Evening star., 1937-02-09

policemen, doctors. nurses, blankets
and medicine and these reinforce
ments poured across the State lines
by plane. train, truck and boats. It
is seen most plainly when Federal
relief agencies are rushed to the front
to ameliorate distress whether it was
caused by unusual rains or extraor-
binary conditions on any of the tribu-
taries of the Ohio or on the st. Fran
els or the White Rivers.
Let me say in passing that it was
only by the grace of the Almighty
that the Upper Mississippi, the Mis-
souri,, the Tennessee and the Arkansas
were not at flood stage at the same
time as the extraordinary flood on the
Ohio. For, if, as has sometimes hap
pened, they had all flooded at the
same time, no power could have kept
the unprecedented height of the Ohio
flood from causing one Of the greatest
disasters in the worlds history in the
lower valley.
Bill Passed After Fight.
Let me briefly recount the history
Of legislation upon this subject. In
1928, as have said, after a protracted
and bitter struggle, Congress passed
the Reid-Jones bill, based largely on
the so-called Jadwin plan, assuming
Federal responsibility for flood con-
troll on the Lower Mississippi and
Lake Okeechobee in Florida.
The improvements on the Lower
Mississippi have proved notably sue
ceSsful. In fact, as a result of the
very remarkable experiments con-
Quoted by the Army engineers in the
experimental basin, near Vicksburg,
where any possible flood situation
which may arise on the main stem by
reason of the flooding of any of its
tributaries can be reproduced in min
iature, and as result of the works
constructed as a result of those ex-
periments, the lower valley below
Memphis is held tonight to be safe
from the present devastation.
But effective as have been these
constructions on the Lower Mississippi
no attempt had been made at solving
the problem of the tributary streams
of the Mississippi or the problems
of the numerous other great streams
subject to destructive floods.
In 1885, after years of careful con-
sideration and serious dispute, the
House passed an omnibus flood control
bill designed to authorize-not to ap-
propriate for, which is an entirely
different process-only those projects
most urgently and badly needed
throughout the Nation. Slightly re-
vised and amended. the bill was
reported to the Senate. Here a bril-
liant filibuster delayed its passage,
and it was finally done to death by
the adoption Of motion to recommit.
Amid shouts Of pork barrel the press
of the country very generally ap-
plauded its defeat. 1t was a subject
which readily lent itself to witticism
from those who did not realize that
an unexpected food. which sometimes
comes in any ordinarily arid section
of Colorado or New Mexico, might, in
addition to causing enormous local
and add materially to the flood stages
OF the Mississippi.
1t was not realized or admitted that
floods on the Merrimac or the Con-
necticut or the Sacramento, or on the
Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers
in California might cause damage in
one extraordinary flood nearly equal
to the cost of fairly effective preven-
ton of such floods and that little
additional expenditures might afford
security for years to come.
Flood Control Settled"
So there were hosannas in many
quarters for the defeat of this So
called pork barrel" measure. and the
river courses of the country were left
to pursue their untrammeled will
And it was placidly assumed that the
question of flood control had been
settled.
Then came the extraordinary flood