of our waterways system, because of its importance to the whole country.

I do not intend to take too much of your time because I have appeared before these committees before and I am only reiterating what I have said before.

I am like most American businessmen, interested in our country and our Government. I am a true believer that economy is not necessarily measured by the amount of dollars and cents spent because it is a matter of whether or not you invest it.

Flood control in the lower Mississippi Valley in our opinion is a must because if we control the floods, then we have a profitable venture. If we fail to control them, we spend the money anyhow in the loss of life and land. I am not one to go into details of flood contol. That will be explained by those people who are better qualified than I. But I would like to reiterate what I have said, that those of us who live behind the levee have every confidence in the efficiency of the Engineers. We believe they are human, yes, but we think their record speaks for itself.

1953 BUDGET REQUEST

I am not qualified to say whether you should spend $60,020,000 or not, but as a businessman I do say that $60,000,000 is a mighty small amount in a country like this to fulfill the responsibilities of our Government. I appear here as one vitally interested in the lower Mississippi Valley, but I am particularly interested in those two jobs that affect my State.

Chairman MCKELLAR. May I interrupt you, please? You are not old enough to remember when the Mississippi River got up to 40 miles wide, are you?

Mr. PIDGEON. I have seen it many times when we could not see Arkansas. I am quite old, Senator.

TIPTONVILLE-OBION LEVEE EXTENSION

With reference to these two jobs in Tennessee, the Tiptonville-Obion levee district is an approved project with an estimated cost of $6,000,000. It either gets flooded from the main river or from the Obion River system. It is an approved project and well worth while

MEMPHIS HARBOR DEVELOPMENT

The other job is the Memphis Harbor job, which I am vitally interested in because it is an approved project, Document No. 51 of the Eightieth Congress, first session. It is vitally important to our whole country because it promotes the greater use of our waterway system. I am convinced it will return to the taxpayer more than the dollar and a half for every Federal dollar that is spent because you can take Memphis, for example. Memphis is a city of a 400,000 population today. Brownsville, Tenn., has about 25,000 or 30,000 people, and it is about 50 miles east.

The only reason we are 400,000 is because of the Mississippi River. It was shown in our presentation that a conservative estimated savings in freight rates to the Midsouth around Memphis was $1.60 a ton.

In the year 1944 there were about 3,400,000 tons going through the port of Memphis. You multiply that by $1.60 and you have over $3,000,000. Amortize it over 4 years and you can well afford to spend $100,000,000.

Gentlemen, I know that we have heard about economy.

ciate to a small degree the pressure and responsibility of you gentlemen. I can say we who are not in politics recognize that you are a bulwark to protect our way of life. I tell you frankly if it was not that I felt this flood control was a definite responsibility of the Government, I would not walk across the room, much less come to Washington to ask for appropriations. I appreciate appearing before you, Senator, and I am glad to see you. Thank you.

Chairman MCKELLAR. Senator Robertson.

Senator ROBERTSON. In regard to his statement concerning Tiptonville, he could call as his witness Napoleon, who said that no troops would stand if shot at from the front-and rear at the same time.

Chairman McKELLAR. Mr. Pidgeon, there has been a marvelous increase of the best kind in regard to soil. Have you any estimate of how much that is?

ANNUAL LEVEE CAVE-INS

Mr. PIDGEON. From Cairo to Oldtown, La., the annual loss due to bank cave-ins-we were talking about revetments. I am not a levee man, but the amount of annual loss in so many cubic yards would be equivalent to a road 30 feet wide, 3 feet deep, that would go around the world three times or better. If you were to tack that on the State of Tennessee, it would be only a few years before we would be in the Atlantic Ocean. That is not concentrated at any one point, but the bank stabilization program is very important.

When you talk about a set-back levee that is something which seems like little words to us. You take a levee that is protecting four or five hundred thousand acres of productive land which is the breadbasket of the world and you set it back, as the judge said, you just throw that land away.

I am lost when you get into $1 billion. Talking about $260 billion. really gets me. But the economy of this country is such that you have got to say what we have. If we do not recognize flood control and if anybody can show me flood control could not stand up and be counted in whatever situation that may come up-you talk about defense. It is just as much an important part of defense as atomic energy. During World War II our company built LCT's. There were 2,000 war vessels that went down the Mississippi River. One barge got lost and wiped out $5 million worth of property before it got to the Gulf at the mouth of the Mississippi, which is about 2 or 3 miles. So when you want economy, that is why I am up here because I think you are entitled to know what we think and make your choice of whether you want to give it to the Dutch or to the Mississippians. Senator ROBERTSON. Do you have a Chamber of Commerce in Memphis?

