ANNt-. L PRECIPITATION 2 TO:SO INCHES ANNUAL PRECIPITATION 30 TO 80 INCHES •
U. S. Weather BUre4u
TO PRESERVE WESTERN WATER FOR WESTERN USE AND TO ASSURE STATE PARTICIPATION IN WATER DEVELOPMENT
PLANS
DEDICATED TO THE TASK OF PROVIDING ADEQUATE WATER FOR A PROFITABLE AND DIVERSIFIED IRRIGATION AGRICULTURE IN WESTERN AMERICA-AN EXPAN·
SION OF WAP. FOOD PRODUCTION THROUGH MORE IRRIGATION-THE CREATION OF NEW FARM OPPORTUKlTlES AND THE STABIL!ZATION OF DROUGHT AREAS.
13th Annual Meeting-Nov. 15, 16, 17-Denver, Colo.
19
1119 NATIONAL PRESS BUILDING. WASHINGTON 4. D. C.October 12, 1944
CON V E N T , I 0 N N E W S I T EMS
.. ---=:========
Commissioner
Bashoreand Resional Directors on Hand Ii'or Conferences.
This year at the Denver Convention
Conuniss~.onerHarry' .vl. Bashore of the Bureau of
Reclamationwill again be available for conf6rencos with parties who desire to soe him on matters
of mutualintercst. It is
Mr. Ba.shore'sintention to haye the Regional Directors participate in all conferences which p6rtain to their particu1o.r area. I-Iembers desiring conferences with Bureau officials can get information on
makingsuch appointments
byreferring to
the printedconvention program which will soon bo mai1Qd out.
Come to Denver With Your Proposed Resolutions in Final Shape.
Members with resolutions which they desire to offer for consideration by the convention should, if possible, get their resolutions in final shape before leaving for Denver and bring at least ninetoen copies, then submit them to the Resolutions Committee early upon arrival.
J)Jnver Convention Conunittee Secretary Promises Smooth I1eeting.
Mr. A. C. Stiefel, Secretary of the Denver Convention Committee, and one of Judge stonets riGht hand
menin the Colorado
WaterConservation Board, writes in glowing terms of the plans which
areunderway to hu.ve a smooth running, hard working convention with
the le~stwear and tear on delegates and committees. Wall space is being
madeavailable for state exhibits. You'll be hee.ring direct from
thisconunit- tee one
ofthese days perhaps.
Write Ike
WaltonFor Your Denver Hotel Reservations Now ..
Rega.rdless
ofwhat hotel you want to stop at whilo attending the convention in Denver, you are e.sked to make your hotel reservations several weeks in advance by addressing a letter to
Mr."TIce" P. Walton, 11unaging Dil"ootor, Shirley-Savoy Hotel, Denver, Colora.do. We know from long experience that no one who has followed this advice has ever been let down
byf1Ike
tt•Bettor taka your pen in hand nowl
Revival of Interest in Western Water l"Jatters In.dicated.
In nw eight years as Secretory-Manager
ofthis Association, I have never seen as
muchinterest in a forthcQming convention as is now being evidenced in the Thirteenth Annual Meeting, scheduled
tooonvene in Denver November 15, 16, and
l7~People from whom
wohave
notheard for yoars
nrewriting in.
No onesubjoot seems to hold the center of the stage. Somebody seems to be interested in every phase of the program of national reclamation and allied water issues.
