The Mercedes News (Mercedes, Tex.), Vol. 5, No. 37, Ed. 1 Friday, March 30, 1928 Page: 4 of 36
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Texas Digital Newspaper Program and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Dr. Hector P. Garcia Memorial Library.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 1928
THE MERCEDES NEWS
SEMI-WEEKLY
Published each Tuesday and Friday morning at Mercedes,
Texas, in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, by the United
Printing Company, Inc.
SUBSCRIPTION: $2 per year in Hidalgo county; $3.50
per year elsewhere.
ADVERTISING RATES: Classified, full information on
classified page. Display rates upon request.
TELEPHONE 65 for news, advertising or job printing.
Entered as second class mail matter at the postoffice
at Mercedes, Hidalgo county, Texas.
TREES RATHER THAN TROUBLE
A very remarkable symposium on Southern
agricultural conditions appears in the current
number of the Manufacturers’ Record. The
compilation of this symposium was induced by
a discussion at a meeting at which it was stat-
ed that farm conditions in the South were head-
ed for ruin. The editor of the Record asked ex-
pressions on this point from agricultural au-
thorities in many southern states.
These authorities, of course, discussed a wide
range of theses, but one response is of partic-
ular interest to the Valley, because it covers so
forcefully the subject of further land reclama-
tion. E. Oj Fippin, executive secretary of the
state conservation and development commission
of Virginia, wrote :
“The report and comments of your special
correspondent on the conference in Washington
looking to farm colonization projects in the
South, to be carried out with Federal funds,
should not be permitted to pass without some
comments on the opposite side of the picture.
All thinking, pushing individuals are interested
in seeing development and expansion in our ter-
ritory. But who are seeking this expansion of
the farm area and the farm production by col-
onization and through irrigation projects at this
time ?
“No person or organization is favoring this
movement who earns his bread by the produc-
tion of things from the soil. Why should any
thinking, informed man favor increase in the
farm area when the index of farm prices com-
pared with prices of other products is down
somewhere in the 80’s? And why is that index
so low and why has it been there since 1920?
Because of overproduction—lessened foreign de-
mand; lessened home demand. The increased
mechanization of industry and of activity of
nearly every sort has reduced the consumption
of food. Less calories are consumed. On the
other hand, the efficiency of the farmer has in-
creased mightily through the application of sci-
ence and power to his business. Many figures
on this point are available. The substitution of
motors for horses and mules has released from
15,000,000 to 20,000,000 acres of grazing land;
prohibition has released some land once used
for barley, rye, corn and hops; research has
given new serviceable products; agricultural
production in all lines has steadily increased
since 1920 and before, while acreage in farms
has steadily decreased.
“If there are such overproduction and low
prices, which cannot be questioned and which
have produced the agrarian problem vocalized
in the various phases of McNary-Haugen aids
to farm marketing, why make that situation
more acute by expanding area and increasing
production before a balance between agriculture
and other industries has been reached?
“The American Farm Bureau Federation and
the National Grange are both on record strong-
ly against this Southern colonization and West-
irrigation reclamation. The American
THE MERCEDES NEWS COOPERATIVE MARKETING EDITION
this statement. It emphasizes, of course, what
the Mercedes News has been saying for some
weeks—that the extension of the irrigated area
cannot fail to be harmful to the people who al
ready own property here. There is much unsold
and untilled irrigated, land in the Valley. There
is much more that is improperly and inadequate-
ly tilled. Until the development of the land al
ready under irrigation has been matured, and
the markets have expanded until they can ab-
sorb a much larger crop than they can now do,
it would be suicidal for us to lend any aid to
further reclamation.
We are faced now, at certain periods, with
glutted markets. They are costly in the ex-
treme to Valley growers. Shall we, then, give
encouragement to a movement, the only result
of which can be to further demoralize markets
which are now none too stable?
era
Farm Economics Association has gone on rec-
ord against any expansion of the farm area now.
1 “Your correspondent says something about
farmers doing more cooperating in buying and
selling; suggests more mass production. Bless
his soul! Forty-eight colleges of agriculture and
nearly as many State departments/of agricul-
ture, all heading up to the United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture, are all preaching these
things to the farmer and trying to push them
on him wherever they can be used. Innumera-
ble farmers’ organizations are preaching the
same thing.