Mr. PIDGEON. The best.

Senator ROBERTSON. Do they endorse the Tiptonville project?

Mr. PIDGEON. Yes, sir. We endorse anything for the lower Mississippi Valley, anything that is approved by the United States engineers. They have never failed. All of the stuff we read about them cannot be proved.

Senator ROBERTSON. You read a lot about the chambers of commerce elsewhere.

Mr. PIDGEON. Yes, sir.

Senator ROBERTSON. They do not endorse rivers and harbors projects.

Mr. PIDGEON. I am frank to say I do not approve of all chambers of commerce, but I do of the Memphis one.

Chairman McKELLAR. Is it not true that since the building of these levees there has been a vast area of the richest kind of land saved in Louisiana and Mississippi?

Mr. PIDGEON. Yes, sir.

Chairman MCKELLAR. Although Senator Ellender is a member of our committee, I do not know which State gets the greater amount, but there is a large amount involved. Without that land we would be in a fix to get the necessary materials to fight this war or any war that might come up.

Mr. PIDGEON. I am interested in this project in the lower valley. I am not particularly interested in the Memphis project. That is just part of the program. If you do not keep the Mississippi River under the bridges, no industry will go in and spend $4,000,000 or $5,000,000 building a plant because they are liable to wake up the next morning and find either that the Mississippi River is a half mile away from the plant or half of the plant is in the river.

That is the only way you can improve industrially, to protect that wandering and meandering of that river.

Chairman MCKELLAR. That is exactly the same position as I took in reference to the Missouri River and the Kaw River in Kansas. I think we ought to protect that country out there, too. It is a valuabe part of our Nation.

I told the Senators from that State while I was not interested personally I was certainly interested as a citizen and as a legislator in protecting the people who live along those rivers. I think all of our people generally feel that we want public works of this kind. Are there any other questions? If not we will hear the next witness, and thank you very much, Mr. Pidgeon.

Mr. BURKE. The next witness is Mr. Huxtable, chief engineer, St. Francis levee district, who is here as a witness for the State of Arkansas. STATEMENT OF W. G. HUXTABLE, CHIEF ENGINEER, ST. FRANCIS LEVEE DISTRICT, STATE OF ARKANSAS

FLOOD CONTROL, ST. FRANCIS RIVER, MO.-ARK.

Mr. HUXTABLE. I have a prepared statement that I would like to file.

Chairman MCKELLAR. It may be filed for the record. (The statement referred to follows:)

STATEMENT OF W. G. HUXTABLE, WEST MEMPHIS, ARK.

Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee, I am W. G. Huxtable, chief engineer, St. Francis levee district of Arkansas, West Memphis, Ark.

I am here to represent the State of Arkansas on behalf of the Mississippi Valley Flood Control Association.

The levees on the west bank of the Mississippi River in Arkansas are 393 miles in length, and are constructed in units as follows:

Missouri-Arkansas State line to the mouth of the St. Francis River 158.3 miles, of which 45 miles are yet to be completed to project grade and section. Of the 45 miles 16 are below grade.

From the St. Francis to the White the length is 741⁄2 miles, and of this unit 34% miles remain to be enlarged to the project section. Back of this unit 41 miles of levee along the White is built to an interim grade. This 41 miles protects the rich area between the Mississippi and White from backwater from the Mississippi and headwater from the White. The grade on all this backwater levee is to be raised. From the Arkansas River to the Arkansas-Louisiana State line the length is 160 miles. The levee extends from the highland on the south bank of the Arkansas, down the Arkansas and the west bank of the Mississippi; 14 miles remain to be completed.

Altogether about 24 percent of the main levee remains to be completed in Arkansas.

The statement of Mr. J. G. Burke has covered revetment, reservoirs, etc., in such an able manner that further comment on these items is unnecessary.

TRIBUTARIES

The north bank of the Arkansas has 67 miles of levee, and 58 of these miles are below grade.

On the White in the Augusta and DeValls Bluff areas about 14 miles of levee are yet to be constructed.

The other tributary is the St. Francis.

THE ST. FRANCIS RIVER BASIN

This basin has been the stepchild of all the tributary basins of the lower Mississippi Valley. The appropriations for it have been so small year in and year out that they have been only token allotments. From 1936 to 1940 $24,826,000 was authorized for expenditures in Missouri and above the Poinsett-Cross County line in Arkansas. In this long period of time only $16,500,000 was allotted to this work. At the present rate of $500,000 per year it will take 16 years to finish the old authorization; $20,000,000 was authorized in Mav 1950 for the lower section. The $16,500,000 has been spent primarily in building Wappapello Dam and enlarging the tributary levees.

