recounting one of his pioneering journeys to this same Mid-West. He said this: "Prompted by these actual observations, I could not help taking a more contemplative and extensive view of the vast inland navigation of these United States, and could not but be struck with the immense diffusion and importance of it, and with the goodness of that Providence, which has dealt her favors to us with so profuse a hand. Would to God we may have the wisdom to improve them." If we in our generation have so great a vision as the Father of Our Country we shall do it. Control Appointed by the United States THE are: By FREDERIC A. DELANO Chairman, Washington, D. C. HE salient points of this Com- ment as to withstand the terrific mittee's report and its conclusions (1) To begin with, the Committee attempted to make a catalogue of the floods which have occurred in the last 200 years. During 150 years of that time, one must depend upon somewhat indefinite historic records, accurate enough, however, to indicate that as often as every ten years or so these floods were very serious. Since 1879, the year the Mississippi River Commission was created, precise data have been available. These show that there have been in the last fifty years seven floods in the main river which were serious enough to be characterized as important. (2) The seriousness of these floods and the resulting damage have satisfied the Committee that the work of protection has been inadequate either in its conception or execution. In trying to satisfy itself upon this point, the Committee came to the conclusion that a work of such magnitude must be under a centralized control with a single responsibility for its maintenance as well as construction. It has been stated without contradiction that even in this last terrific flood, no levee constructed under the present specifications of the Mississippi River Commission has given away; that the levees which have given away were levees which were either faulty in construction, inadequate in height and strength, or were not so protected with revet onslaught of this flood. The lack of centralized control has naturally led to waste, so that not only have the communities greatly suffered in each flood period, but much of the work that had been done has been thereafter largely undone. (3) It became evident to the Committee that the work of control, adequately conceived and properly centralized, must be undertaken on a continuing basis. The commission undertaking the work must approach the subject as any great engineering construction must be undertaken, as, for example, the Panama Canal. A general method of dealing with the project must be agreed upon, the work must go forward and funds be made available on a progressive basis. Because the work requires in some cases special and heavy machinery, contracts must be let, the execution of which will require at times two or three years. In no other way can we deal with so great a problem either effectively or economically. (4) A difficult angle of the problem presented itself when the Committee considered the limitations of the work which it was ready to recommend to Congress should be undertaken solely by Federal authority. The Committee's recommendation that the work should be under Federal control has already been explained, but the justification for that recommendation lies largely in the fact that the lower Mississippi River (between Cairo and the Gulf) drains the water from thirtyone states. This part of the river may be termed the main trunk line sewer for 60 per cent of the area of the continental United States. It is so none the less because it receives a large precipitation within its own immediate drainage area. This vast drainage system cannot be considered as a local matter, and yet if you undertake to enlarge it by demanding that the control of the Federal Government shall include some of the tributaries, for example, the upper Mississippi, you at once get into trouble, for there is no more reason why the Federal Government should protect the upper Mississippi River in which five states are involved, than it should protect any other interstate stream. The same is true of the Ohio River, the Missouri, the Arkansas and the Red River. (5) It was evident that a serious flood in the lower Mississippi River not only operated to destroy commerce with the most competent engineering staff available. Incidentally it should be said, this is not in any sense a criticism of the Mississippi River Commission or of the Engineer Corps of the Army, both of which have done excellent work with conditions and limitations what they were. With this explanation it will be readily understood why the Committee made to the Chamber four major recommendations which are now being considered in a letter ballot by the entire membership: I. That the Federal Government should hereafter pay the entire cost of constructing and maintaining works necessary to control floods of the lower Mississippi River. (For purposes of this report from Cairo to the Gulf.) II. That the Federal Government should assume the sole responsibility for locating, constructing, and