RIVER ON THE RAMPAGE

The well known Kansas author, taking a new tack, presents through telling the story of the Kaw and the Kansas River Basin a number of essays on river planning. Beginning with a description of the recurrent floods that have plagued the area and have been especially violent in recent years, he goes on to tell what has been done about it and what might be done about it if special interest groups could give way to whole unit valley planning. The problems of pollution by industry, of politics involving large grants to the Army Engineers, all the compromises that went into flood control are candidly discussed. The raging controversy over the Tuttle Crek Dam en resulted in the election of a democrat from an old republican area seemed to be a turning point in valley thinking, and the author in a final section discusses the education necessary to integrated planning, a type including more than the specialization he feels prevails at Kansas State. An interesting story of another of our great valleys which is more an in-the-works place than TVA was and which will be of value to all concerned with river planning. While the ideas on education and the eye-opening discussion of politics may increase the audience, this will probably be of most interest to the region under discussion.