OFFICERS O. s. WARDEN, PRESIDENT ORA BUNDY, FIRST VICE·PRESIDENT ROBERT W. SAWYER. SECOND VICE.PRESIDENT J. A. FORD, TREASURER
F. 0 HAGlE. SECRETARY·MANAGER
HUGO B. FARMER. YUMA, ARIZONA J. R. FAUVER. EXETER, CALIFORNIA CLIFFORD H. STONE. DENVER. COLORADO N. V. SHARP. FILER. IDAHO
E. PORTER AHRENS. SCANDIA. KANSAS O. S. WARDEN. nEAT FAllS. MONTANA
DIRECTORS H. D. STRUNK. McCOOK, NEBRASKA A. M. SMITH. CARSON CITY, NEVADA E. W. BOWEN. TUCUMCARI. NEW MEXICO HARRY E. POLK. WILLISTON, NORTH DAKOTA FRANK HAAB, GEARY. OKLAHOMA
ROBERT W. SAWYER. BEND, OREGON MILLARD G. SCOTT, PIERRE. SOUTH DAKOTA MILTON E. DANIEL. BRECKENRIDGE. TEXAS ORA BUNDY. OGDEN. UTAH
J. A. FORD, SPOKANE. WASHINGTON W. F. WILKERSON. CASPER. WYOMING
Vol. VIII, Nee
19 -
Page 2 Ootober 12,1944
THE DENVER CONlENTIO~ FROGRA!1
The tentative program for your 13th A.'lllu~l Meetin:i 8!ld Convention is now on the press, and printed oopies will be mailed each mer.1ber next nS'3k.
Convention speakers whom wo now know will a.ppear on yc'ur program, and their
subje(~ts, i!lClude tho followinr;t
COIIl..'r'flis s ioner Ha.rry W. Bashoro - "Reel f'\.ma.tio~ Looks at t:.i0 Fost-Har Ero .• tt
Carl H. Wilken - "The Place of Irriga.tion ~ricul ture in Our Future Economy."
Dr. John Lee Coul tdr - "'!tlhy Irrigate 110re Lund?"
W. G. Sloan - t'I101.il1zinr; U~td ~.nd Ha'ter Resources."
Clifford H. Stone nf' COlclr-!!.d;--r
Al
ban J. Parker of Vermc:nt IJ'lme s H. Allen of Pennsyl'tlania.
I
S. H. Wadhnms cf Connecticut
I
Philip Shutler of Vermont
--
...will conduct ~ Round Table Dtsc:..1ssion of the OtI18,honoy-
!1illiki~l Am.endments to the River-Harbor and Flood Control
Bills.
viiI] iam E. Warne - "Bas in-Wide 'water Development _ n
Ployd O.
Booe - "The C0ming World."James R. Fauver - "The Centrul Valle y Project of California. ft
E. H. J.is ing of' Idaho
--'J
Edwurd W. lttatt of Ca.l ifornif~
J. E.
Sturrock of TexasI
will discuss "Hhnt ModifiBdI
Policies Will Post-iarI R(3clamation Demand?"
._--_
... -W. N. Wilds - uThe Good Neighbor Folicy -
Surar;
and theWest.
n ilon. Joseph C. Oq-hhoney, Sl-3nator from Hyoming-'Hon. John C. Vivin.n, Governor
or
Colorado 1 ----+-.
Ba.nquet
Speakers
One entire evening will be d(;voted to n round ta.bla discussion and conf'3rence on state Recla:nation Associa.tion.s, their opportunities, and their problems.
The names of half a dOZt311 other headline' ~pe~ers. s ever~l l f whorl are na.tionQ.l figuros, are expected to appear on yr.;ur conventL)l1 t s erN ciul prograr.l.
SElrA.TOR O'i1AHONEY URGES W.F.B. ACTION IN CLEARING W.t\.R FOOD PROJECTS
!1embers a.."1d projoct sponsors intorf·sted in i:r rigation war food projects now be- ing held up by the \Ja.r PrOd'lction Enard will be interested in the follm'line; lotter from Sena.tor OtI1ahoney 01.' W:loming to Chai:r!.1D.n J. J. Krug of W.P .B. The letter follows I
October 12,
1944
ttDenr
Mr.
Krug."I'1[:.y I not ca.ll yuur attention to the reclamation projects a.uthoriz- ed by Congress, but upon which 'stop construction' orders were issued by the War Production Board in NovombE:r and Deoember,
1942.
