Not individuals, they say, did what was done, but all the people, aroused, de- termined, fighting. Names do recur; John H. Pat^ terson, for example, one-time eanal-tollgate keeper, who converted a bad investment into the National Cash Register Company. Adam Schatitz, Jr., Dayton- born son of a German father, brewer and builder.

James M. (Jimmy) Cox, newspaper publisher, state governor, later a presidential nominee. Many more, andfarfromleast, E. A. Deeds, famous with "Boss'' Kettering for developing self-starters for automo- biles.

But credit was not what the leaders worked for.

Onc3, later, when it was seen that something fine had beec done, a few thought that silver spades should be handed around, or names should be car^^ed on tablets. Quietly it was resolved to settle that sug- gestion once for all by holding a dinner. Holding it where?

Why.

in the outlet conduit of one of the flood-protection dams, so that anyone attending might be thoroughly drowned! With such a spirit, deeds flourished.

At one of the first meetings, someone suggested raising a fund.

A quarter of a million dollars was daringly mentioned. Adam Schantz, who, perhaps, had never made a speech in his whole liie, rose.

For once, inspired, he was Demosthenes.

A quarter of a million, he cried. What good would that do?

Let $2,000,000 be raised. He capped oratory by pledging §120,000 himself.

Within sixty days, the 82,000,000 fund was a fact; a fund that waa not any one man's fund, nor a gift from Washington or elsewhere.

It was Dayton's self-imposed fund, created for the purpose of sohn'ng Dayton's own problem. Some 23,000 residents, despite heavy flood losses and recent miseries, dug down and paid up.

Finding Out What Ought to ba Done I,ENTHUSIASM and subscriptions do not create J^ flood protection.

It may have been haziJy in Adam Schnntz's mind that .$2,000,000 would be all the money needed to protect Dayton from further floods. Ideas were nebulous.

"I don't think," said Colonel Deeds, months later, "that anyone on the committee at that time had any appreciation of what was asked of it. We thought that we probably could get .some local protection." E^-erybodj- wanted dirt to fly by fall. What the fund, did, in the final event, was to pro^vide ample means for finding out what ought to be done.

One of the first acts of the Miami Valley Flood Prevention Association was the hiring oF an engineer.

There was secret drama even there, and a citizen who wanted no credit. Politics desired to name the engineer.

But a certain political boss sensed that something fine for Daytoc was in the making.

He wanted a piece fContinuBd on page 84J tt3r6d; This won't happen again." A group in hip boots on an upper fioor of the Athletic aub, were among the loudest mutterers It might have been only a mutter, forgotten when street. Looking West, Dayton, Ohio, In the Great Flood of ¡913, Which Kecrr Is Ltkelv to Recur rALx Tiiourso.-i ruoTO J*ffwraon Strmut Itawntown in Dayton la 1913 Mfter the\Jitlamt Ktoar Had. RwtraatBit to ita Bttnka 84 THE SATURDAY EVENINO POST March 27,19S7 A SPRING TONIC FOR YOUR CAR The old custom of taking a Tonic should be revived for automo- biles.

They have had a hard Winter.

The running gear and chassis should be inspected and tightened.

The engine checked and adjusted.

The hard-used Winter oil drained off.

Now your car is ready for a "Spring Tonic"— Put the correct Summer grade of WOLF'S HEAD into the engine and gears. Then you will get full power, increased gas and oil mileage and avoid unnecessary repairs.

WOLF'S HEAD is sold by the finer independent dealer. Give your car a "Spring Tonic" today.

WOLF'S HEAD The "finett of the fine" Pennsyliania Motor Oik those attributes whicli go to make up a public enemy.

"Noue of tbe men who denounce me haa any facts or any responsibility.

I cannot reply in the same sort of lan- guage, for I have responsibilities and, anyway, I have neitlior the desire nor the ability t-o go on the soap box. Even if I did, it would not matter.

For I am mostly accused of things I never did or even heard of. The way is always open to shorten hours and raise wages.

That would make me a hero.

