The next one is the Littlejohn and Calaveras Rivers. The floodcontrol is 95.2 percent, and appreciation, 0.9 of 1 percent; irrigation, 3.9 percent.

Senator OVERTON. Does that cover all items in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River projects?

General ROBINS. That covers all the streams, Mr. Chairman.

Senator BURTON. I might ask, there is no controversy about this Merced County stream group?

General ROBINS. No.

Senator BURTON. That is all flood control?

General ROBINS. That is all flood control.

Senator BURTON. But under the proposition of the Bureau of Reclamation that project would still rest with the Army engineers right in the middle of this valley, would it not?

General ROBINS. Yes, sir.

Senator OVERTON. Are there any questions, gentlemen? All right. Thank you.

Senator ROBERTSON. Mr. Chairman, may I interrupt a moment? My colleague, Senator O'Mahoney, has asked me to appear before the committee in reference to a telegram he received this morning from Russell White Bear, who is the secretary of the Crow Indian Council in Wyoming and Montana, and it says:

We request authority representatives proceed Washington to be heard on floodcontrol bill. Crows have paramount interests Big and Little Horn River main stems of the Missouri, as decided Supreme Court, United States v. Powers, January 9, 1939. Please answer.

Senator OVERTON. They will be privileged to appear. We take up the Missouri River tomorrow.

Senator ROBERTSON. It would be almost impossible for them to be here, Mr. Chairman.

Senator OVERTON. Notice has been given of the hearings for some time, and you know the subcommittee has been in continuous session since about April 25.

Senator ROBERTSON. I know it has, Mr. Chairman.

Senator OVERTON. I would like very much to accommodate my Indian brethren, but I cannot delay the hearings for that purpose, after they have had due notice, certainly, through their Senators and Representatives.

Senator ROBERTSON. Do you feel, Mr. Chairman, that the committee will be in session on Thursday or Friday on this?

Senator OVERTON. I do not know. We might dispose of the Missouri River Basin in an hour, and it might be several days. I just cannot tell.

Senator ROBERTSON. I would like to send them a telegam that they could come on and be heard.

Senator OVERTON. Of course, I do not control the subcommittee. I will leave it to them how much delay they want to give to hear their case. If we delay it for the Indians we have got to delay it for somebody else. There will be people who will want to come and make additional statements in reference to Central Valley, and they will want to come here in reference to other projects probably, and if we afford this privilege to one we cannot deny it to the other.

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Certainly there is no objection to their filing a statement for the record.

Senator ROBERTSON. And the hearings start tomorrow or Wednesday, on Missouri?

Senator OVERTON. The hearings on the Missouri River start Wednesday.

Senator ROBERTSON. All right. I will advise them, Mr. Chairman. Senator OVERTON. What is the subcommittee's attitude about it? Senator BURTON. My thought would be you would have to hold to your schedule, but if these gentlemen could send on their statement to some Representative here, we would expect it to be delivered before the committee. It ought to be read to the committee as well as inserted in the record.

Senator ROBERTSON. I will advise them to that effect, Mr. Chairman. Senator OVERTON. Very well, now, suppose we just leave it to you. Senator ROBERTSON. All right. Mr. Chairman. I will advise them to that effect. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Senator OVERTON. What is next? We have the Arkansas River, and the amendment of Senator Clark. Which one do you want to take up? Senator CLARK of Missouri. Go ahead, Senator McClellan. Senator MCCLELLAN. Is yours an amendment?

Senator CLARK of Missouri. I have got an amendment that applies to the whole bill. In fact, I have got two amendments that apply to the whole bill. One of them is very similar to one of yours, Senator, except you limit yours to the Arkansas and the White River Valleys, do you not?

Senator MCCLELLAN. That is all.

Senator CLARK of Missouri. I have got the same proposition, except I apply it to them all over the United States.

Senator MCCLELLAN. I think it is a pattern that might be followed. Senator OVERTON. Senator, before you proceed, your bill is a separate bill?

Senator MCCLELLAN. Yes, sir.

Senator OVERTON. From a cursory reading of it, there are many provisions contained in your bill that are already embodied in the bill as it comes to us from the House. Have you undertaken to work your bill into this bill in the form of an amendment?

