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 arranged that the Government controls the levees, but it will cost the country a great deal of money.  Twenty-five million dollars to begin with, and more than five millions every year afterward, is the estimated cost.

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An experiment to make gold out of other metals has been attempted in Washington.

Ever since the world was young, men have been trying to discover a means of making gold.