But I would also have to raise selling prices, and that would cut down our sales aod tura the high wages and short hours into fake benefices.

I do not want to be a fourfiusher.

I would rather be a public enemy." Tliis man was trj-ing to say that his corporation had been drawn into the political areua and that he was being expected to run it and at the same time be, in effect, the leader of a little politi- cal party.

He knew business, but he did not know how to resist political attacks disguised as economic theories. Most poIiticiaoB are lawyers, and in order to meet them in public forums, there is a decided drift toward lawyers as cor- porate beads.

A little while ago—say in 1929—all bankers and corporate heads were won- der men—and many of them gracefully acknowledged tbat they were.

Now the pendulum has swung. But tbe men of 1937 are mueb the same sort of men who performed in 1929. May it not he that the buman deflating of recent years is only a reaction to the human inflating of the boom?

The quality of business and banking executives can be improved.

So can the quality of all the human beings who go to make up onr nation.

But can tbe improvements be brought about by law? The quality of Govem- ment ser\'ice scarcely makes a case for governmental supervision of the abihty of corporate executives. Might it Dot be more to the point to develop stand- ards of ethics?

Few men cheat at cards.

But that is not because of the law. Tbere is no law against cheating at cards.

{ContlnumA frorn Pagm 9) WOLVERINE-EMPIRE New York, N. Y.

REFINING COMPANY Oil Ciiy, Pa.

of it, but no credit and no cash.

He warned tbe leaders, turned events from what might have been disaster at the start.

The part he played won liim a lasting place in the esteem of the few who knew.

An engineer then was Mred; one who had specialized in water control.

An engineer who later became president of a college to sponsor an unusual edu- cational program; wbo still later be- came chairman of the New Deal's TVA—Arthur E.

Morgan.

Mr. Morgan's assignment was to learn whether anything could be done to protect the Miami Valley from floods. If so, what, and how much.

He began by taking nothing for granted.

His flrst instnictioas confined him to the region north of the south line of Montgomery County—Day- ton's county.

His first idea was tbat relief for Dayton could probably be secured by improving the river cban- nel and partly rebuilding some city bridges.

But time and study soon proved the unmsdom of this.

The en- tire valley, despite political boundaries tbat divided it into small entities, was found to be a natural unit as far as flood control was concemed; no part of it could be left out of consideration ivatb safety to tho remaining parts.

Research Lends a Hand Compared with the vast Obio, tbe Miami is a midget.

The total length of its winding course is 163 miles. Its most important tributary, tbe Whitewater.

empties so near the mouth of tho Miami, tbat it is not commonly con- sidered a part of tho Miami sys- tem.

. . . The Miami drainage area above Hamilton is 3672 square miles and above Dayt-on, 2525 square miles.

Tbe slopes are sharp and steep, the grades of the main streams rather flat.

Though draining of swamp lands, tiling, cultivation of farms, and, possibly, the destruction of tbe forests, have slightly increased the flood runoCf, the tre- mendous floods tbat sweep down the valley are duo, primarily, to the great storms which occur at intervals in tliis section of the United States. This doscnptioQ is official, Before there was hope of controlling these "tremendous floods," extensive studies had to be undertaken. There was the seemingly simple question of storm rainfall.

How much, conceiv- ably, could fall on the Miami water- shed?

In how short a time? Andifthe maximum amount fell in the shortest time, under conditions making for iast- est runoff, how big a flood would ensue ?

Everj' known authentic meteorological source at home and abroad was ex- amined, including the 900-year flood records on the Danube at Vienna, 2300-year records on the Tiber at Rome.

The conclusion reached was that a condition 20 per cent worse tban tbat of 1913, was the most severe that conceivably could occur.

But in order to be quite safe, it was decided to add another 20 per cent.

The Hydraulic Jump There was also the question of how much water a stream channel can carry. There had been guesses, approxi- mations, but nobody exactly knew.

It had to be known, with similar exactitude, what stream flow does to the baoks cf rivers at bends, under varying conditions of volume, velocity and soil type.

