The Starkville news., 1918-03-22

l dppUlnt0u 10 tdhc Care VI tHc JILL.
A little luck is a wondrous thing,
| and sometimes decides the fate OF ma.
tions A little luck helped Mr..
Humphreys with his bill About
this time. little after. there occurred
the. great flood OF 1916 Mr.. Humph.
reys knew what that meant. He knew
| how it looked. And he knew that
| those who had never seen such sight
had no conception of what it was or
| what 1t looked like. So he decided to
| "show them" And he asked for the
appointment OF a>house committee to
go and see that flood, and report back
| to the house He made his committee
as large as the house would permit;
! he took them to Cairo; reaching there
at the psychological moment, when the
water was at its highest; and he float
ed them, partly by rail and partly by
skiff, down to New Orleans; and when
they came back, what they told their
| brother members of the house was a.
plenty.
That, in brief, is fair history Of the
|
whence it cane and how it passed.
Committing that branch OF the con-
gress, not to any appropriation in
fact, but to committal that appro-
priations of forty-five million dollars
would be made, in the then coming
five years of flood control.
The bill then went to the Senate.
There it had the same trouble IL first
met with in the house. except more so,
In the house it had been possible to
get a vote on any bill If the rules COM
mittee would consent; or sometimes
days, there was no cIorure rule. Any
senator could object to the considera-
ton of bin, and if that did not stay
its consideration he could talk it to
death. 1t required the incest diplomacy
and the most indefatigable energy,
therefore, to put that biIi-commonly
known as the RansdaiI-Humphreys bill
through.
Senator Ransdali, of Louisiana, after
the death of Senator Clark, had the
bill in charge. He was strongly In IA
vor of the measure, but the opposition
to it on the committee was also
strong. Senator NewIands, of Nevada,
had rivers and harbors bill he was
greatly concerned about, which no.
body but the senator could pass; but
he thought so very, hard and he had to
be pIacated. All the spring and sum-
mer Of 1916 Senator Ransdaii, toying
with Senator Newiands, kept the bin
in committee. Nothing appeared to be
doing. But all that while, Senator Var
daman, as nj. Humphreys had done in
the house, was sowing good seed in
good ground; buttonholing his friends
in the senate-and he has great
many of then1-telIing them all about
the Mississippi river, It's tributaries,
and the awfulness of it's floods; the de-
struction Of property and the loss OF
life every year, from these floods. He
was getting them, one by one, to look
with favor UPON the measure; and to
others he was saying, "if you can't help
me, for Gods sake stay off of it.
know, senator, what this bill means to
millions Of people, and you don't.
Don't object when we. call for con-
sideration of it; and as my friend and
lover of fair play, don't-piease don't
talk 1t to death"
When congress reconvened In De-
cember, 1916, Mr.. Ransdall was sick.
All that month he was at home sick.
Senator Vardaman had said to him
months before: "senator, you have been
so long associated with this bill, you
are SO familiar with rivers and harbors
legislation, and by virtue OF your posi-
ton you are entitled to leadership. But
am greatly Interested In the passage
of the bill, and do not want to see 1t
90 the way its predecessors have gone,
and | want TO insist that we get
committee report on Il and bring it
before the senate, and II die 1t must, let
It die a-fiehting. All ask Is that you
make the fight and let me scotch for
you. Knowing the Importance OF the
bill to my people, as do, J want to
make the hardest fight | have ever
made, for its passage. When-We have
done our best, If we rail-, we have
but failed. Let's fight"
That is how Senator Nardaman was
working for that bill all the spring and
summer Of 1916. When December came
and Senator Ransdali was sick, Senator:
Vardaman was given charge of the bill.
How he managed 1t, we will let those
who were on the ground and saw the
fight say.