“Also, there is the fact that all these move-
ments are new and, while they are thoroughly
sound in principle and while many of these thor-
oughly good principles are now well established,
we have not altogether learned the trick of han-
dling all phases of agricultural cooperation and
mass production as applied to agriculture, in the
same way that the chain store man has perhaps
learned his scheme for merchandising.
“Finally, Virginia through its State College
of Agriculture has worked out a program for
the development of agriculture along sound
lines as represented by the best knowledge and
experience available. This program deals not
only with production, but also with economics
and marketing. It is a rock bottom program.
Virginia has as many man hungry acres as any
Southern state, but all agricultural agencies
here are agreed that it is better to let these
acres grow trees rather than trouble.’’
Valley people should pay particular heed to
A ROYAL FLUSH
Agriculture is such a dominant interest in
the Valley that we cannot refrain from dis-
cussing it, almost to the exclusion of other sub-
jects. In this connection there appeared on the
program of the regional meeting at Huntsville
of the farmers’ short course of the East Texas
chamber of commerce the opposing views of
those old, unseen friends of ours, J. Fuller
Gloom and Smiley Glad.
“The farmer’s farm is slipping away from
him,’’ said Professor Gordon Worley, of the
state teachers college.
East Texas “has a royal flush’’ in the way of
natural resources, and “it should go to hell if it
cannot win with such a hand,’’ said J. E. Stan-
ford, of Longview, agricultural manager of the
East Texas chamber of Commerce.
Here you have two opposing views of the
agrarian situation. Professor Worley doubtless
did a service by calling attention to the situa-
tion in which the farmer has found himself.
However, we think he is unduly pessimistic
when he said:
“The American farmer is at sea and his en-
terprise is sinking. His debt now is staggering.
In 1920 it passed the $7,000,000,000 mark and
today if all the money the farmers owe was
placed on trucks, one ton of silver money to the 1
truck, the train of trucks, each ten paces apart • The failure of lthe st- Francis dam
would stretch from California to Maine.” ’ i 3 tndreT'S’ C ^Ta?ed T
How gloomy the situation. Yet Mr. Stanford tention anew to the great number of
throws a ray of light through these somber dams tbat have broken with disas-
clouds and this light may yet dissipate them. ST ^^7 to
We like his spirit when he tells East Texas that governments of the United States and
it “should go to hell if it cannot win with such a Mexico to construct a huge dam in
hand ’’ ltde Rio Grande at the upper end of
_ * . _ < the Valley, we are herewith reprint-
Does that not fit the situatioon in the Val- ing a record of dam failures compil-
ley even more accurately ? What a hand we have ed by the Engineering News Record.
Our success and happiness all depend on how'£#1
we play it. We have problems, serious ones, Rio Grande dam would be much larg-
to be solved. But nature and the soil are on our er and hold much more water tban
side, and if we do not have the most fruitful bit
of earth m the world we will have nobody to follows:
blame but ourselves. I
All j 1 ENGLISH DAM—A rock-filled crib
All of the resources that can be gathered un- structure in Sierra County, Califor-
der a smiling sun are ours to enjoy. The wil- nia> failed in June, 1883,. It was 331
derness of the Conquistadores has almost entire- fee* lon* ,°n the l011*
, . u ^ on the bottom and 100 feet high,
ly given away to the garden and orchard of civ- Originally a wood-crib structure fill-
ilization. Anywhere in the Valley the farmer ed witb stone, a heavy stone facing
can enjoy the comforts of urban life. ' had latf been or\tbe
w i i -i stream face and Dashboards had been
We should be a happy and a prosperous peo- placed on top of the dam. At time
pie with a spirit always looking forward and of future water was within 2 1-2 in.
