Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1949-07-01
Congress Sits On
River Funds While
Flood Rushes By DC
by Bradford v. Carter

TUST a few blocks from the capital an angry,
turbulent Potomac River races down to the
Chesapeake Bay and members of Congress are
again reminded of the pressing problem of
harnessing the nations water power.
The river carries heart-breaking of good
topsoil the remains of farm buildings and
homes, and hundreds of head of livestock.
This shameful waste of our resources, how
ever, doesn't seem to trouble men like Sen.
Harry Byrd ID, Va), though his own home is
in the beautiful Shenandoah valley. The val
ley's most priceless possession - its soil - is
sweeping down to the sea, making the river at
Washington rich earth color
Byrd (whose middle name appropriately
enough is Flood) consistently joins with his
COP economy pals to bite off funds for far
sighted flood control and poWer-creatlng pro-
iects A Potomac basin conservation plan is
small potatoes to him compared with the huge
Missouri and Columbia valley projects which
the private utilities lobby is fighting to avoid
at all costs.
Hearings on a Columbia Valley Admin
stration are now being held by the House
Public Works Committee. The fight is between
the Fair Dealers who want coordinated val
ley plan patterned after iva, and the private
power interests who want to see the Army En-
gineers continue their inadequate flood control
program so that the government will not har-
ness the areas resources for power production.
The Republicans and Dixiecrats as group are
carrying the ball for the utility companies.
The Columbia valley is the heart of the
Pacific northwest. For years its resources have
been exploited and wasted. The people OF the
area have witnessed such destruction that in
addition to the liberals expected to support
eva legislation, hard-shelled conservatives
such as Sen. Harry P. Cain (R, Wash) and E.
B. McNaughton, chairman of the Portland Ma
tonal Bank and publisher of the Oregonian,
have reluctantly come around to the eva
idea.
The idea is the one underlying the Tennes-
see Valley Authority that all development of
the valley must be handled by single agency
which is responsible for irrigation, flood con-
troll, power production, navigation, soil conser-
walton and hundreds of other problems all re-
lated and all vitality important TO the region
and the people who live there.
President Truman is backing eva bill
that has been introduced into both houses of
Congress The bill would set up democrati-
cally-run agency having three directors ap
pointed by the President and confirmed by
the Senate. Labor, farmers, and industry
would be represented on local advisory boards.
AS the valley is run now, there are four
conflicting agencies, all at each others throats
and each having limited authority that clash
es with the others. These four are the Army
Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, Bonneville,
Power Administration, and Fish e. Wildlife
Service. There is such confusion that recently
1t took four days merely to float free barge
that was stuck between Bonneville and Grand
Coulee dams, The four outfits all have to write
memos to each other when extra power is
needed by the atomic plant at Hanford, Wash.
This is the sort of disastrous ineffciency
the private power companies like to see II
makes 1t impossible for the government to build
and operate adequate facilities in the North
west AS soon as there is unified eva the
government will be producing electricity in
the region at cheaper rates than the Puget
Sound Power & Light Co. That's what the util-
tiles lobby is fighting against And that's why
the Republicans turn their heads the other way
when floods take lives and property each year