Then, as a plan for the Miami began to emerge, acd because of local topog- raphy, the idea of dams and retarding basins bec-ame more obvious as a solu- tion, it was necessary to study tbe flow of water througb outlet conduits.

When waters pile up behind a dam and their only outlet is locat-ed at the bottom of the dam, they can push through that outlet with tremendous velocity.

It was imperative to study, as the ques- tion never before had been studied, the erosive consequences of such velocities bursting on a natural stream bed; and to invent an entirely new means of dissipating the forco of the water.

Many methods were tried. Experi- ments lasted for months. The principio finally employed was the hydraulic jump, a peculiar effect occurring when water at high velocity strikes a mass of wat«r virtually still, A sound method of employing this effect in outlet con- duitB was perfected for the first time THE SXTURDJIY EVENING POST by engineers of the Miami Conservancy District.

Arthur Mor^m also felt that it was necessary to consider every plan pro- posed, even the erackpot plans, that might have any possible flood-control merit. Weird and wonderful schemes were advanced. One gentleman de- sired to construct a series of paddle wheels across the river above Dayton, to paddle high waters back xipstream.

Another desired to sink wells in the river bed, and open traps to drop flood waters in. Seriously considered were proposals for diverting the Mad River over the hills into tbe Little Miami; for diverting the Miami around the cities.

The plan finally recommended and adopted was simple, but was supported by enormously intricate calculations.

It had two main features; First, a series of five dams to create huge flood basins ; second, scientific channel improvement in the cities, EverrNormal Water Floto The channels were studied, to deter- mine how much widening and deepen- ing was feasible from a practical cost standpoint, in ^-iew of vested interests on the banks. When this was known, and the engineers knew how much wa- ter these channels could handle, it was then possible to figure how mueh basin storage would be needed.

Flood—retarding or detention—ba- sins were a new idea in this countrJ^ Nowhere in the world had anyone built such huge basins, and as many basins, as were contemplated for tbe Miami.

Storage dams, of course, have been huilt since man first messed with mud pies.

But these were not designed as storage dams. Their purpose was ut- terly different. To borrow a compound adjective from the Secretary of Agi-i- eulture, they were designed to create something hke an ever-normal flow of water in the river channels below.

When rains came and the waters fell, the water would run on entirely un- checked, up to a certain point. Beyond a maximum calculated rate, the water eould not flow. Why? Because the retarding dams were tbere to stop it.

In the event that rain ever should fall in sueh vast quantities as to out-top all calculations and fill the dams top- full, concrete spillways were provided seventeen feet below the tops of the dams, to prevent ruining the earthen top.

But the dams were planned so big, their storage capacity is so great, that it was and is believed that these spillways may never be used for the purpose intended.

The system was desirned to be purely automatic. After construction, human judgment was never to enter into operation of the plan. The outlet conduits wore planned large enough to release only the maximum flow that eould be put safely into the channels through the cities.

In ordinary times they carry off the entire stream flow.

There Ls, therefore, no permanent flooding of great areas. Land behind the dams waa planned to be,and is, used for agriculture, Miami floods come mostly in January, February or March, and the danger period is from Novem- ber to May, Farm lands behind the dams, it was thought, could be used for all summer crops, and should benefit by silt deposits.

Aa for cities, the plan provided for comprehensivo replanning and rebuild- ing of levees. Channels were to be deepened and widened where neces- sary. In some places, in order to main- tain a desirable oven rate of flow, they were to be narrowed.

The plan did not aim to give eom- plete protection from flooding to farm lands below dams. To have done that would have raised costs prohibitively.

It did promise, however, to make the flooding of farms far less disastrous, to limit flood erosion and the depositing of gravel beds on fertile fields.

Briefly, that was the plan. The engi- neers had spoken. There remained the politicians, fanners, industries, indi- viduals and interests affected, with all their fears, hesitations, doubts.

To handle flood protection for the valley as a unit, it was necessary to cross township and county lines; luck- ily, the watershed was wholly within one state. But to cross these pohtical boundaries and do all that was neces- sary, a new kind of law was required.

