Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1939-02-16
,SECREST ASKS GOVERNMENT
TAKE OVER FLOOD CONTROL

In a communication to the Demo
,crat office, Congressman Secrest
writes:
On Monday, Feb 13, l introduced
bill providing that the federal
government shall take over the flood
control works of the Muskingum
Ccnservancy District, paying the
district all money expended by them
in acquiring lands and providing
further that the federal government
shall take over the maintenance and
operation of all dams.
1t has taken much time to prepars
this bill inasmuch as its terms had
to have the approval of the army en-
gineers, the budget bureau and the
general accounting office of the fed
eral government. Officials of the
Conservancy District have been here
three times since the first of De-
cember to participate in the many
conferences necessary in the prepar-
alton of the bill Mr. Browning,
secretary of the district, Mr. Wilkin,
chief counsel for the district, and
Mr.. Chambers, chief engineer of the
district, have been in Washington
all this week giving the fullest mea-
sure of assistance and cooperation.
Officials of the district have been
wholly unselfish in supporting a
proposition to turn the whole mat
ter over to the federal government
in order that the people could be
relieved of their tax burdens.
The purpose of the bill l will in
make our project national flood
control project similar to those
which will be constructed through
out the country in the future. No
one can predict with certainty
whether this bill will become law,
but shall give to it every effort just
as I have tried to do in every case
affecting my district. This legisla-
tion will be my most important task
until it is completed.
There is another matter to which
we have been giving our constant
attention. You will recall that the
last congress approved legislation
authorizing and directing the secre-
tary of war to reimburse the Con-
servaney District $4,500,09O. This
was included in a general food con-
troll plan covering five year. period
for the United States. We are at
tempting to get it paid in two an
nual installments or less, il posi-
ble If, perchance, we get only a
part of this money appropriated In
this season of congress, district Of
ficials have already approved the
plan OF taking enough OF this mon
ey to pay the peoples taxes for the
next year Thus, the future bur-
den could be taken off the people I'M
mediately and kept off until the
whole problem Is solved.
Hearings on the war department
appropriation bill for non-military
purposes will be held March Is. The
district officials and l will urge the
maximum appropriation in an effort
to get the whole problem solved as
soon as possible.
May l repeat that our task is a
two-fold one; first, to get the whole
food control works in the hands OF
the federal government according to
my bill, and, second, to get the $4,-
100000 which the congress has al
ready obligated the government to
pay, and which we are certain to get
either in a lump sum, or over a Pc
riod of years. In either event, as
soon as we receive our first payment
the district plans to relieve the peo
pie of any further tax payments.
To this problem we have given ev-
cry moment required There has
been exceeding difficulty of hasty So
luton First, because the district
under it's contract with the federal
government was obligated to buy
all the land and, second, because of
the flood control policy for the
whole nation which has been COM
pletely changed several times in the
last four years.
This is a candid statement of facts
such as I have always attempted to
make. In view of our problems and
difficulties, we have made almost
unexpected progress in the past year.
/ am hopeful and confident of even
tual success, although in fairness
to the people and myself, I will re
frain from predicting the exact time.
l will keep you informed concerning
future developments.
Sincerely yours,
Bob Secrest.