Thes8 orders were in.tended primarily for the oonserva.tion 01"" materials although the la.bor fa.ctcjr wa.~ also givep due w~ig!1t. While the la.bor suppl~r -problen~till remtlins acute in some seotioIJ.s of the COlu1try. tho supply of JJ£ ... t!3r- ial, is, I understa.nd, no longer a natter of serif')u3 concern. Funds in
the Sl.lY.l :;~. approximately ei~ht hundred million dollars have bonn appro,.
priated for these projeots numbering about forty and loc~lted in twelve states. The:r would offer tl. substantia.l bn,ais fer postwar wf)rk and I wri te to inquiro whether or not it would be feas'i-ole for tho Whr Produc- tiOll Board to raise the r'1!?teriuls liluitations now \'lhorevHr pr~l.oticable
so that the Bureau 0
r
Recle.naticn J'1...!l,.Y be free to mldertA.ke construot.ion wh3never it appears tlJ the War I1anIOwf3r Comnission thnt the n3ces·SLl.rYlab~")r is available.
UTher€l is enclosed n. list of reolamRticn projeots c(;nstruction of which has been s tc'pped bGcause of the war.
Sincerely yours"
Joseph C. 0 '11ahc'n€y-"
STATE RECLAl'fAr~~ION ASSOCIAT ION NE1-1S
The officers of the N:'rth Dakota Reolamation Association are cunpleting their program f'.:;!" t!leir annufl,l :neetin6J scheduled tv c':nvene a.t Devils Ulke 1':o7ember 26 and ~7. The lkrth Dn.k~ta. Ass,:ciati(in hC4S procably !1o.de (JoS much history and proc:rfJas in the past three ('r four years as any ass(;ciatic.n of its kind in (~ like period.
North Dakr: tEl. he.s "hitched ::.ts w~16cn to a 3 tarn in the .field of we. tar, and no onc -there kno'vVs he'll to qt.i t. He believ0 ti-lOy will uchiove a~ goal U.pnn which they·,
unite.
Texas
011 Oct~ber I, the Reclar.1~ tion !:1.nd water interests of Tt~xa.s met ill Austin f~)r 9.
Water Ccns8rvatL:n ConfE:r~nlC~t to pla.n e. per.nanent and offective state wide uss0cia.- tion to dOV0tC i tSGlf 0xch:s ivoly to solYing thiJ w~tc~ problems of. tho ontirf) sta.te of Texas, and to ~ctively pr0~8te needed construction works. If Texas has been a
"sleeping giant" in w.J.t~r :r.attera, there is evidonce todn.y tha.t Tex~s \\ill soon be a. m~jcr factor in the W(~st' S water developmont pr0i;;ruln of the fut'Art-).
Idaho
The Idah 0 ReclaT;lati on .As s ('cia ti en held the ir al"..nual neeting this yee.r at ~win
Falls 011 May 12 L~nd
13.
A liz~ht attende.!1ce wa.s r:..nticipated. A ballqu0t Urr:.J.Ilged fer one hundre(~ guests had to be expanded to ~ccommoda te two hundred tw~n."t;J'· tJJ'Jthusiastic irriga"tio!1 }!V1Tl that in~ludcd lenuers in a.ll lines of business fro;n all secti8ns of the state. A. VOl'U.t.118 of bu.siness was tran~a.cted and an assortnent c·f pr,)blen.s settled that wc-uld have done credit t·) some week-long nl).tional :;,eetings. Idaho i3 one state that d'.:fi:lit~ly knows whGre they are going wi~~ this water res·.)urce, and nothing oa.n stop them.Vol.
VIII,
No. 19 --Pago 4
October 12,1.911+
Kansas
The Kansas Rf3cl<"l.metion Assc:ciation net at Kirwin, Kansas on September
26.
This office ha.s not yet had a. report of' the meeting, but the pe,)ple and the Fross of Kansas are becominr: water minded. Kansas will n,ot again be satisfied unti 1 some plrm is in ufi'ect to put to beneficir4l use the 1,000,000 acro feet of flood wc..ters tha t now flow lmused ()ut of Kallsas eaoh year. Keep your eye on the irrigation barometer of Ka.ns as 1Nebraska.
