Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-06-05
FLOOD CONFEREES
TURN TO COOLIDGE
Appointment of Presidential
Farley Urged at Chi
cago Session.
By the Associated Press.

CHICAGO, June 4.-Recommenda-
| ton for recognition of flood control
as a national responsibility, immedi-
ate Federal relief for sufferers in the
present Mississippi River flood and
for the appointment of presidential
conference on flood control will be
placed before President Coolidge at
his earliest convenience.
The last official act of the executive
| committee of the fiood-control COM
ference, which ended a three-day SEES
| sion here today, was authorization for
it's eX-officio chairman, Mayor William
Hale Thompson of Chicago, to go to
Washington and place before the
President the conclusions finally en-
bodied in resolutions passed today
without a dissenting voice among the
l.o0O who shouted their votes.
Roy Q. West of Chicago, secretary
of the Republican national committee,
was requested and agreed to write to
President Coolidge tonight to ascertain
the earliest date upon which he would
receive Mayor Thompson and as many
of his fellow members of the executive
committee as could make the trip TO
the Capital.
Early Action Indicated.
The interest of the President in the
f1ood-control problem was described as
so great by leaders recently in touch
with him, including his Secretary of
War, Dwight Davis; Nicholas Long
worth. Speaker of the House of Rep
resentatives, and Senator Pat Harri-
son of Mississippi, that an immediate
response was anticipated.
1t was believed by the conference
leaders that President Coolidge would
wish to receive Immediately the for
NAL notification of the virtually ma
tional sentiment expressed by the
hundreds of delegates who answered
the call of Mayor Thompson, Mayor
| A. j. OKeefe of New Orleans and
Mayor V. J. Miller of st. Louis to
meet and discuss ways and means of
coping with the recurring violence of
the Father Of Waters.
The only demand made upon the
President in the adoption of the
resolutions was that he call con-
ference of the best minds of the
Nation as recognized in the fields of
engineering, conservation, geology,
finance, agriculture and other in
terests for the purpose of formulating,
in conjunction with governmental
agencies, permanent flood con-
troll program which would embrace
the Nation.
Extra Session Talk Dodged.
There was no effort to dictate to the
Chief Executive as to the advisability
of calling an extra session, and his
name and administration were men
toned only in connection with praise
for him personally and his two
Secretaries, Davis and Herbert
Hoover, as we'll as for the Army
engineers.
Immediate and effective relief for
the flood sufferers through the agen-
cies of existing Federal groups was
urged, and the SEVENTEEN Congress
was urged to make its business
"to energetically undertake and carry
to a speedy conclusion comprehen-
sive and effective measures for per-
manent food control of the Mississippi
River and all it's tributaries"
So that its generalized recommends
tions might be pushed, the conference
was organized upon a permanent
basis, with Mayor Thompson at the
head and the other three mayors
who co-operated with him as ex-officio
members of an executive committee,
including one representative from
States in the Mississippi Valley.
Motion by Paine.
The motion which will send Mr..
Thompson and possibly others of the
committee to Washington was made
by Mayor Rowlette Paine of Memphis,
Tenn, who completed the quartet
of mayors heading the permanent
organization.
While the conference or it's resolu-
tons committee heard and compiled
more than 500 proposals for solution
Of the enigma which has persisted
since the first levees sought to re-
strain the mighty Mississippi early in
the eighteenth century, the resolutions
studiously refrained from committing
the conferees to any set program.
FLOOD CREDIT ORGANIZED.