THE DEVELOPMENT

A diversion system was built during 1913 to 1920 at the top of the basin. This diversion takes the runoff from a large part of the Ozark Hills into the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Wappapello Dam was completed in 1941. It is an important factor in controlling the balance of the quick runoff from the Ozark Hills.

IN ARKANSAS

From 1908 to 1920 most of the drainage ditches were completed in this basin66 drainage districts dug 2,400 miles of ditches at a cost of more than $28,000,000. Tributary levees were constructed on the St. Francis and Little Rivers at a cost of about $12,500,000. This was before 1936.

To protect this basin from Mississippi River floods the St. Francis levee district has spent $24,672,792.57 (to July 1, 1951). The United States Government has spent about $23,500,000 to bring the total cost of our main levee to about $48,000,000.

If we assume that $8,500,000 of the $16,500,000 was spent in Arkansas (Wappapello Dam and Reservoir cost about $8,000,000) then the United States Government has spent about $22,000,000 and the citizens of Arkansas have spent about $65,100,000. Therefore, to date the United States Government has spent about one-fourth of the total cost of the work done in Arkansas to protect this basin from floods.

THE PRESENT STATUS

We are gradually completing our main levee, which protects us from the floods on the Mississippi River.

We have strengthened many weak sections of the tributary levees. Although we have constructed floodways that carry much of the floodwater above ground surface and between levees, besides the large ditching program, we are now in serious trouble.

Too many bottlenecks occur over the basin because an over-all plan for drainage was not carried out, and this should be expected without over-all supervision. In the lower Mississippi Valley we have faith in the Corps of Engineers. They were called on by the Congress in 1945 to make a report that would recommend corrective measures for the basin, and submit a plan.

On May 17, 1950, the Congress authorized the plan and set up $20,000,000 to be expended on these corrective measures (H. Doc. No. 132, 81st Cong., 1st sess., describes the plan).

WHAT WE ARE ASKING FOR NOW

Continuous ditching in Missouri and Arkansas delivers the accelerated flow of water to the channels of Little River and St. Francis River faster than they can handle it. This causes ponding in many localities, and it is serious because the water stands for weeks before it can run off.

The main channel must be enlarged and straightened to give effective relief. The plan provides for making cut-offs on the St. Francis that shorten the river 30 miles. This construction will lower the flow at Riverfront 41⁄2 feet. Riverfront is our most critical point of congestion. This one item of the plan will accelerate the flow and give material relief to the greater part of the valley (the cut-offs on the Mississippi River lowered the flow at Arkansas City 12 feet).

House Document No. 132 shows that the Corps of Engineers estimated our average annual crop loss due to floods at $5,660,000, and other flood losses at $185,000 annually (current prices February 1947, pp. 14 and 35). Prices have advanced at least 25 percent since that date; we now estimate that our average annual loss is at least $7,000,000.

We estimate that the 20 miles of new channel for the cut-offs will cost $9,000,000, and that we can do the job in 3 years if you will give us $3,000,000 per year for this work.

MAIN STEM, MISSISSIPPI RIVER LEVEE SYSTEM, ARKANSAS

Mr. HUXTABLE. I represent that area across the river where there was 40 miles of flood.

Chairman MCKELLAR. That has been a long time ago, but we have been working on it faithfully ever since.

Mr. HUXTABLE. My family lived there for 81 years, and I spent all my life there. Gentlemen, representing the State of Arkansas, the State has 393 miles of main levee on the west bank of the river. It is divided in units between the State line between Arkansas and Missouri and the mouth of the St. Francis River between the White and the Louisiana line.

UNCOMPLETED LEVEE SECTION

In the upper part of that, which I represent, we have 158.3 miles of main levee of which all has been completed except 45 miles and 16 miles are still below grade. The middle section from the St. Francis to the White has 741⁄2 miles of levee. They lack 34 miles of having their levee completed.

In that middle section they have a backwater levee on the White River which is 41 miles long. It has been built and that has been raised to take care of low-water floods. They still have the danger of the large floods and the project floods. All that levee is to be raised. They are a long way behind.

In the southern part of the State the levee begins on the south bank of the Arkansas River at the high land and goes down the Arkansas down the west bank of the Mississippi to the Louisiana line. That distance is 160 miles. It has been completed except for 14 miles. But the two sections that are not complete offer a very great danger to that southeast section of Arkansas and to northwest Louisiana.