No state i.n the WElst hus come to the fore quicki3r on wetter matters thfln
Nebraska. The Republican Va.lley Conservation Ass'ciation started the ball rolling in 1940 under the lendership of Hnrry stru.'lk ~~d I-I. O. Rynn. Last Hay the Nebraska
Recl~matlon Association we.S formed with lir. E. N. Van Herne of OTIl8.hB. as Prosident.
This mcnth another meeting is soheduled to launch what pro~ises to be a full-blown working organization wi-th a.n adflquato budget and full t::me executivo help. Nebraska has water for nearly a :llillicn more acres of irrigated land. They intend t o me.ka tho most of the opportunity which fA rost-W!lr era. l~lny usher in.
Washil!£?top
Imterpris ing water r:linded men in the state of ~lashington have been bus ily occu- pied for months in plc..ns for roorg.o.nizing the Washington Irrigation Institute into a full fledged working, fighting State Recla!lation Association. The rebirth is
scheduled to take 110.co late this fall.
Speaking bef0re the Spokune C}'Lli..l'!lber cf COIm";1erce on September
24,
Thomas D. Pat- win, Editor of the Yakima Daily Repub1i2. and the Horr..ing Hera~ said,"Our prorrw- is two-fold -- first, to ;·:W.kc tho state artioull=lte in spea.king for water development J .second, to correlate d.svelopment into a.
pa.ttern S0 all sections will got equ3.1 benefits."
Wa.shington has wa.tor stored for r.lOre thn.n a nillion acres of r..ew lWld. They have a big post-war job ahead to get ready for.
South Dakota
At Ro.r id City, South Dakota em August 28 occurred thEl Seventh Ar.nual Meeting of the South Dakota Reclamation Assoc iat ior... South Dakot~ is a small state, sp1.lrsfDly populated, but no group in the west is more alert to the proper futv.re usc; of thair wa.ter resources than the membGrs of thJ.t Associ~tion.
other stutes with r ... ctive sta.to recJr.mation !::~ssoci~tions include Wyoming, New Moxico. Orogon, and Utah.
THE PRESS
AGAIN
Again we reproduce an item from Business WeoJr of' September 30,
19l.J+
ur.ont the Missouri River issue, and un editorial from tho I1il(.;s City Star of I'lontana on thesnmo voluminous subject. Both arr.; worth reading.
Rasp ectfully s ubmi tted, F.
o.
fIagieFOH:EH
S ecrotary-I1e.nug erF.D.R. Pitching
Some Missouri Valley governors charge fast curve in President's message asking for TVA-model river authority.
Early last August, governors of eight states represented on the Missouri Val- ley States Commission met in Omaha to 'see what they could do toward settling the prolonged and bitter dispute between the irrigationists and naviga- tionists over the proposed development of the Missouri Valley (BW-Jun.24'44, p42) .
• Six Republicans-Six of the eight were Republicans who had just returned home from the states' rights conference with the G.O.P. presidential nominee, Gov, Thomas E. Dewey.
A Democratic governor-Lester C.
Hunt of Wyoming-opposed the idea of a Missouri Valley Authority patterned after the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Only friend of the MV A plan in the Omaha conference was another Demo- crat, Gov. John Moses of North Dakota, who quickly dropped the MV A idea there when he could make no headway for an indorsement of it. Iowa was absent.
This week -anguished cries of "foul ball" caine from some Missouri Valley state houses, where it was felt that President Roosevelt had put over a fast curve when he used the appeal of the governors for a ''unIfied'' development of the Missouri (BW-Aug.l2'44,p21) as a springboard for his appeal to Con- gress for a full-fledged TVA-model Mis- souri Valley Authority .
