The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-11-08
VERBAL FEUD IS
STARTED OVER
POWER POLICY
New Deal Advisers Revive
20-Year-0Id Debate
on Identification.
BY NED BROOKS
Times Special Writer

WASHINGTON, Nov. ga verbal
feud between two of President
Roosevelts advisers on electric pow
er policy was disclosed today, reviv-
ing a 20-year-old debate. The prin-
cipals are:
Chairman Arthur E. Morgan of
the Tennessee Valley Authority, who
was chief engineer for the 1000 900
Miami River flood control project
that Ohio built after the Dayton
flood of 1913, and
Morris L. Cooke, head of the Rural
Identification Administrator and
of the Electric Home and Farm
Authority which grew out of the
IVA program.
The dispute started with memo
randum issued from Mr.. Cookies
office recalling that when the Miami
Conservancy District was established
specific prohibition was placed
against use of the dams for power
development.
Those of us who have followed
during the last Is years the struggle
for some adequate recognition of the
public interest in power matters
have encountered some queer
things" said Mr.. Cookies statement,
which pointed out DR.. Morgan's
earlier connection with the develop
ment.
Dams for Power Prohibited
Each of the Miami dams, Mr..
Cooke continued contains an in
scription in stone forbidding its use
for power or storage because of the
menace to the cities below"
That power dams are menaces
to cities below will be to some a
new and disturbing thought" the
statement said.
DR.. Morgan, accepting full re-
sponsibility for the Miami restric-
tions, now has replied that "respon-
sible and informed engineers know
that no one man can tell when
floods will come or how great any
particular flood may be-"
eff the reservoirs are used to store
water for power, they may not be
empty and ready for use when
floods come" he said in a statement
issued from IVA headquarters in
Knoxville.
DR.. Morgan said he was 'primar-
lily responsible" for the court order
forbidding power development and
had the inscriptions placed lest "in
later years, when the principles of
the design had been forgotten by
the general public, some unin-
formed enthusiast might start a
campaign to use the dams for power
development"
Dams Have Permanent Openings
DR.. Morgan said he welcomed an
opportunity to repeat his conten-
ton that safety from floods of this
rich and populous valley with its
chain of industrial cities absolutely
demands that the conservancy dams
be not used for power development. y
He recalled that the 1913 flood de-
stroyed s2OO0OO,O0O worth of prop
erty in and around Dayton and cost
400 lives.
Design of the dam system, he ex-
planned, was necessitated by physl-
cal conditions and requirements for
flood storage. They are provided
with permanent openings which al
low as much water to flow through
as the channels can hold, control
being automatic. Farm lands above
the dams are enriched rather than
harmed by spring flood waters, he
said.
Power possibilities were examined
at the time the dams were con-
structed and again 10 years later,
and both times the plan was re-
jected as unsound, he continued
He challenged Mr.. Cookies con-
tention that the Ohio ConservanCy
Act (Which DR.. Morgan sponsored)
forbids water power development on
any other streams.
Unfortunately" he said, "Ohio
provides but few water power OPP
portunities which will compete in
cost with steam power"