protected now, realize that their protection is only temporary and they are anxious for a permanent flood-control plan.

RECOMMEND PLAN OF CORPS OF ENGINEERS

They have tried to protect their own land, but their plan is failing fast because the floodwaters of Grand River are too strong for any flood-control plan that we are able to build for ourselves. We cannot build a flood-control plan past our own farms any more than we could build a highway past our own house. We want a big plan that will include our own territory. We believe that the plan that the Army engineers have will do this job. We understand that the floodcontrol plan has been passed by Congress and we want to see it carried out as soon as possible.

I have spoken so far, mainly, of the people who live along the drainage ditch. I now wish to speak for all the people who live in Linn, Chariton, and Sullivan Counties.. I wish to testify that these citizens want flood control. I have many petitions and letters from these counties, including Brookfield, a town of 8,000, the largest in Linn County, including the mayor of Brookfield, the bankers and leading businessmen of Brookfield, the mayor of Laclede, the Chamber of Commerce of Laclede, labor unions, businessmen, and citizens generally, including all farm owners.

We ask you to help us get this flood-control plan.

STATEMENT OF EDGERTON WELCH, VICE PRESIDENT OF CITIZENS NATIONAL BANK OF CHILLICOTHE, MO.

CHILLICOTHE RESERVOIR, MO.

FLOODS ALONG GRAND RIVER

Mr. WELCH. My name is Edgerton Welch. I am vice president of the Citizens National Bank of Chillicothe, Mo. I live on and operate a 500-acre dairy farm 11⁄2 miles east of Chillicothe, Livingston County, Mo.

My late grandfather, Dr. W. W. Edgerton, founder and president of the Citizens National Bank of Chillicothe, Mo., and my father. the late E. O. Welch, also president of the Citizens National Bank of Chillicothe, were landowners in the Grand River Basin.

I have, therefore, for three generations heard of and seen the disastrous heavy losses resulting from the frequent uncontrolled floods along the Grand River. My father, the late E. O. Welch, served as chairman of the flood-control committee of the Chillicothe Chamber of Commerce from the time this committee was organized until his death. He headed the delegation from Chillicothe that went to Washington, D. C., in the spring of 1938. At that time Congress passed the flood-control bill approving the Chillicothe Dam.

In May 1944 Chillicothe sent another delegation headed by O. B. Shaw, mayor of Chillicothe at that time, to testify before a Senate committee. This delegation appeared as proponents of the plan of the United States Army engineers for flood-control on the Missouri River and it tributaries.

On February 19, 1946, still another delegation from Chillicothe, of which I was chairman, testified at a public hearing before the Board

of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors. We testified in favor of the Army Engineers' Report on Survey for Flood-Control on Grand River and Tributaries, Missouri, dated January 22, 1945, which recom'mended the construction of the Hickory and the Pattonsburg Reservoirs in lieu of the Chillicothe Reservoir.

Today, gentlemen, we are glad to come before this Senate committee to make known again our desires in the Grand River Valley. We are particularly anxious to make this statement to the Senate committee because we do not believe that the Appropriation Committee of the House of Representatives got a true picture of the sentiment in our area.

REQUEST RESTORATION OF APPROPRIATION RECOMMENDED BY CORPS OF ENGINEERS

Only one witness appeared before the House committee, and he testified that the people in Chillicothe and the Grand River Basin did not want the appropriation for dams on Grand River. We are here today representing Livingston, Linn, Chariton, Carroll, Caldwell, Howard, and Saline Counties-a large area of the Grand River Basin to say that the people of Chillicothe and the Grand River Basin do want dams on Grand River. We want the adoption of the United States Army engineers' plan for flood-control in the Grand River Basin which is a vital part of the over-all Pick-Sloan plan.

Gentlemen, we ask you to restore to the appropriation bill the $100,000 asked for by the Army engineers to be used to make a definite project report on Grand River.

Possibly we who live in Chillicothe and the Grand River Valley were negligent by not making an appearance before the House committee. As a matter of fact we did not know about the hearing until it was over. If we had been advised of the hearing we would have been there. We are asking you now to overlook any errors that we may have made, and that you aid us in getting the construction of these dams under way as soon as possible.