upward to the day when our community shall SLtheJ”p of ,Jle timb" f>ashb“ar?Js-
, J Wlhen these gave way, the dam rapid-
oe unmatched m all the world for beauty, fer- ly crumpled to its foundations,
tility and resources. It is unprofanely, there-
fore, that we repeat the admonition that
we
JOHNSTOWN DAM—An earth
structure on the Eouth Fork of the
u u r. i n„ .n , Conemaugh River above Johnstown,
should go to hell if we cannot win with such Pa., faiied May 31, 1889. The dam
a hand. . ---- f was 930 feet long, 75 feet high, with
a 10- to 12-ft. crest width. The cross-
section of the dam was made up of
a paved impervious soil in the up-
THE MENACE OF DAMS
In another column on this page we are print- ^ «*,-
ing a list of dam failures which have been costly stream balf> and a rock, gravel and
to human life and property. This appeared in ^ “coTe oW
the Engineering News-Record, a journal of un- kind. The dam had been built 50
doubted authority and we are reprinting it to let years earlier to serve as a reservoir
the people of the Valley know just what they
will be letting themselves in for if they permit in 1879 to provide a lake for a hunt-
the proposed Rio Grande dam project go through ing and fishins club- Tbe cause of
to oorrmlotinn the failure was overtopping, con-
F • tributed to by a lowering and a dish-
This proposed dam would be a huge one. It ing of the crest, the closing of a pipe
would be far larger than the one at Los An- Lunnel outlet and the ©obstruction of
fles which broke recently and cost hundreds of, £? tee"
lives. It cannot be considered, therefore, other characterized as the worst, in history
than a menace to the Valley and to the inter-1 resultin£ f^om the failure 0f man-
ests of the Valley, whether it is weighed as a( walnut GROVE DAM—A rock-
hazard, which it undoubtedly is, or as a meas- j fill structure at Prescott, Ariz., fail-
ure to extend the menace of overproduction for!ed Feb- 22> 1890- The structure was
countless years. I ***> 140 «• ^ at thr! base
" | and 10 ft. wide at the 'top. It was
The Valley has no earthly use for such a dam. j 400 ft. long on the top and 100 ft.
It would be inimical to its every interest. The : long on ^be bottom- B©tb faces were
people of the United States do not need addition-1 upsutam^aS^^
al irrigated land to feed them. Such a dam, lumber for waiertightness. The
through causing a deposit of*silt above it, would ! fadure’ wbich was complete, was at-
. , . „ , „ ..... I tributed to a too small Waste wnir
remove a great deal of the fertility from the
water we now use for irrigation.
Why, then, all this noise and furore about
spending a great many millions of dollars to
erect a structure that can be of no possible im-
mediate need to anybody except land specu-
lates ?
It would be a good idea for individuals to
write to our senators and ;to Congressman Gar-
ner on this subject. And in the meantime we
should present an organized front in opposition
to the project.
to a too small waste weir,
causing backing up of water and
overtopping. There were 150 lives
lost.
AUSTIN, TEXAS—A masonry
overfall dam paved with granite on
the upstream and downstream faces
failed April 7, 1900. The dam was
60 ft. high above stream bed by 1,091
ft. long. A preliminary failure had
occurred before, when a layer of
loose material in the rock below the
foundation of the headgate masonry
washed out. This had been repair-
ed. but there still was leakage in
1900. On April 7 the flood swept
out a portion of the dam 500 ft.
long, virtually lifting it up and shov-
ing it downstream about 50 ft. The
failure was described as “sliding out
bodily on its base of that portion
which failed.” It was also said that
this sliding resulted from faults in
the limestone bottom which permit-
ted the dam to settle, breaking it
loose and permitting it to be pushed
downstream. Eight persons were
drowned in the power house.
ANDERSON, N. C.—Masonry dam,
gravity section 44 ft. high and some-
thing over 25 ft. wide on the bottom.
Twenty feet of the height and 10 ft.
of the width had been added to the
original structure by anchor bolting.
The dam was overtopped with 7 1-2
ft. of water and the upper section
overturned Dec. 28, 1902.
COLUMBUS, G.—Masonry dam,
failed Dec. 28, 1902. It was 550 ft.
long and 39 ft. high, including 3-ft.
Dashboards. About 350 ft. of the
dam went out when it was over-
topped by 10 ft. of water. Failure
occured from 5 to 20 ft. below the
crest of the masonry.
LOWER TALLASSEE DAM— A
masonry structure at Tailassee, Ala.,
failed Dec. 28, 1902. It was 1,300
ft. long, 30 ft. high, 6 ft. wide on
the crest and 23 ft. wide on the bot-
tom. For about 700 ft. of its length
it was curved upstream. Most of the
tangent lengths went out when the
dam was overtopped by 7 ft. of
water.
HAUSER LAKE—An unsual dam
structure across the Missouri River
near Helena, Montana, consisting of
steel bents supporting curve plates
for the water surface, failed on April
14, 1908. It was 630 ft. long and
<0 ft. high. The end bents were lo-
cated on rock, but about 400 ft. of
the dam in the center of the stream
was founded on a water-bearing
gravel of unknown depth. The steel
plates were sloped 1 1-2 : 1, utilizing
the weight of the water against slid-
ing, and were also anchored by steel
sheetpiling. A rubble masonry fill
under the plates downstream from
the piling was placed to prevent
seepage. However, enough water
■seeped under the dam to cause one
steel bent anchorage to give way.