• Goes Whole Way-What the gov- ernors had in mind in the petition sent to the President from the Omaha meet- ing was a Siamese-twin amalgamation of plans of the Army Engineers for navi- gation and flood control, already before the Senate in the rivers and harbors and flood control bills, with plans of the Bureau of Reclamation for irrigation de-
Business Wettk • September 30. 1944
velopment, each agency to build its own works.
But in his message to Congress, the Presiden_t, asserting that he was in ac- cord with the principles set forth in the governors' agreement concerning the Missouri River basin, expressed the hope that Congress would give "careful and early consideration to the creation of
this federal authority to study this problem in its entirety.'"
• Governors Speak Up-Most of the governors who attended the Omaha conference-especially Gov. Hunt, Gov.
Andrew Schoeppel of Kansas, and Gov.
Dwight Griswold of Nebraska-have spoken up vig'Jrously ··since the Presi- dent's message to say they'll fight a Missouri Valley Authority such as Roosevelt asks for.
• Eye on Election-There were many who felt that in timing his message- the President sent it to Congress on Sept. 21, a day before adjournment until after election-Roosevelt had a watch- ful eye on the election as the question of how to control the Missouri River is of considerable importance to 7,000,- 000 people in nine states which muster 60 electoral votes.
A bitter battle has been waged for several years over method~ Some of the states advocate a concentration on the navigation features of the project, and others, in the upstream areas, insist that irrigation should be the major phase.
• Four Bills Pending-At present, four MV A bills are before Congress, two in each house.
Sen. James E. Murray of Montana, who got his in first, proposes an author- ity with powers almost identical to those of TVA, which were worked out over a period of years and added to the original grant (BW-Aug.l9'44,p8). Sen.
Guy Gillette of. Iowa put in the sec- ond bill, which is similar to Murray's proposal, but which leans more toward the navigationist point of view than does the ~VIurray bill.
Rep. John Cochran of Missouri was third, with a bill identical with Mur- ray's, and Rep. John E. Rankin of Mis- sissippi put in the fourth bill, which is about the same as Gillette's.
(over)
MILES CITY DAILY STAR
Miles City, Montana, Sunday, October 1, 1944
BOYS, WE HAVE UNINVITED GUESTS IN THE HOUSE
To state the matter briefly, and First of all, we have a great city then to elaborate on it, we will say newspaper, the St. Louis pOst'-DfS- that the "house" is the Missouri patch. We don't mean to infer that river basin and the "uninvited guests" they are not regular inhabitants of are a motley array of left-wingers, the Missouri river basin. Not at -all.
CIO, Farmers Union, TV Aers and just But we do suggest that they are try- plain misled river folk. ing to lead a horse to water, withj.
There must be some honey in this out knowing much about the horse.
MIssouri river, "judging by the flock When the "Pick plan" was first pro-
!)f flies it has attracted. . pose.d, the st. Louis Post-Dispatch But let's first review the whole plumped for it with all four feet.
situation. The upp~r basin states of Certain other newspapers in the. val- the Missouri --suffered greatly from ley (this one among them) suggested drought in 1934 and 1936. We start- to the St. LoUis big brother that it ed to do something about that, by might be off on the wrong foot in impounding the surplus waters of our advocating navigation to the exclu- streams and diverting it to dried sion of irrigation as a mere secondary lan'ds. there to produce crops and consideration. Forthwith our St. Louis water livestock. In various and subse- friends saw the light and we were quent years, the lower basin states all happy that we had gained a on the same river began to exper- friend and ally. But it proved not ience greater flood hazards, partly, to be a very firm ally. Big city news- due to the denuding of the upper papers are in the habit of looking lands by the drought and partly to around for causes in which to crusade. the straightening and deepening of The winning of Pulitzer awards makes the main channel of the river. These them all the more anxious to crusade.