The following organizations in Chillicothe have unanimously endorsed the United States Army engineers' plan: Chillicothe Chamber of Commerce, Chillicothe City Council, Chillicothe Lions Club, Chillicothe Rotary Club, Chillicothe Ministerial Alliance, Farmers Electric Cooperative.

I have with me resolutions, petitions, and letters from the citizens of Livingston, Linn, Chairton, Carroll, and Caldwell Counties endorsing the Army engineers' plan for flood control in the Grand River Basin.

I testify that the sentiment in these counties is practically 100 percent in favor of flood control on Grand River as a necessary part of the Pick-Sloan plan.

I was impressed, when reading the report of the hearing on this project before the subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives, that Representative Case of South Dakota said: "If they say they do not want it, at least a positive case should be made for it, and we should not shovel out public money just because it has been proposed."

We are here, gentlemen, to make a positive case for this appropriation as the first step in the building of these dams. Congress passed the Pick-Sloan plan in 1944. Congress promised the Grand River Basin flood control as a part of this Pick-Sloan plan.

We respectfully ask you today to help Congress fulfill its promie by appropriating the funds requested by the Army engineers to be us on Grand River.

Mr. FRITH. At this time, I would like to introduce Mr. Dud Thomas, from Carroll County.

Senator THOMAS. State your full name.

Mr. THOMAS. Dudley D. Thomas, Jr.

STATEMENT OF D. D. THOMAS, JR., CArroll counTY, MO.

CHILLICOTHE RESERVOIR, MO.

UNCONTROLLED WATERS OF MISSOURI AND GRAND RIVERS

Mr. THOMAS. Carroll County, Mo., is vitally interested in the present construction of the Hickory and Pattonsburg Reservoirs or what is known as the north part of Grand River. Reference to a map of the State of Missouri will readily indicate the reason for suc interest. Grand River constitutes the eastern boundary of Carrol County in its entirety, while the Missouri River, with all its twists and turns, is the southern boundary thereof. These two streams so destructive at the present time, as well as in years past, join and form the extreme southeastern boundary of Carroll County.

It is not my purpose or intention to enter into a discussion of the damage suffered by Carroll County in the dim past by reason of the action of the floodwaters of the Grand and Missouri Rivers. Dis couraged and downhearted owners and operators of land lying within the valleys of these two wild waterways know only too well what has heretofore happened. They, and I, content ourselves with the simple statement that there were never two more treacherous or destructive streams in the broad expanse of our country. We are now interested in the development and immediate installation of works that will. in our considered judgment, effectually eliminate future damage and destruction.

More than 12,000 fertile acres are confined in, and adjacent to, the Grand River Valley in Carroll County, Mo. More than 80,000 acres of rich, sandy loam, highly productive, constitute the southern, or Missouri River, boundary, of the county. At a time when the Nation is demanding increased farm production, the owners and operators of this acreage find themselves unable to comply because of the fact that uncontrolled waters of the two rivers are permitted to flow unchecked across the lands in floodtime.

Carroll County is in the peculiar position of suffering, not from the floodwaters of one stream, but from two. In other words, the action of the flood waters of the Missouri River is directly connected with those of the Grand. It has been our experience, over the last quarter century, with few exceptions, in floodtime, that one stream is held back by the other. The Missouri flood collides with that of the Grand at the southeastern tip of the county as aforesaid. One cannot more from the path of the other. As a result, devasting floodwaters settle upon the two valleys, drowning prospective crops and, in many instances, depositing acres of white sand that destroy fertility and productivity.

INDIVIDUAL CONSTRUCTION IS UNABLE TO COPE WITH SITUATION

Individuals have privately attempted to protect themselves from e ravages of Grand River. In many instances, they have rendered emselves bankrupt in contributing to the expense of construction d maintenance of levees that have proven wholly insufficient. They ve done all they can to check and withstand the flood from the bulent Grand.