maintaining such works. upon the River itself for a considerable III. That there should be an adequate period of time, but what was far more serious, it destroyed interstate commerce by rail and highway along the River and across the valley over a very wide extent of country. (6) Finally, your Committee strongly recommended in its report that the work of flood control should be considered by itself, not associated with any other projects however meritorious; that it should be put in the hands of a highly competent commission, 1 The members of this Committee were as follows: appropriation to insure efficient, continuous and economic work, the funds to be available as needed. IV. That flood control of the Mississippi River should be dealt with in legislation and administration upon its own merits, separate and distinct from any other undertaking. The report of the Committee1 follows: PERSONNEL OF COMMITTEE DELANO, FREDERIC A., Chairman: Engineer, of Washington, D. C.; formerly a railroad executive and president of the Wabash Railroad; appointed a member of the Federal Reserve Board upon establishment of the Federal Reserve System, resigning in 1918 to enter Army; on staff of the director general of transportation in France; recently receiver for the United States Supreme Court in Red River Boundary Case. LAMONT, ROBERT P., Vice-Chairman: Manufacturer, of Chicago; president, American Steel Foundries; director, First National Bank of Chicago, Armour and Company, etc.; during war, chief, procurement division, Ordnance Department; member, Chicago Association of Commerce, and THE COMMITTEE REPORT To the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States: Your decision to appoint this special committee was made at a time when the Mississippi River was in the midst of one of its most destructive floods. The interest of the American people was at its height, and the fullest measure of sympathy was being extended to the stricken people in the Mississippi valley. All means of aid were being considered and organizations were being perfected to extend such aid and give relief. It is inferred from the wording of the resolution passed at the annual meeting of the National Chamber in May, dealing with conditions arising from the Mississippi River flood, that any phase of this problem which the committee might consider appropriate for Chamber action should be studied. The immediate and generous response of the American people to the President's appeal for funds has, under the very prompt and efficient work of the American Red Cross in the relief of suffering, prevented epidemics and furnished food and shelter to the people whom the flood suddenly bereft of their homes, cattle, and other possessions. Before the flood waters had begun to recede, steps had been taken toward rehabilitation. formerly vice-president, Illinois Manufacturers Association; director, Chamber of Commerce of the United States. BENT, ARTHUR S.: Engineering contractor, of Los Angeles, California; senior partner, Bent Brothers, and president, California Glazed Cement Pipe Company; formerly president, Associated General Contractors of America; director, Chamber of Commerce of the United States. BUTTERWORTH, WILLIAM: Manufacturer, of Moline, Illinois; president, Deere and Company; formerly president, National Implement and Vehicle Association; vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States for the northern central states. COUCH, H. C.: Engineer, of Pine Bluff, Arkansas; president, Arkansas Light and Power Company; vice-president, Bankers Trust Company, Little Rock, Arkansas; chairman, Arkansas Farm Credit Company; national councillor for Pine Bluff Chamber of Commerce in United States Chamber. DICKINSON, JACOB M.: Lawyer, of Chicago; formerly Secretary of War, president of the American Bar Association, receiver for Rock Island Lines, etc.; vice-president, American Society of International Law. ELLIS, ROBERT R.: Wholesale merchant, of Memphis, Tennessee; president, The Hessig-Ellis Drug Company; formerly president, Memphis Chamber of Commerce; vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States for the southern central states. HINES, WALKER D.: Lawyer, of New York City; president, Cotton-Textile Institute; formerly chairman, board of directors, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad; formerly Director General of Railroads; recently arbitrator under Peace Treaties of questions relating to river shipping and investigator under League of Nations respecting navigation on Rhine and Danube. LONSDALE, JOHN G.: Banker, of St. Louis, Missouri; president, the National Bank of Commerce, St. Louis; director, St. Louis Reserve Bank; member, Commerce and Marine Committee of the American Bankers Association; director representing Finance Department, Chamber of Commerce of the United States. MEAD, DANIEL W.: Engineer, of Madison, Wisconsin; professor of hydraulic and sanitary engineering, University of Wisconsin and consulting engineer in these fields; member of the former Red Cross Commission to China on flood protection and formerly consulting engineer, Miami