Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-09-20
INDUSTRIAL GROUP
FOR FLOOD CONTROL
Campaign Opens Based on
Economic Safety as Well as
Personal Protection.
The Mississippi Valleys fiood-con-

The Mississippi Valleys food.con-
troll drive. which is not alone a
campaign for personal seIf-protection,
but one for economic safety of Amer
&1< richest plantation land, was
launched here yesterday by a group
Of the deltas public and industrial
leaders
Headed nv Gov. J. f. Martineau
of Arkansas and composed OF men
Of outstanding prominence in Ar
kansas Mississippi and Louisiana.
the tri-State executive committee FOR
flood control carried their plea direct
to the White House and TO the War
Department. and they are returning
to the valley exceedingly optimistic
over the outlook for their people.
Government Aid Assured.
They are going back with as
slrances from Secretary of War
Davis and Mai. Gen. Edgar Jadwin.
chief Of engineers. that the Govern
ment is doing everything within its
power to solve the problem Of regu-
lating the Mississippi, and that the
War Department will make every eff
fort to have Congress appropriate
the necessary money TO carry out the
CLANS when they are completed.
From their talk with President
Coolidge they said, they found the
Chief Executive sympathetic to their
contention that flood control was
national problem, solution of which
should not rest upon the States i'm
mediately affected by Mississippi
floods. Secretary Hoover, the Presi-
dents personal representative in the
flood emergency, frequently has held
this contention to be A sound one,
and so has Gen. Jadwin, acting for
Secretary Davis.
Confer with Secretary Davis.
At the War Department Gov. Mar
tineau and his six associates, two
from each of the three States rep
resented on the committee, conferred
for several hours with Secretary Da-
Wis and Gen. Jadwin. Every aspect
of the flood-control study now being
made under the direction OF Gen.
Jadwin, and which will form the
basis of the plan to be presented to
Congress, was touched upon, and the
committee authorized the following
statement:
THE committee found that the
War Department was pushing its
investigations with all possible speed.
and that progress was being made
in assembling data as fast as it could
be handled by staff Of $50 engineers
and other experts.
"All phases of the problems embrac-
ing levees, spillways, reservoirs and
other plans are being studied, and
the committee was highly gratified to
learn of the scope and thoroughness
with which the problem was being
investigated.
Committee Satisfied.
1.-THE magnitude of the work pre-
vented the department from being pre-
pared at the present time with all
final and definite plans, but the COM
mittee were entirely satisfied that the
report when finished would cover the
requirements of the lower Mississippi
Valley and would combine the use of
all the approved mediums of protec-
ton that have been advocated by the
States affected by the flood.
1.-The committee also learned that
the plans when finished would carry
a recommendation to Congress for the
appropriate ton of such an amount as
would be necessary to carry on the
work as rapidly as consistent with
economy of construction.
lat the conclusion of the interview
the committee was especially pleased
at obtaining the promise of Secretary
Davis to make personal trip OF In
vestigation through the flooded area
about the middle of October"
Hoover Explains Program.
Before its visit to Washington the
tIi-State committee conferred with
Secretary Hoover last week, and its
members are now acquainted with all
of the steps being taken by Govern
ment agencies in connection with re-
lief work for flood sufferers, with the
emergency repairs to the leyees to
control hi IN water in Spring and with
the broad study of permanent flood
control possibilities, which was the
chief subject of discussion in the con.
ference with Secretary Davis and Gen.
Jadwin.