Senator MCCLELLAN. About the only principle embodied in the House bill as I interpret it is that, of course, they want their projects constructed as quickly as practicable, and that such projects as are authorized now will be constructed by the Army engineers. Those are about the only policies that are named, there. This one goes further than that. I am trying by this bill to establish a legislative policy with respect to all projects on the White and Arkansas Rivers.

Senator OVERTON. Have you got it in the form of an amendment to this bill, or just two separate bills?

Senator MCCLELLAN. No, sir. I introduced this bill before the floodcontrol bill was introduced, but I am of the opinion, Mr. Chairman, that this bill can be made an amendment to the present flood-control bill, to just follow right along with the bill as you have it now, and insert this at the conclusion of the present flood-control bill, with possibly slight modifications, and thereby make it an amendment to the present bill; and personally I have no objection to that being done.

While at the time I introduced it I did not have that in mind, of course I did not know what would develop with respect to flood-control lesgislation at this session. I could not know that, at the time this bill was introduced.

Senator OVERTON. Of course you understand that we undertake to have one flood-control bill, and not separate ones.

Senator MCCLELLAN. That is right; and I am perfectly willing for this to be considered as an amendment by the committee, an amendment to the pending bill, dealing specifically with these two valleys, these two basins. I think it can be, without any trouble. If the committee acts favorably on it, it can be inserted right at the last of the flood-control bill, and be made an amendment to it.

Senator OVERTON. All right. Will you proceed, then, to make whatever statement you desire.

STATEMENT OF SENATOR JOHN L. MCCLELLAN, OF ARKANSAS

Senator MCCLELLAN. Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee, I would like to make a general statement regarding the bill, and then of course I would ask that the committee hear other evidence, particularly by representatives of the different departments that are involved.

The provisions of S. 1519 are applicable to only the White and Arkansas River Basins. These two streams are of much importance to the people of my State. Their improvement, control, and the full development and utilization of their potential water resources are of great concern to Arkansas. The sources of these streams are not in my State, but we can observe from the map of this area the distance that they traverse through Arkansas.

The White River Basin drains an area of approximately 27,500 square miles. The Arkansas and its tributaries drain approximately 160,500 square miles. Thus the total area involved in this proposed legislation is approximately 180,000 square miles. Both of these streams are navigable for a great distance above the point of the confluence of the Arkansas with the Mississippi, and that of the White with the Arkansas. They have very rich and productive valleys, about 25 percent of which are now in a state of cultivation. That part of the valleys of these streams in my State is possibly more productive than their valleys are in the upper regions in any of the other States, but substantially all of these cultivated lands in my State and those that can be developed for agricultural purposes are in the overflow plain, and great loss occurs not only to agriculture but to industry and other interests by reason of recurring disastrous and devastating floods. Senator CLARK of Missouri. That is true in a good deal of the White River Valley that is up in Missouri.

Senator MCCLELLAN. That is true. We just have more of it in our State, Senator.

Senator CLARK of Missouri. Yes, sir; there is more of that kind of land. We have about 400 miles of the White River in Missouri. Senator MCCLELLAN. The estimated average annual flood damage on the Arkansas River is $11,700,000.

Senator BURTON. Is that the part within your State, or is that the whole river?

Senator MCCLELLAN. That is the whole river, Senator. I am dealing in this bill, which was introduced, with the whole basin.

Senator CLARK of Missouri. Where does the Arkansas rise? Out in Colorado?

Senator McCLELLAN. In Colorado.

And on the White River, the flood damage is $7,500,000 annually, or a total of $19,200,000. I got this information from the 1943 report of the National Resources Planning Board, which has made a study of these basins, and therefore my principal interest and major objective in this legislation is to get constructed a system of improvements primarily designed to accomplish flood control in these basins. However, the measure is sufficiently broad in its scope and deals with navigation, irrigation, hydroelectric-power development, and other related benefits from stream improvement, in addition to its major objective of flood control. Mr. Chairman, this bill does not authorize nor does it attempt to authorize any new projects of any character. It deals with those projects, the construction of which the Congress has heretofore authorized, and those that it may hereafter authorize to be constructed in these two basins. The matter of authorizing or approving any new projects is left to the further and future consideration and wisdom of the Congress.

