The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1933-12-14
French Broad Valley Group
Formed To Oppose Dam
Mills River Mass
Meeting Takes
Active Steps
T. E. Osborne Elected AS
President Of Oppo-
nents to Plan

A largely attended mass meet
ing of citizens of the French
Broad and Mills River valleys,
held at the Mills River school
house Wednesday evening, or
ganized citizens association,
adopting the name, French Broad
Valley association. elected Off
GERS and passed resolutions OPP
posing the erection of dam on
the French Broad river and the
flooding Of large areas of Hen
derson, Pennsylvania and Bun
combe counties by the resulting
lake.
r. f. Osborne, Henderson cOun-
ty master farmer and one of the
oldest and most prominent citi-
zens of the Mills River country,
was elected president of the as
ISOLATION. Colonel w. NJ. Toomer
of Naples, was elected vice presl-
dent of the organization and
Glenn Marston, a resident of the
French Broad valley, was elected
secretary and treasurer. The NOM
mating committee, which suggest
ed the names of the associations
officers, was composed of l.. l..
Merchant and L. l.. Burgin of
Mills River. A committee on or
ganization had previously report
ed. This committee was compos-
ed of Col. w. NJ. Toomer, T. E.
Osborne and H. L. Jeffress.
The meeting voted without a
dissenting voice for the adoption
of the resolutions proposed by H.
IL. Jeffress, after talks had been
made by number of citizens of
Henderson county The meeting
was called to order by G. D.
White, teacher of agriculture in
Mills River school, who presented
Glenn Marston. ........--
Mr.. Marston discussed the Ten
nessee Valley project briefly, and
assisted Mr.. White in presiding
over the meeting until the as
ISOLATION was formally organized.
In addition to Mr.. Marston,
various views of the proposed
dam project were discussed by
Prof. S. p. Werner of Brevara,
Col. Toomer, Mrs. C. j. Jeffress,
L. l.. Merchant, T. f. Osborne,
G. d. White, Noah Hollowell, DR..
l.. B. Morse and w. b. Smith.
Mr.. Marston gave a brief his
tory of the Muscle Shoals prof.
ect, the creation of the Tennes-
see Valley Authority, and of the
proposed developments now be-
ing put through by the author
ity.
Col. Toomer spoke along the
same general lines, with particu,
lar reference to some legal views
of the authority and the work it
is supposed to do. Col. Toomer
pointed out that the flooding OF
valleys located in three counties
in this section would destroy an
nual agricultural and industrial
production estimated at four mil
lion dollars and that the value
of the property destroyed would
amount to SIS, 100000. This, the
speaker said. in addition to the
costs of the development, would
be the cost to the federal gov
eminent for a storage basin that
would affect the total production
of power at Muscle Shoals only
two per cent.
Prof. S. P. Werner said that
this. section is the finest country
on the globe in several partlcu-
lars; and that a plan of develop
ment should be adopted that will
preserve and develop instead of
destroying it. He favors making
suggestions to the Valley author
ity as to how this purpose can
be accomplished without the de-
structive results following the
construction of the proposed big
dam.
Mr.. Merchant, Mr.. Osborne
and Mrs. Jeffress spoke in oppo-
sition to the building of the dam,
Secretary Hollowell of the
Hendersonville Chamber of Com
merce said that as far as his in
formation goes, the people of
Hendersonville are overwhelm-
ingly opposed to the dam project
but Mr.. Hollowell's views are
that there are possibilities for
development in the section that
will preserve the country and en-
able the IVA to accomplish some
of it's main detectives. He be-
lieves these views should be pre-
scented to the IVA.
DR.. l.. B. Morse made state
ment in regard to the Tennes-
see Valley association, an organi-
cation of citizens of several
states affected by the Valley de-
velopment, which, he said, is en-
deavoring to cooperate with and
advise the IVA.
Prof. G. D. White spoke for
the farmers and from the point
of view of the tillers of the soil
in the fertile valley region. He
gave facts and figures to show
the value of agricultural produc-
ton in this region, and asserted
Continued on page five)