RECOMMEND PLAN OF CORPS OF ENGINEERS

Past experience has demonstrated that the mere building of levecs not sufficient to offset the action of floodwaters. Those waters ist be checked and slowed and the citizens of Carroll County now d hope in the plan of the Government, through its accredited agency, check such waters on Grand River by the construction of the ckory and Pattonsburg Reservoirs. We respectfully urge the mediate construction of such improvements. They will control → heretofore uncontrollable Grand River. They will act as a brake on the Missouri. They will mean the difference between producn and destruction.

We would respectfully suggest that time is the essence of this itter. Already in 1946 the angry waters of Grand River have ced unchecked across the soil of Carroll County. If prior records e to be accepted, we may expect two or three more floods in 1946. e reservoirs, when constructed, will eliminate this terrible conion. The farmer asks only the opportunity of tilling his land. ith the assistance of a sympathetic Government, as evidenced by e proposed and vitally essential flood-control measure on Grand ver, he will have that opportunity in Carroll County, Mo. Without at assistance, he can look forward only to successive years of flood d heartbreak.

I am the prosecuting attorney of Carroll County. I represent the unty court, the administrative body of the county. I represent the arroll County Farm Bureau and the Carroll Chamber of Commerce. I desire to make just one or two observations to explain to you the iportance of the development of this project as it has been contemated by the engineers. Our county is bounded on the east in its tirety by Grand River. It is one of the most treacherous triburies of the Missouri.

BRIEF PICTURE OF GRAND RIVER

Senator THOMAS. Give a very brief picture of the Grand River. it a wide expense of water or is it a narrow and heavy fall? Mr. THOMAS. It has a fall, I think, of about 2 feet to the mile in our cality, and in the locality above in Missouri where the reservoirs re contemplated. It is a stream of varying width. I would not esignate it as being exceptionally wide when comparing it with the lissouri or the Mississippi. However, it is the type of stream which, y reason of certain improvements that have been constructed up bove, particularly in Iowa, resolving in the narrowing more or less of the channel, and the confining of the water in floodtime that brought his vast amount of water down on top of Carroll County and Chariton County.

NAVIGATION ON GRAND RIVER

Senator THOMAS. Is it a stream that could be navigated with z craft like a skiff or a canoe?

Mr. THOMAS. It is subject to navigation from its mouth, fr stance, where it flows into the Missouri at the present time for s tance, I would say, of 10 miles or more by motor-propelled e With some engineering upon the river and some work, undoubte that distance could be materially extended.

Senator THOMAS. I am just trying to get an idea of the ki river you are talking about.

Mr. THOMAS. When you come down into Missouri, you find it. river of considerable twists and turns. It adjoins some of them productive or what would be some of the most productive soil in country.

My county has the happy distinction of owning the largest ar of the Missouri River bottom land in the State. There are appr mately 13 or 14 thousand acres which are affected by the action of the Grand River. And, if I may presume upon you for just a moment that you will have some picture of the importance to us, and those us who are situated down below this proposed improvement, we li the Grand River on the east, the Missouri constituting our e southern boundary-they meet down in the southeast corner of county. The history of the Grand River is the history of flood si flood.

The statement has been made, perhaps facetiously, but I a it with all sincerity, that it does not take much more than a teacuri water in Grand River to put it out over our land down in the south part of the system. The one river acts as a contributing factor the flood caused by the other. Most of the time they are both flood, although there have been many instances when the Misso not being influenced by floodwaters up west of us, has been abi a come down and not disturb our southern boundary until it has square in this flood coming down the Grand. They act as a bra The water cannot get away. We have seen, in the last several years particularly, where this overflow water stopped.

LEVEES CANNOT HOLD FLOODWATERS

The argument might be advanced, gentlemen, that we ought take care of this by levees or by the adoption of improved meth under the soil program.

Gentlemen, levees have been tried. The Congress has appre priated millions of dollars toward the assistance of levee districts a rebuild those that have been eliminated by reason of those two streates Landowners have bankrupted themselves in an effort to combat th water. They cannot do any more. They can maintain the prese system of levees which will be of some assistance, but they can keep off these tremendous floods by that system alone.

You will find in the conservation program that the matter terracing is only going to take care of approximately one-fourth of th water that might otherwise come down in flood.

We are going to have to do it with levees and with reservoirs, hold back some of this water and give the other a chance to get away.