Evening star., 1921-02-21
WANT GREAT FALLS
CONDUIT STARTED
Conqressmen, Impressed
With Danger to District,
to Push Legislation.

Members of Congress who have been
impressed by the warnings of the
Corps of Engineers of the Army ana
other government engineers thar
Washington is confronted by the dan
ger of a complete breakdown of It's
waterworks system will make an ef-
fort in both the Senate and House thus
week to secure an initial appropria-
tion of 100000 with which TO Start
work on an additional conduit from
Great Falls. as recommended to Con-
gress by Secretary of War Baker
There are several ways IN Whlch
emergency legislation of this char
acter may be put through in the clos
ing days of the session, and indica-
tions today pointed strongly to the
possibility of all of them oelns en-
ployed. if necessary.
Representative Frederick n. Zihl-
man of Maryland. who recently intro
duced resolution designed to pre-
vent the waste of water by requiring
federal departments to pay for all
water used by them. saw both Sena-
tor Wadsworth, chairman of the mill
tary affairs committee. and Repre-
sentative Good. chairman of the
House appropriations committee, Sat
urday relative to obtaining considera-
tion by these committees of Secre-
tary Bakers recommendation.
Mr.. Good said it had not been de-
termined whether another deficiency
bill would be reported from the House
! appropriations committee. but that in
the event such a bill was framed the
Maryland member would he given an
opportunity to appear before the COM
. mittee and urge the incorporation in
the bill of an item for initiating the
Tyler water supply project 1t was
stated that Representative r. walton
Moore of Virginia would join with Mr..
Zihlman in pressing for favorable ac-
tion by the committee in the event a
hearing is granted.
Appropriation in Army Bill.
That an appropriation designed to
put the capital beyond the danger of
water famine might properly be
carried in the Army bill. which is be-
fore the Senate military affairs COM
mittee. was suggested by Representa-
tive Zihlman to Senator Wadsworth.
who promised to obtain a copy of tn e
Recommendation sent to Congress by
Secretary Baker. Mr.. Zihlman will
confer with Senator Wadsworth again
this week and urge him to bring the
seriousness of the Districts water
supply situation to the attention of
his committee.
Advocates of immediate action on the
Baker recommendation hope to get an
item for an initial appropriation in
serted in some appropriate bill now in
committee, which would bring it to the
attention of the Senate or House in
regular order. Should they fail in this
effort the matter undoubtedly will be
brought up in the form of an amend
ment to bill, which is less desirable
procedure, for the reason that the pro-
posed legislation could be struck out
on point of order should any member
be opposed to it.
Until Saturday there was thought to
be little likelihood of action by Con-
gress at this session on the Tyler plan.
The view was held generally today,
to Congress by Secretary Baker, fol-
lowing a conference which the cabinet
member had with Gen. Beach, chief of
engineers of the Army. gave the wa
ter supply situation such a serious
aspect that Congress could not afford
to delay consideration of the matter
even until the extra session in April.