One w^ written—by experts. .John A.

McMdfth, whom Uncle Joe Cannon once cflled "the ablest lawj'er I ever knew in either house of Congress," at- tended to making it stand solidly on its cMstitutional and legal legs; and Arthw Morgan attended to iucorpo- ratii-.g provisions he needed in order to go ahead and move dirt. McMahoa personally present-ed the law, when drafted, to Governor Cox, The gover- nor read it, saw how sectional jealousies would be stirred, thought it would be hard to get it through the legislature.

"I know it's going to be hard," twinkled McMahon. "But I also know who is governor of Ohio." A smart man knows \\-hen and whom to flatter.

There was a bitter fight. "Don't worrj' !

' ' said Governor Cox to Colonel Deeds toward the end, "We've got the votes." i "I will worry!" said ColAici Deeds to Governor Co.\; "I've beft to horse races, but this is the first tlie I ever had a horse in one." ^ The Pros and Com at War The law was passed. Governor CÚ>.

signed it on February 17, 1914, Even- tually it withstood every court test, be- came a model for other states. Briefly, the Consen.'ancy Act, as it was called, enabled counties to eo-operato for pur- poses of preventing floods—regulating stream channels and flow, diverting or eliminating water courses, building reservoirs, dams, levees, bridges, and so on—levying assessments or taxes for construction and maintenance. Au- thority was vested in a court consist- ing of a common-pleas judge from each county concerned; and the court, in tum, was authorized to name directors who would nin the job.

The day after the bill was signed, a petition was filed in the Court of Com- mon Pleas of Montgomery County, asking for the establishment of the Miami Conservancy District. This started another cat-and-dog fight, A fight, on the one hand, to keep the law on the books as written, and to do the job aa it was known it should be done, A fight, on the other hand, to obstruct and prevent ita fulfillment.

It was not until June 28, 1915, that the Mi- ami ConBer\'ancy District was e.stab- lished, and even then construction was far off.

During a single week in 1916, the record shows, a mass meeting was held at Tippecanoe City in opposition; the Piqua City Council adopted a resolu- tion objecting to the plans; the Miami County commissioners adopted resolu- tions objecting; the Shelby County commissioners filed objections, Inflam- mato^ry editors said to excitable read- era; "Dayton is willing to ruin more than one farm in her eagerness to help "Why shouldn't I Grin? I saved*79 by using Devoe's New Two-Coat System ACTUAL EXPERIENCE OF WALTON JACKSON, GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA "Everything my Dealer said about Devoe*s Two-Coat System is true.

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TWO COATS of Dc\'oe went on my liuusc, in^tuaJ of tlie usual three of or- dinary paint—saved time ami Dioney.

MV HOUSE «rtaiiily looks groat now. It's many tüiiL'ä whiter ami, for the first time, paint IS atiiying on the porcli coluinns.

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These tics are always fresh...beaiusc they are wtinkle-proaf...

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ONE DOLLAR M>KE THISTE5Ti Ai>vBurd(iale>iolDryo^cruiKah3.,d(,l BOTANY WORSTED MILLS PassalcNewJersay herself," . . . "No jury could be EP- cured in Mianu County to convict a man of blowing up Iho dam." . . .

Many sincerely feared that earthen dams, ns proposed, were not safe.

Peo- ple envisioned waters piling up behind them, becoming irresistible, breaking through, wreaking more terrible de- struelion thau floods ever had done.

This was due to lack of understanding of the hydraulic-fill method of huilding earth dnms; and with the greatest pa- tience it was explained, time after time, to all who would listen, that this sys- tem, borrowed and adapted from placer-mining operations, created a center core of impervious material, that the resulting dam is less a dam than a hill, that it is as little likely to move as the ancient hills created by Nature herself.

