Floodgates (1924)

Millowner Lem Bassett uses his foreman, Dave Trask, whose power among the people in the neighborhood is great, to obtain their land so that he can build a bigger dam for water power, flooding the lands above it. One of these people finds that Bassett has tricked him, and he demands recompense. When it is refused, Dave leads a group of men to dynamite the dam. In the path of the waters is Bassett's home, where Dave's crippled daughter has been taken so that a famous specialist retained by Tom Bassett, nephew of Lem (who loves Dave's sister), may operate. Dave saves the child and Tom, and Bassett agrees to surrender.