lower "states sent an' S.O.S. to the' Hence, it wasn't long thereafter that Federal government for protection we found the Post-Dispatch advoc,at- and Congress called upon the Army lng something akin to the socialistic Engineers for a plan to cope with TVA for the Missouri river, They got the raging spring and summer floods right smartly busy and had their below Sioux City. Congress was sin- Mr. Fitzpatl'ick draw cartoonS' depict- cere in this request and had no in- i'1g. the disorganization of the Miss- tention of interfering with the order- (luri under the "Pick" or "i310an"
Iy production of food, fibre and live- plans, and the b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l.
stock in the upper basin states. But w-o-n-d-e-r-f-U-l setup under some they got the cart before the horse. form of a TVA. It is a strange thing Then the grand free-for-all started. how these cartoons and articles Army Engineers came forth with the favorable to a TVA on the Missouri so-called "Pick Plan" which wasn't immediately blossomed out all over anything but a mere skeleton plan. the country in magazines that didn't It immediately aroused the suspicions know an irrigating shovel fl"om a left- and ire ot Montana, Wyoming, North hrmded toothpick. Perhaps that IS
and South Dakota and the y part of the big-city crusade. Or per- looked into their knapsack to haps that is some infection p,eculiar see what they had in -the way of a to Pulitzer winners.
rabbit's foot. Out of the sack came Shortly after the first TV A pro- the "Sloan Plan" which was a real, posal of the St. Louis paper, the CIO overall plan for the entire Missouri showed up on the scene, beating the valley from source to mouth. This tom-tom for ·an authority on the may be judged partly by the fact Missouri. This was the second batch that the Army Engineers called for of guests-certainly the beginning of expenditures of some four hundred the uninvited guests.
odd million dollars, while the Re- The next outfit to put in an ap- -Clamation Bureau's "Sloan Plan" con- pearance was the Farmers Union
templated a total appropriation of ·th .
over one billion dollars. Both plans WI its preSIdent, Mr. Patton taking a. front seat at the counter where sought to do the same thjng, only in the-pie might be passed.1 We don't counterwise fashion. The main ob- know much about Mi,. Patton as a jective of the "Pick Plan" was flood farmer, but We have always observed control and naVigation, with other that real farmers put in their time things such as irrigation only a.n farming. while psuedo farmers gravi- after-thought. The "Sloan Plan" en- tate to-the political pie counter. It visioned irrigation first and ne,viga- seems that Mr. Patton has been tion last, with whatever water was
left for that purpose. It was inevit- around the pie counter for quite some time now. It also seems that we able that these should clash; that are about to have his services thrust each should have its own cheering upon us in running Missouri river section, and that the argument would affairs.
eventually land in the lap of Con- Next were th V
gress. That is what happened and eTA boys!. them-
that is When the uninvited guests selves. ?ne of them, a Mr. LIlienthal,
camE' trooping in. Not only have they has WrItten a fine SOCialistic book, taken over the guest rooms but they WhICh .when read through the rose- have gotten real jolly on our "private
I
~olored glasses. furnished with the stock" and now are ready to kick b.ook (at ~ pnce, of course) just us out 'in the ~treet. .3lU1Ply transplants the TV A into theMissouri Valley and makes it one grand and glorious red-tinged garden spot. These boys ran out and got the blessing of old Senator Norris on their newest proposal oefore he died, he having been credited in his life- time as 'being the father of th,e TVA. Of course, they just kidded him about that title; the real sir~ of the idea was ,the red-eyed boys them- selves.
With the st. Louis Post Dispatch calling the tune; with ttte CIO and Farmers Union beating the tom-tom;
with Lilienthal's book being shoved under their noses at every turn and with old George Norris' \ blessing, it was to be expected that some of the upper basin boys would succumb to the call of the siren and fall off thc fence. This included a newspaper editor or two and our own Uqited States Senator from Montana.
In the meantime I 7 state governors met at Omaha. to consider the Pick and Sloan plans, after extensive hearings on both before various com- mittees of Congress. It was apparent to the governors, as it would be to any reasonable person, that there
wer~ good points in both plans; good engmeers In both of those depart- ments of the government. So the governors adopted Ii -resolutiQn ad- dressed to Congress wherein they asked Congr~s to provide authority for the coordmation of the two plans.
