certain districts.

Each Board has the power to do the work for its own district in the
manner that seems best to it.

There has, so far, been no general meeting of the various Boards to
decide on the best kind of levee to build, but each has done the work
independently of the other, and put up the best levees it could afford
with the funds it had.

In view of the widespread distress caused by the floods this year it is
thought that some better system should be adopted, and that all the
levees should be under one board of management.

Daring the recent floods, it was found that certain levees were able to
withstand the force of the waters better than others, and the farmers
all along the river are insisting that when the new levees are built
they shall be of the kind that withstood the flood.

It has been felt that the work should be taken in hand by some one body
which should have control of both banks of the river throughout its
entire length. Want of money prevents the dwellers of the Mississippi
Valley from doing this for themselves, and so the appeal to the
Government has been made.

Should the request be granted the dwellers along the river will be
relieved of one great anxiety. When the waters run very high the people
along each bank would be glad if the bank on the opposite side would
break and relieve the pressure on their side, and so several times men
have been wicked enough to cut the levees opposite, and allow the
floods to pour over their neighbors' lands.

This has resulted in bad feeling and distrust, and now, whenever the
river rises, men patrol the banks, carrying loaded guns, and shoot
without mercy any persons who are suspected of having evil designs on
the levee.

In New Orleans, during the late flood, a strong demand was made that
some of the country levees might be cut, so that the town would be safe
from the fear of a flood.

You can imagine the bad feeling that this caused. The farmers did not
see why they should be ruined to save the city, and the city people did
not see why the farmers should mind having their fields under water, to
save the misery and distress of a flood in the city.

If the Government took charge of the work all this trouble would be
ended. The levees would be properly built, kept in repair, and guarded,
and no one would dare to interfere with the property of the Government.

It will be a splendid thing for the dwellers in the Mississippi Valley
if it is arran