Water passing through this opening
washed out the masonry fill and rap-
idly cut awray the gravel foundation
until about 300 ft. of the steel bents
progressively failed.
AUSTIN, ^ PA.—Gravity concrete
structure failed Sept. 30, 1911. This
complete failure followed a prelimin-
ary one some years before which had
never been completely, repaired. The
dam was 30 feet wide at the base,
2 1-2 ft, wide at the top, 544 ft.
long and 50 ft. high, with a 4x4-ft
cutoff wall in rock. The structure
was of cyclopean concrete. On the
firs„ failure, which was thought to
have been caused by pressure on the
dam, causing it to drop down about
6 in. at the toe and slide out about
18 in. at the spillway. The founda-
tion material consisted of alternate
levers of sandstone and shale, and
“ is believed the water seeped
through the shale stratum. The dam
w?s left in this condition with water
peeping under the foundation until
it went out by sliding on the dat°
noted.
UNITED STATES DAM— Ohio
4iver Dam 26, near Gallipolis, Ohio
Diiled Aug. 8l 1912. It was a mov-
able dam of the Chanoine wicket
type and in addition included a weir
and a masonry lock. Six hundred
feet of the wicket section moved
downstream. The dam was founded
on a concrete slab resting on shale.
Failure resulted from horizontal shear
of the shale.
PORT ANGELES, WASH.—High
concrete gravity structure on the
Elwha River failed Oct. 30, 1912.
The dam Spanned a gorge about 35
ft. wide and was 110 ft. high. It was
straight in plan, but of peculiar de-
sign. Trouble was experienced in
getting a cutoff wall to rock, both a
cofferdam and a sheet-piling method
being attempted. Finally the bottom
concrete was laid under water. Fail-
ure occurred by the washing out of
gravel and sand underneath, the dam
being left spanning the steep sides
of the narrow gorge. It was not
damaged except in the foundation.
STONY RIVER—Hollow reinforc-
ed-concrete dam with a sloping deck
near Dobbin, W. Va., failed Jan. 15,
1914. It had been completed about
six months and was 50 ft. high. The
cutoff wall did not go to rock at the
point where the five bays went out.
Leakage had showed at least a day
before the break. The floor of the
dam had been founded on clay or
hardpan and the cutoff wall at the
heel of the floor was generally 5 ft.
deep below the floor, and in some
places went to rock. The failure oc-
curred first in the floor by flexure,
which let the deck and buttresses
fall. The dam was in a remote lo-
cation, and little damage was done.
PLATTSBURG, N. Y.—Hollow con-
crete dam of the sloping deck type
failed May 15, 1916. It was com-
pleted in 1915 and included 22 bays;
it was 330 ft. long, 42 ft. wide at
the base and 35 ft. high. No one
had assumed responsibility for the
structure; there was no city engin-
eer when it was built. The dam was
built on glacial drift and seepage
was noted under the toe, but was
neglected. In fact, the lower weep
holes had been plugged by some city
official. Six bays of the dam wash-
ed. out at one end when the founda-
tion failed.
■LAKE GLENO — A combination
eultiple arch and gravity structure
near Bergamo, Italy, failed Dec. 1,
1923, following heavy rains. The dam
was 143 ft. high above the stream,
863 ft. long, of which 250 ft. was a
ventral curved portion, the remainder
being straight end tangents. The
central part, which failed, had a
gravity base of stone masonry sur-
mounted by multiple arches of rein-
forced concrete. In all there were 25
arches, nine of which fell. Unusual-
ly poor construction was , the main
cause. Lime mortar in the base
masonry, poor concrete with unwash-
ed aggregate in the superstructure
and extremely poor reinforcing in
the buttresses were typical features.
The rock foundation had a natural
slope downstream and had not been
leveled, stepped or notched before
building the masonry base block. Six
hundred persons lost their lives.
MOYIE RIVER DAM—A thin con-
crete arch structure in Idaho failed
in 1925. The dam was 154 ft. long,
53 ft. high, of which 6 ft. was in a
cutoff trench, and varied from 64 to
(Continued on next page)
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
The Mercedes News (Mercedes, Tex.), Vol. 5, No. 37, Ed. 1 Friday, March 30, 1928, newspaper, March 30, 1928; Mercedes, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth652511/m1/4/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dr. Hector P. Garcia Memorial Library.