Evening star., 1950-01-08
N otion Cont Afford
To Let SurpIuses
Drain Awoy


ing the farms which must produce
the food supply for a growing
population and to maintain the
levels in the river channels during
the dry months SO that the heavy
freight Of industry may be carried.
Congress has recognized the need
Of this water conservation pro-
gram. For the current fiscal year
1t has appropriated $685., 900, 600
for the Army engineers rivers ana
harbors and fiood-control work.
The engineers have water con-
servation programs In the basins
Of practically all the major
streams. The huge job on the up
per Missouri River and its feed
ers. for example, will mean the
construction Of 10 dams.
Sitting Problem
The water to be impounded Is
measured In acre feet-that Is. the
amount Of water covering an acre
to q depth Of one foot. The Gar
rison Dam In North Dakota will
impound $4,000. 900 acre feet. the
Oahe Dam at Pierre. s. OAK, a.
SOC, 900, and the dam at Fort
Randall, 8. OAK, $500, 900. r
Gen. Pick faces the problem of
sitting with confidence. He said
the reservoirs are designed to take
care of silt during the period
the projects pay for themselves.
Meanwhile, methods and machin-
cry for moving earth have i'm
proved enormously. He is con-
vinced that when the silt en-
croaches on the use of the reser-
voirs, resourceful engineers will
develop a method Of solving the
problem and measures to prevent
soil erosion will steadily reduce
the silt content.
Gen. Pick is perhaps the most
widely known officer in the Army
engineers. He is SO, a native of
Bfookneal, Va, and a graduate
of the Virginia Polytechnic Insti-
tute in 1914. He entered the Army
as a. reserve lieutenant in World
War I and went into the Regular
Army in 1920.
Built Picks Pike
In World War II he directed
the building of the Ledo road sec
ton of the Burma road to connect
Burma and China. In Is months
5000 Americans and $4,000 ma
tives constructed 483 miles of road
through jungles and over noun
tains, built 155 bridges and laid
1890 miles of pipeline. The.
workers referred to it facetiouSly
and fondly as Picks Pike" and
the Nation considered it to be one
Of the greatest engineering feats
In Army history.
Before that and in the Is
months after Pearl Harbor, Gen.
Pick directed $4,000 construction
workers and the spending of ST.
SOC, 100000 in building airfields,
ntonments. hospitals. airplane
and munitions plants and reloca-
tion centers for the Japanese
moved from the Pacific Coast.
In that same period he found
time to direct the fight against the
Missouri River flood OF the spring
of 1943 and to draw up the Pick
plan, q comprehensive program
for overall control and utilization
of the full water resources" Of the
Missouri.
The Army engineers and the
Reclamation Bureau failed to
agree on the Missouri River plan,
but when Gen.. Pick was in the
China -Burma-India war theater
they reached q compromise with
the Sloan, plan. 1t became
law In December, 1914. and Gen.
Pick returned in the following
November to direct it's executive
execution.
Last January President Truman
named Gen. Pick as chief Of the
Engineer Corps to succeed It..
Gen. Raymond A. Wheeler. It
happened that at that time Gen.
Pick was tied up with another job.
operation snowbound," directing
the Army's relief Of the areas OF
the West which were suffering
their worst winter Of so years.
He is concerned with mo little
plans