S. 1519 in most if not in all respects should properly be termed a policy measure applicable to the improvement of these two important

streams.

When I introduced the bill on the 29th of November 1943, there had already been constructed on both these streams many flood-control projects, principally levees, and some dams and reservoir projects had also been constructed, others, were in course of construction, but on some of these work has been suspended for the duration of the war, yet there are many already authorized by the Congress on which construction has never been started.

On the Arkansas River 30 levee and floodway projects have been authorized by Congress on which construction has not begun, at an estimated cost of $10,114,900, and 12 dams and reservoir projects, at an estimated cost of $112,049,000. On the White River, six levee and flood-control projects have already been authorized by the Congress at an estimated cost of $14,237,900, and six dams and reservoir projects at an estimated cost of $115,567,000, making a total in authorized and unconstructed projects on these two streams, of both levee and floodway projects, dams, and reservoir projects, of $251,965,800.

Senator CLARK of Missouri. Senator, you will recall that year before last those White River Reservoir projects were included in the appropriation bill by an amendment in the Senate, and the Senate adhered to their insistence on the amendments on three separate votes, and finally at the insistence of the House, rather than hold up the whole appropriation bill indefinitely, it was necessary for the Senate to yield, but the Senate not only put them in on the recommendation of the Army engineers but they adhered to them on three votes in the Senate.

Senator MCCLELLAN. Yes, sir. That is true, Senator, and what I am driving at by this legislation is to get them constructed.

Senator CLARK of Missouri. I am very much in sympathy with it.

Senator MCCLELLAN. We can authorize from now until the end of time but we do not get any flood control, and we do not get any benefits until they are actually constructed.

Senator CLARK of Missouri. And I regarded as very unfortunate the attitude of the House on that appropriation bill, which resulted in delaying their construction. They would have been well under way and very nearly completed by this time.

Authorization to this extent has already been granted by Congress, a total of 54 projects authorized, costing more than a quarter of a billion dollars, in addition to these levee authorizations by the pending rivers and harbors bill and the flood-control bill, and yet, Mr. Chairman, we do not have a clear and definite legislative policy regarding their construction, operation, or maintenance, nor with respect to the sale and utilization of the hydroelectric power that will be developed from some of these projects. I am attempting in this legislation to formulate and establish that legislative policy. A careful reading of the bill will indicate what I have in mind as to the policy that I seek to establish, and I wish to discuss it briefly.

First, I try to make certain that all of these approved and authorized projects, and I quote from the language of the bill

shall be initiated as expeditiously as practicable and in any event not later than immediately following the cessation of hostilitiese in the present war, and shall be prosecuted with the utmost dispatch throughout the post-war period. This would amount to a legislative directive, subject, of course, to the Congress making the necessary appropriation. In the post-war period it is contemplated we will need to provide employment for a number of our returning soldiers. These projects have been planned, they have been approved, they are already authorized, they are sound and economically justified and, when constructed, will add materially to the capital wealth of this region and to the Nation.

In that connection, Mr. Chairman, I may point out that the projects already authorized on these streams, if constructed in the post-war period, will provide more than 500,000,000 man-hours of direct labor. As I understand, that doesn't take into account indirect labor that will be incidental to the construction of these projects.

Therefore, it should be the policy of the Government to see that public expenditures for post-war jobs should be made on the programs and improvements that Congress has already authorized by previous legislation with respect to projects on these streams rather than making a blank-check appropriation and leaving the expenditure to an agency such as the W. P. A. or some other of like character in order to find jobs for our unemployed. That is policy No. 1 in the bill and looks to the assuring of employment and work on worth-while projects. Senator BURTON. Senator, would that mean putting these two basins ahead of all other projects of a similar nature in the country?

Senator MCCLELLAN. I don't know what legislation will be adopted with respect to other valleys and basins, but, I say this, that is not my purpose or objective in this bill. I think that it may afford a model or pattern for other valleys, and other areas where they desire such projects. Frankly, I would support a bill giving this character of the projects priority throughout the Nation in our post-war period.