Colonel Deeds in court—he was the fii-st and to this day the only chairman of the Miami Con- sciTaucy District's board of direc- loi-s—was quizzed by a. judge:

"Are you satisfied that these dams are all right?" Earnestly, the colonel replied: " I am so well satisfied that I would be willing to biiiid my house belo\*"one of them, move in my family, live thei-' (ill I die." Some of the opposition, -f '•ourse, centered around pH\-ate-prope ly in- terests. Behind the dams were large areas subject to flooding whenever the waters rase.

It was the purpose of the plan that they should be flonde 'i in order to save the rest of the va' The chief owners were farmers. Tl'ert vere also railroad right of ways, wirelines highways, oiie entire village of more than IODO people.

As fjir as farm lands behind the dams were concerued, it was necessary, for the most part, to buy them outright.

A large part of the land, how'ever, was Inter refold to farmers, the district re- taining a, flood easement. Only twice have growing crops suffered serious damage.

For the rest, the land be- comes richer from the annual deposit of fine silt. These silt deposits are not verj' hea\'j'.

however, and the engi- neers are led to conclude that erosion— at least for this area and soil type—is not so iierious a flood consequence as is sometimes stated. There is no sign whatever of reduced reservoir eapacity because of silting. No buildings of any kind are allowed in the basins below certain established limits.

JÎ Tax That is Popular Railroads were relocated and rebuilt by the district, highways likewise.

The town of Osbom, which lay squarely in the basin behind the Huffman Dam, was bought, lock, stork, barrel. Osborn- ites later bought 129.48 acres two miles away, above flood line, hired a land- .scape gardener, purchased many of the homes they had sold to the district, had them rolled uphill to the new site.

There was not only a forecast of damage but also a prospect of enor- mous benefits.

A property subject to re- current flood damage would obviously have one value; the same properly completely protected from flood would have a far different value.

A huge and necessary job, therefore, was the ap- praisal of beneflts.

It was done with infinit« attention to detail, wilh the almost impossible purpose of being completely fair to eveiyone. Thtis, a building that was flooded in 1913 to a depth of ten feet waa considered to be benefited by protection more than a building of the same kind flooded only to a depth of five feet. When all figures were in, total direct benefits were reckoned to amount to $77,234,668.44.

On this appraisal, assessments were levied. The es timated cost of the project amounted to about 36 per cent of the appraised benefits. About half of the cost was leaned against properties di- reetly benefited.

The balance was as- sessed as a general levy against coun- ties and townships in the district.

I was told by more than one person in the Miami Valley that tliis assess- ment is one tax that is popular—that is, taxpayers see what they are getting and are glad to pay.

It had been hoped, after 1913, that dirt would fly by fall. Aetually, the first construction in connection witb the dams was not begun until Novem- ber 15, 1917, when nearly everybody had forgotten the flood because of the war.

The work involved the building of live dnms ranging in heighti-om 73 to 125 feet, and in length frA 1200 to 6400 feet; in]pro\Tng miles JPlevees and channels in nine villages and towns ; relocating about fifty-five miles of rail- road and many miles of highwa« and win? lines; eliminating one villngijlow- ering water and gas mains; handling innumerable incidental tasks.

It was finished in 1923.

The Community That Conquered It took Dayton and the Miami Val- ley ten years, then, to get complete flood protection, after deciding to get it.

More than half of that time was con- sumed in making plans and meeting op- position.

The flood-control engineering in t^ie Miami Valley was, by all counts, brilÙiiptlydone. But perhaps even more hrillian Vs the human engineeriiigthat overcaiu |.obstacles legal, financial, political -"prsonal. Without this second kind of '^^fj-ineering, the first could not have pi'íftiíded at all.

"The intrinsic merit c.

f.

great project," wrote one Miami etgineer sadly, "is not in itself sufTicieiit to assure the success of that project." And Chief Engineer Moi^an in one report declared:

"The most significant aspect of this undertaking cannot be covered in any technical report.

For it was the spirit of the community, no less than careful planning, which made possible the flnal success." The Miami Valley's flood-protection system has never been tested by an emergency equal to that of 1913. Sueh a test may not come for generations.

It may come next year.

It has, however, met perfectly every test that it has had.

