The Washington times., 1933-09-27
TENNESSEEANS
RESENT GREAT
DAM Project
Natives Feel They Are Being
Treated as Guinea Pigs
Under Experimentation
BY JAMES r. MCCARTHY
Copyright. 1898, by Tnternationa
News SerVlceO

COVE CREEK. Tenn. Sept. q
G.N.SO This, as succinctly as it
is possible to tell it, is the story
of two families and of a stampede
of human beings, effected by what
is called the Tennessee Valley au-
thority.
The authority" is perhaps the
most spectacular-certainly the
most ambitious-phase of the new
deal. It is based upon the pro.
posed construction of the Norris
Dam at Cove Greek, 20 miles
northwest of Knoxville.
Called Great Experiment
1t has been called great ma
tional experiment looking to tbs
social upbuilding Of seven States
Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky
and Tennessee-in other words,
the Tennessee basin.
This, of course, is tremendous
in significance. 1t has affected
the thoughts and hopes of hun.
dreds of thousands of people in
the area.
What the Government hopes to
do, in plain words, is to convert
the valley into an American
Ruhr," self-containing, newly
beautified 1t is to be a billion
dollar party that will change the
valley from a languid world Of
tradition and romance into a pow
erful industrial entity.
Magic Wand Waved
First of ALL imagine a magic
wand being waved over the valley;
people are taken from their homes
and placed in a new area; SONS
farms are destroyed, others are
created from sWampS. industrial
communities spring up where
once only lonely trees and weeds
and stretches of uncultivated soil
felt not the presence of man.
Lands of historical Importance
lands once trod by Daniel Boone,
Davy Crockett and Sam Houston
are flooded to provide the power
for the new industrial and agri'
cultural Utopia.
But there is a picture slowly
fading behind all this and new
picture emerging. They are not
precisely disconcerting pictures,
but a wandering sociologist in
these parts might find them tre'
mendously significant.
Is Proud Individual
The Tennesseean prides himself
upon being as much of a rugged
individualist" as any high-powered
industrialist you may hope to
meet. He has his own way Of
living, has had for generations
and he often resents interference.
Yet some years ago the young
people of the valley. finding there
was no hope of improving them
selvse, moved out. They went to
the big cities. Perhaps they pros
pered sufficiently enough to get
by. But after 1929 they looked
back enviously toward the hills
and valleys of Tennessee. At
least, there they could hope to get
their hog meat and corn bread
regularly.
When word of the Tennessee
valley project sprea they
swarmed back home. But others
strangers-came here. too. Peo-
pie from the forty-eght States
whole families of them-came by
the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; came by the
thousands. They set up d1ngy
shacks or tents all about this
creek in the hope Of getting jobs.
The Gullible Cheated
Many of them were dislllu-
stoned.
The Government recently was
forced to act. 1t learned that lots
were being sold to the gullible-
lots around Cove Creek that never
will be needed-and that people
who bought them would be stung.
It was learned, too, that employ
ment agencies in various parts OF
the country were eXactlng ices
from seekers of prospective jobs
in connection with the valley de-
velopment. Quiet efforts were
made, and are being made, to end
this menace and keep outsiders
outside.
But the biggest problem proved
to be the attitude of the Tennes-
see people themselves. talked
with many of them-a few Of the
so-called mountaineer folk who
suddenly have come to realize
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