Evening star., 1933-09-03

FLOOD CONTROL
FUNDS TO GIVEI
JOBS TO 10000
$37,OOO,OOO Wiz Aid
Unemployment
in Memphis.
BY THOMAS FAUNTLEROY.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
MEMPHIS, Tenn, September g.
Twenty thousand jobs will be opened
In the Memphis territory alone within
the next two months, the result Of an
order from Washington Tuesday re-
leasing $37,00o000 In food control
funds for the lower Mississippi Valley.
This means that the pay roll In the
Memphis engineer district, extending
from Cape GiIardeau to the mouth OF
White River will be increased from
$500, 600 to $500 900 a month. It also
means that two important gaps In the
main levee line will be plugged and
the menace Of q Fall flood will lose
much Of its sinister aspect.
OF the $37,000,000 total, around
$17,000.0 900 will be spent in the Mem
phis district. A total Of $4,000 900
goes for construction work throughout
the lower valley, and $4,000, 900 goes
for obligations In the New Madrid
foodway and for rights Of way on the
Red River and in the Atchafalaya
Basin Of Louisiana.
Major Part for Levees.
The major part OF the money al
loted to the Memphis district will be
spent on levees. including the section
from Cape Girardeau to Birds Point.
This will be of particular Importance
to Cairo and Is designed primarily to
relieve Cairo. Situated at the junc-
ton Of the Ohio and the Mississippi,
Cairo Is properly on the Ohio, but its
back side juts along the Mississippi
and, in q season Of dood. the onrush
Of the water from both rivers creates
q dangerous condition. The project
across in Missouri contemplates q flood
way with fuse-plug levee, which
breaks when the stage at Cairo gets too
high.
tions In this noodway Is the result Of
court decisions on the sale of dowage
rights over lands lying In the foodway.
Since these obligations cannot be sus-
pended, 1t was necessary to get them
out Of the way before the entire project
could be considered.
Under the flood control act of 1873,
which proposed an expenditure of
S315 900 900 for the elimination of the
food menace, the plans were stretched
out over a 10-year period. The ST.
600 900 allotted to the Memphis dis
trict will be used to carry on some of
the contracts already made, thus
spreading the work out over a two
year period It is not contemplated
that the flood control project can o,
will be completed this year, but the
work will be continued and the levees
patched up where needed.
News Brings Relief.
The news of the allotment from
Washington brought a sigh Of relief
throughout the Memphis territory as
well as up and down the valley. Since
1928 the control program has gone for
ward without hitch, except local OBJ
stacles, such as the acquisition of food
way rights and rights Of way for new
setback levees. These have been
has gone on. Some Of the major engi-
neering problems of the big plan have
been solved. The spiIlway at Bonne
Care, through which food waters may
be diverted into Lake Ponchartrain and
thus relieve the pressure on New Or
leans, has been completed. The fuse
plug levee opposite Cairo Is completed.
When it was learned July that no
more funds were available the people
Of the valley were sore beset.
It developed that the funds were held
up because of a disagreement in de-
partmental Washington about who
would make the allotment. Hitherto
the allotment has come from the War
Department, and the engineers have
been doing the work. Last Spring it
was agreed In the Congress that the
appropriation would be passed over
and included in the public works bill
The Interior Department, having con-
troll of the public works, insisted on
making the allotment The War De-
partment wanted to keep control Of It.
But the allotment has been made and
the picks and shovelS will be swinging
again soon throughout the valley.