That is what most everybody wanted, both in the upper and lower basin states. Such a request to Congress was necessary because the Army Engineers' plan had been gotten up under ohe authorization of Con- gress, while the Reclamation Bureau worked under a different authoriza- tion, and only Congress cOtlld co- ordinate and integrate the tv/o.
Shortly . thereafter, our Senator Murray, WIthout one word of conSUl- tation with those most vitally in- terested in his own state, introduced a bill in the United States Sena"te calling fot the creation and authoriza- tion of a vast bureaucratic, socialistic scheme to be called a Missouri Val- ley Authority. We read the Senator's speech in the Congressional Record upon the occasion of the introdUction of his bill. Fully two-thirds of his rerr..arks were given _ over to a lauda- tion of the TVA, the boys· who creat- ed it, Mr. Lilienthal's book and all the rest of the clap-trap that has come to be associated with the TVA.
Comparatively little was said by the Senator in regard to the real prob- lems of irrigation and consumptive Use of water on the Missouri.
. An now the latest recruit to the 10ld of an MV A is none other than t.he President of the United States.
A few days ago he sent a message to Congress asking for the adoption of a TV A set-up on the Missouri River and cited the resolution adopt- ed by the 7 Governors at Omaha as the basis for his request for "the
creation of thIS federal authority."
l'Tothing was farther from the minds of those seven governors than the creation of any "authority" for the M-iss?uri. This is substantiated by publIc statements· of Governor Ford of Montana and Governor Hunt of
Wyomi~g, both of whom were present at the Omaha conference. Said Gover- nor Ford: "Montana's state govern- ment and its state officials never have approved any agreement prOVid- ing for basin-wide' authorities over the Missouri. or Montana rivers."
Senator Millikin of · COLOrado was quoted by the Associated Press as calling the President's suggestion "a very unfortunate mistake."
So there we have the roster oJ "un- invited guests" into our household of peace and good fellowship. What are we going to do about it?
Well, we are gOing to continue to work for the coordination of the Army Engineers' and Bureau of Re- clamation plans.
We are going to tell the CrOers of St. Loui! that \',;e want 00 part or parcel of them interfering -in a mat- ter of which they know absolutely nothmg.
That ~oes for Mr. Patton of the Farmers Union also, with double emphasis on the "nothing."
We are going to feel sorry for a great city newspapeI; like the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch which can't get , the crusading mote out of its eye long enough to stop prescribing cures for ills they know little about and which they will not take time to find out about.
We are going to continue to regret the poor advice given the President which caused him to suggest an ill- advised· TV A for the Missouri and which also made him attribute direct statements to seven governors of seven great states, which said seven governors never made.
As for our own Senator Murray we are deeply sorry that he went back to Washington after the last
elec~ion with a deep seated phObia against the Montana Power Company and the Anaconda Copper company;
a, phobia so pronounced that he is now ready to injure all other Mon- tana interests by grinding them be- tween a punishment, as typified by his Missouri Valley Authority on the one hand and his phobia on the other.
And lastly, but most importantly, we are gOing to hold fast to what we have-the source of the vast amount of water in the Missouri watershed -for the irrigation of our lands and the preservation of our economic structure. No set pf TV Aers;
CIOers, federal bureaucrats or mis- taken journalists are going to take that water away from us.
Do we make ourselves clearly un- derstood in St. Louis?
(over)
CONGRESSION AL RECORD-APPENDIX
OCTOBER
6 1944
Drought Blasts Eastern Apple Crop EXTENSION OF REMARKS
OF
HON. WALT HORAN
OF WASHINGTON
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRD3ENTATIVES Thursday, September 21, 1944 Mr. HORAN. Mr. Speaker. from the apple capital of the world in my dis- trict-Wenatchee, Wash.-comes com- ment on drought which has damaged the fruit crop in the Appalachian apple region of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Vir- ginia, and West Virginia. The condition"S described in this article by Mr. Carroll R.
