Senator OVERTON. Senator Robertson?

Senator ROBERTSON. No.

(Mr. Haddock withdrew from the committee table.)

Senator OVERTON. Now, is Mr. Montclair of North Dakota here? Mr. Floyd Montclair. Is he in? (No response.)

Mr. Macleay will be last, and then we shall put the engineers on. All right, Mr. Macleay.

STATEMENT OF LACHLAN MACLEAY, PRESIDENT, MISSISSIPPI VALLEY ASSOCIATION, ST. LOUIS, MO.

Mr. MACLEAY. Mr. Chairman, my name is Lachlan Macleay. I am preseident of the Mississippi Valley Association. The Mississippi Valley Association is a voluntary nonprofit organization with members in 23 States in the midcontinent area, the Middle West and the South.

At a meeting of the association held in St. Louis last October, resolutions were adopted from which I would like to read some extracts into the record.

Appearing on page 5 of the copy of the resolutions adopted by the membership in session, it says as follows:

Whereas it appears that the flood-control program should be considered to be a national program and one which should be under the control of one agency, and

Whereas it further appears that the United States Army engineers are preeminently qualified by training and experience to be that one agency;

Resolved, That Congress should give the United States Army engineers complete authority over the construction, maintenance, and operation, of all flood-control reservoirs and works, including control of all multiple-purpose dams primarily for flood control and navigation as approved by Congress. This resolution does not propose to interfere with the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Reclamation authorized by Congress.

This resolution does not propose to interfere with the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Reclamation authorized by Congress.

Under the heading of "Missouri River Basin" is the following paragraph:

We recommend adoption by the Congress of a plan for the comprehensive multiple-purpose development of the Missouri River and its tributary streams, designed to secure the fullest possible economic benefit from the conservation and use of the water of those streams, and to promote the maximum possible protection against the devastating effect of flood and droughts.

Furthermore, under the heading "Major citys":

Whereas designs are being made by the Corps of Engineers, necessary requirements of the Secretary of War respecting the rights-of-way will be met, and the 1943 flood has more fully demonstrated the immediate necessity for flood-protection works at the major centers of population such as the Kansas Citys, Omaha, and Sioux City, and because the improvements will protect very vital defense plants, airports, and utilities of many kinds, we therefore

Resolved, That insofar as possible, at the earliest practicable date, the necessary levees and flood-control works, including the Liberty Bend cut-off, be constructed to protect the major population centers in advance of, or concurrently with, the proposed reservoirs.

Furthermore, under "Reclamation":

We recognize the rights of the several States for beneficial use of water originating in those States for irrigation and domestic purposes, and recommend that construction necessary to carry out those purposes be approved on the Missouri River and its tributaries.

There is a note in the resolutions in connection with that which reads as follows:

In the discussion of the resolutions at the time of adoption, a clarification of the above was asked by delegates. It was explained and agreed to by the author that no infringement or depletion of the flow of the river that might interfere with its full development and use for navigation was intended.

The author of that paragraph was Mr. Robert B. Hipple, publisher of the Daily Capital Journal at Pierre, S. Dak. I read that paragraph into the record in the House hearings, and I have a letter from Mr. Hipple commending me for having so well stated his views with regard

to that.

I believe the Mississippi Valley Association is in complete accord with the statements made here by Governor Sharpe of South Dakota, by Harry Trustin, of Omaha; the statement of Walter Scott, men ber of the City Council, Kansas City, Mo., which was read into the record by George Catts, general manager of the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce; Mr. Catts' statement; the statement of Mr. Milton Kinsey, president of the Board of Public Service of the city of St. Louis; and by Mr. John B. Forsyth, president of the Upper Missouri Valley Association, a statement that was put in the record this morning by the chairman.

The primary interest of the Mississippi Valley Association in the Missouri Basin is in flood control. I want that to be distinctly understood. The secondary interest is navigation with us; our primary interest is flood control. The reason for that is found in the terrific flood losses, throughout our territory, and I am going to place in the record a statement of the losses for the past 20 years in all of the basins of the Mississippi system.

In the Missouri Basin the losses amounted to 244 lives, $163,936,428. That was 20 years.

In the upper Mississippi-and by that we mean the territory from Cairo, which is at the mouth of the Ohio, north-practically all of this loss is caused by the Missouri, especially when the Missouri comes into a full river and it happens that the Illinois is in flood when the Missouri comes down as it did last year. The losses in the 20 years in the upper Mississippi Basin were $97,383,536.