Conservancy District. PARKER, JOHN M.: Cotton planter and cotton merchant, of New Orleans; former Governor of Louisiana; formerly president, New Orleans Board of Trade, Mississippi Valley Association, etc. PERCY, LEROY: Lawyer and cotton planter, of Greenville, Mississippi; former Senator of the United States; director, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank. SLOAN, MATTHEW S.: Engineer, of Brooklyn, New York; president, Brooklyn Edison Company; member, American Institute of Electrical Engineers; director, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce; director representing Natural Resources Department, Chamber of Commerce of the United States. STONE, ALFRED H.: Cotton planter, of Dunleith, Mississippi; vice-president, Staple Cotton Cooperative Association. The Honorable Herbert Hoover, Secretary of Commerce, whom the President had placed at the head of the government's field activities, had organized efforts in this direction. He was receiving a large measure of assistance from the banks and other financial interests of the country, working directly with him or independently through organizations which they had initiated. The work of rehabilitation received further impetus through the Flood Credits Corporation,-the organization of which was brought about through the efforts of the National Chamber. FLOOD CONTROL Measures of immediate relief having been put into effect, and the lines of economic rehabilitation established when your committee was created, the sole remaining problem which has commanded our attention has been that of arriving at "a program which will insure, SO far as is humanly possible, a permanent solution" of floods of the Mississippi River. Almost fifty years ago the federal government became actively engaged in Mississippi River work through the creation of the Mississippi River Commission. The repetition of floods since that time has impressed more and more strongly upon business interests of the country and the general public the national character of this flood control. This statement is supported by the following quotations from "Bradstreets" published April 17, 1897, exactly thirty years previous to the recent flood: "The attention which the subject of Mississippi River overflow is receiving at present is certainly not out of proportion to the vast interests, both human and financial, which are involved, and it seems encouraging to note the practical agreement that whatever is to be done, whether in the strengthening of the present levees or the devising of new and more efficacious plans of controlling the river, should be under national direction." The committee has been impressed with the insistant demand throughout the nation that the recent flood should not go the way of other floods and be merely recorded in history as "the record flood of 1927," but that it should be remembered as the flood which aroused the nation to its sense of responsibility and directed the forces which will ultimately prevent a repetition. Our present wealth, our increasing national solidarity, the interdependence of various sections of the country, the increasing importance of our great arteries of commerce-our rivers, railroads, and highways; our ability to construct great public works with the highest engineering skill, and our quickened national consciousness, -all call for the removal of this flood menace. The history of the last twenty-five years has illustrated the fact that we, as a nation, have come only slowly to grasp the magnitude of this flood menace. Rather tardily, it must be admitted, have we come to see that it is something beyond the capacity of the states immediately affected, and the concern of the nation as a whole. As recently as 1917, the federal Congress appropriated forty-five million dollars, which was expected, with the addition of approximately equal expenditures by the local interests, to complete the system adequately. However, only six years thereafter, a further sum of sixty million was appropriated in the expectation of completing this big undertaking. Now we learn that the floods of 1922 and 1927 largely wiped out the expenditures to date, and today we are face to face with the fact that we have either spent too little or too much-too little if we are to do this work effectively, too much if we are doing any less. In attempting to answer the question of why past efforts to control floods have failed, your committee has made a study of flood control efforts on the Mississippi River, going back through two centuries of levee construction to the time when New Orleans, just founded, took measures through levees to protect itself from the Mississippi. It has reviewed the studies of others in dealing with flood control measures on streams in foreign countries and compared these measures with the policy adopted on the Mississippi. It has considered the Mississippi watershed as a whole, taking into account its climatic and rainfall characteristics, analyzed these according to basins and weighed the flood conditions of the main tributary streams, and their probability of synchronizing so as to create even |