The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1945-10-05
TESTIMONY OF DON CHAPMAN PRESIDENT OF MONTANA FARMERS
UNION BEFORE SENATE IRRIGATION RECLAMATION SUBCOMMITTEE

SOURCES III MOHtdHd ana III time pei
= mits l hope to mention a few more
/ l have also tried to indicate some @
the problems with which people ar
/ confronted in the development O
, these resources and would like to elat
crate further on this phase as I pre-
Z coed.
| am sure that the members of thi
committee agree that no adequate az
proach to the solution of the prob
lens mentioned can be attempted up
on an individual state basis. TIL,
Iproblem is of regional scope and mus
be approached on a regional basis, i
properly solved.
/ am sure we are all in agreemen
sumo the responsibility for financing
the plan for flood control and re
source development for at least g
number Of years in the initial develop
ment.
At present we have two general
plans proposed in the approach to the
problem of complete resource devel
opment, flood control, development of
irrigation, reclamation and a low-cost
public aewer program in the Missouri
Basin
| One plan has been developed by
the Corp of Army Engineers and the
Bureau of Reclamation, sometimes
called the Joint Plan The other is
the plan proposed by Senator Murray
| in S555.
| There is nothing new about either
plan except perhaps the Corps of
Army Engineers and Bureau of Rec
lamation have not been requested to
operate comparatively in the past, on
as large a project as the one pro-
posed.
Both plans have, in my opinion,
been adequately tested and as a re-
suit Congress has available a great
deal of data concerning workability
comparative costs and results obtained
by the use of either plan.
Speaking as layman who has
watched both plans operating for
number of years l sincerely believe
the co-ordinated type of Regional Au-
thority development is much more eff
ficient and has accomplished a great
deal more than the piece-meal devel-
opment by numerous bureaus often
working at cross purposes and at best
with very little coordination. What
ever may be the ability or lack of
ability of either of these agencies,
neither can possibly carry out CO.
ordinated plan for complete develop
ment of the resources in the region
In many cases, I might say in practi-
cally all cases, their work and objec-
tives are of an opposite nature, hence
the seemingly endless pickering and
which preceded the So
called joint plan.
To the average layman this joint
plan is still pretty much of step
child with no particular guidance from
anyone in the field.
1t might be argued that the Presi-
dent, as executive officer, or Con-
gress as the legislative branch of gov
eminent, could correct this situation
by executive order or by legislation,
but events indicate that it has not
nor will not be done in as efficient a
manner as we believe possible under
S555.
approximately twelve years ago
Congress passed legislation and it
became law known as the Tennessee
Valley Authority Act. The govern |
corporation as an admin
strative agency had been used for
many years prior to this time. The
IVA Act was frankly an experiment
N the use of the corporate device in
,o-ordinating and unifying the work of
he various government agencies and
bureaus responsible for flood con-
rol, river navigation, development of
ow-cost public power and total de-
relopment and conservation of all re-
,ional resources.
1t is generally agreed that the IVA,
n the short span of twelve years, has i