Senator MILLIKIN. Mr. Chairman, I am not challenging the figures, but I believe it would be helpful if the sources of them were put in the record.

Mr. MACLEAY. The source is here, and it is in the statement. It is prepared by the Mississippi Valley Association from data supplied by the United States Weather Bureau May 23, 1944.

That shows a loss over 20 years of approximately, in the upper Mississippi, which is the territory between St. Louis and the mouth of the Ohio-that is where we have had our most terrific losses, from Cape Girardeau to St. Louis along the main channel of the Mississippi and in the lower Missouri-amounting to about $13,000,000 a year average for the last 20 years. Those losses, as will be shown-I will give you a copy, too, Senator Millikin. I have other copies here. Senator MILLIKIN. Thanks very much.

Mr. MACLEAY. And, Mr. Reporter, I will give you one now.
Senator OVERTON. Give me one, too.

Mr. MACLEAY. Yes, sir.

Senator OVERTON. It is to be inserted in the record at this point?
Mr. MACLEAY. It is to be inserted in the record, if you please.
(Compilation of flood losses is as follows:)

Prepared by Mississippi Valley Association from data supplied by U. S. Weather Bureau, May 23, 1944

Mr. MACLEAY. This is a very interesting statement because it shows losses for 20 years in the Ohio, upper Mississippi, Missouri, and Arkansas Basins of $1,053,779,249, or over $50,000,000 a year, gentlemen, in flood losses. Now, that is in the upper basin; that is above Cairo. That is, it is from the Ohio up, takes in the Ohio Basin, the upper Mississippi Basin. That includes the Illinois, the Ohio Basin, includes the Wabash, the Missouri Basin, and the Arkansas.

Senator OVERTON. It does not include the lower Mississippi? Mr. MACLEAY. It does not include the lower Mississippi. That is the point I wanted to make clear, that it does not include the lower Mississippi at all. 927 lives lost.

I want to point out to the committee that losses of that character which have been borne by the people in the midcontinent area, not for the 20 years which I have outlined here but for years before

that, are a tremendous drain on the resources of the country, and it isn't only a loss to those people directly affected; it is a loss to trade and to business of the entire United States, because when a man loses his property in a flood there isn't any insurance, there isn't any salvage.

I have been through these floods. I have been 22 years in the valley. I was in the big flood of '27, Senator Overton, that swept all your country. I stood on the Bayou de Glace just before it broke. I saw that water run down over the Sugar Bowl of Louisiana, which hadn't been flooded in a hundred years, and I went all over that after the flood and saw the terrific, the terrible after effects of it. I went through the flood of 1936 in Pittsburgh and 1937 along the Ohio, and then I went up in Illinois, visited those communities, and went through that country after the waters had receded, and I saw the terrible losses there. And there is no insurance; there is no salvage. It is a total, complete loss.

Now, I have asked the Army engineers for figures as a result of the floods on the Missouri River in the Missouri Basin itself from the 1943 and 1944 floods, and I am only going to read the summary and put the tables in the record.

The damages from the 1943 flood in the Missouri River alone-that is only on the main stem of the river down to its mouth-totaled $65,000,000. Already in 1944 the losses have been $31,000,000. There is a complete statement showing the losses by the tributaries.

(The tabulation, "Comparison of the extent and cost of the 194344 floods," is as follows:)

Comparison of the extent and cost of the 1943-44 floods

Comparison of the extent and cost of the 1943-44 floods-Continued

Mr. MACLEAY. I asked the division engineer at St. Louis for figures showing the losses this year, 1944, on the Mississippi, the Illinois, the Kaskaskia, the Meramec, Cuivre, and Salt.

Most of that was between Cairo and the mouth of the-well, between Cairo and a little above the mouth of the Missouri. They had some floods up above the Missouri this year. So far the loss is $17,700,000 on the Mississippi, $1,600,000 on the Illinois, $3,700,000 on the Kaskaskia, $140,000 on the Meramec; Cuivre River was $800,000, and the Salt, $1,060,000; a total of $25,000,000 this year.

These figures, as has been explained by the engineers, are their figures up to date. They are subject to revision. They are the best figures they could give me as the situation stands now. (The tabulation referred to is as follows:)

Flooded area and damages in St. Louis, Mo., engineer district resulting from

Mr. MACLEAY. Now, I have here from the Omaha office of the engineers a description of the 1943 floods, how they originated in the Missouri Basin; and of the 1944 floods. It goes into detail, telling exactly where these waters came from and just what happened. I do not think it is necessary to read these into the record. I will place them in the record so that they will be here available.