Water has been stored in the retarding basins for varj'ing periods on many oc- casions. From 1922 to 1931 there were seven major storms which would have caused floods under the old conditions.

The system's greatest test was in Jan- uary of this year.

The Oliio Valley floods of 1937 have been called the worst in history.

In the Miami Valley, as we have seen, more rain fell in Januarj' than in any other known January.

But the rains were pretty well distributed, making runoff cj)nditions quite different from those of 1913.

In that year, the inten- sity of the flood was due to the faet tliat approximately nine inches of rain fell on the watershed in throe and one- half days. About the same amount of rain fell in Januarj', this year, during the critical period; but that period was twelve days, January thirteenth to twenty-fourth, inclusivo. There were four Bueeesaivo rises in the river, but between times, the river fell.

At no time were the storage basina required to store water to anytliing like capacity. Tho Gormantown Dam, for example, has a storago cnpaeity to the spillway creat of 106,000 acro-feBt; at the maximuna in January it Btored only about 20,000 acre-feet, approxi- mately 18,8 per cent of capacity. Total possible storage behind all five dams ia 841,000 aere-feet; the maximum actu- ally stored in January at any one time was approximtttely 100,000 acre-feet.

This year's extraordinary rainfall, therefore, was really not a test.

_ IB the story of the Miami Valley sig- nificant today for other river valleys threatened periodically by flood dis- asters? There is a growing feeling that Dayton is a model, that others would be well off if they did as Dayton haa done.

I asked Colonel Deeds ahout that. Here's what he said:

"If others mean to copy the things this valley did, they'll probably get no- where.

I don't believe anybody knows, yet, what ought to be done to protect the Ohio Valley, or even whether the valley can be protected.

It may take years to find out, and many more yeofla to get protection after a plan is de- vised.

If our experience means anyJ thing, it means this: Dirt should not fly too soon. Give competent engineers time to study the problem comprehen- sively, eompletely, conclusively.

Tha .

impression has gone out tbat complete * plans are already lying in the files; that if some wizard will give the word, work could start in a month. Maybe that's so, but I seriously doubt it. It would be the worst kind of tragedy if hun- dreds of millions of dollars were spent too soon, and millions of people down river w ere led to believe in a protection that they did not have.

" If it is meant, however, to copy the spirit in which the people of the Miami Valley tackled their problem, probably it ean be licked.

Not tomorrow.

Not in a year or two.

But eventually." "We Did it Ourselves" " One of the significant things is that we did tbe job ourselves, to save our own hves and property; and when it was done, wo dug down and paid the entire cost ourselves—we who were benefited. The total cost,includiagbond interest, will be around 867,000,000.

It is more than 60 per cent paid for, will be completely so by 1949. Meanwhile we bave been repaid manifold not only through lives and property saved but also through peace of mind enjoyed.

"Another signifieant thing is that we never compromised.

Our plan was checked and rechecked by the most competent experts; in final form it was like a fine watch—leavß out a tiny eog- wlieel and it wouldn't work. We didn't chisel at it, nor did we allow others to.

"We put the undertaking on a sort of holy-war basis, and few intelligent citizens cared to align themselves heedlessly against it. The tremendous opposition could be met, was met, hy the solid wall of facts aligned in favor of the plan. Secondary purposes were not allowed. Power, for instance.

Pro- tection was the one thing we never lost sight of." On a plain tablet ovor the outlet conduit of one of the dams, I read, early in February, not the names of self-satisfied builders of the Miami Conservancy District, but this, their homely, pertinent, permanent reminder:

THE DAUB OF TlIE MIAUI CONBBnVANCY DIHTHICT ARB FOR FLO0D-PaKVF,NTI0f< rUHPOBES. TIIBIH USB POn POWBH DE- VBLOPMBNT Olt FOB ÖTOIIAOE WOOLD DK A UBNACEÍ TO CITIEB BELOW.

As rivera go, the Miami is just a little fellow.

But the Miami Valley spirit ought to work wonders anywhere in the fight against floods.