Miller, manager of the Appalachian Apple Service at Martinsburg, W. Va., serve to illustrate the value of irrigation which assures western apple and fruit production from the effects of lack of moisture. The great apple producing areas of the State' of Washington in the Wenatchee and' Yakima Valleys have been developed under irrigation. It is significant. that the older apple industry of the East is now thinking about irriga- tion as an insurance for the great apple orchards of the Appalachian region.
The article, which was printed in the Wenatchee World on September 7,15 as follows:
DROUGHT BLASTS EASTERN APPLE CRop--NEED
FOR PLANNING FOR IRRIGATION DISCUSSED BY CARROLL MILLER
This summer's drought In the Appalachian apple regIon caused tremendous damage to fruIt in Maryland, Pennsylvania., Virginia, and West Virginia, according to officers of the American Fruit Growers, Inc., who sent the following wIre to Myron Foster here:
"Drought comparabie to 1930 in this area.
Apple crop reduced at least 25 percent and may possibly reach 40 percent."
Foster had heard reports of drought dam- age and had wired for confirmation. "This may have a farreaching effect upon our boxed apple market," sald Foster today, pointing out that this was expected to be the big-crop year both in the East and the West.
And it also Is accentuating Interest in irri- gation of eastern orchards, said Foster, who called attention to the August 22 bulletin put out by Carroll R. Miller, manager of the Appalachian Apple Service at Martinsburg, W. Va.
ADDS UP TO ONE THING
Miller tells his readers how short their water supply has been in many different years. "In every one of the 26 years since 1919 except two," he writes, "our apple crop has been reduced, and/or injured by lack of moisture. In 24 of these 26 years our apple crop has suffered from dry weather. That has been very, very expensive. Little apples cost more than big apples and sell for less."
Then, after devoting several hundred words to a discussion of the situation, he asks
"Does this data, added to your experience' make it clear that we should-perhaps mus~
have more water on our orchards; and water in quantity? We will probably aU agree on that, heartily."
And then M1ller concludes:
"Unless 'We get this additional water, there Is more than a possib1Uty that we may find ourselves sitting In ghost-orchards, while
fruIt from the irrigated West goes past us to market. Certainly we will continue to lose heavIly most years from small, badly-finished fruit.
"How much is additional water worth to us?" Miller asks.
"What have we been losing? How much have little apples, and poor finish, cost us through this almost habitual drought?
There is no exact answer; but it Is huge; and there is still the ever-present danger of being suddenly wiped out of our bUsiness.
"CHERRY TREES DIE
"A ch~rry ~ower of Martinsburg left some of his trees this summer their heavy crop of undersized cherries. Thinking that rain would come the next day and bring them to size he bypassed these weaker trees in har- vesting. Finally, as the labor-short harvest concluded, it was too late to pick. these trees, and no rain had come. Today those trees are dead. The huge job of maturing the full crop under the conditions was too much- overexertIon. Growers will do well to watch their loaded, weaker trees closely.
"How to get this additional moisture is a
real problem. There are a number of 'SUpe plementary steps: mulching, with straw or other organiC matter; the dust mulch that we abandoned 25 years ago; a real thinning program (American Fruit Growers have plenty of 2Yz-inch peaches and excellent follage at their Myers orchard, because of drastic thor- ough thinning). There are other helpful measures. Our State and Federal speCialists can do nothing more timely and helpful than to jump on this problem with everything they have. They will if the growers inSist.
"OTHERS HAVE DONE rr
"But those are only supplemental, 'dry- land farming' measures. The real need is, clearly, for water in quantities. We cannot control the weather.
"But we can, control the water for our orchards. Other areas have done it; have brought water great distances and built up the s~stem of distribution to the soil to make the desert blossom with a thousand bushels of apples per acre. All that has been worked out for us by others. We can get costs al- most to the penny. It cost Washington State growers $9 pe.J' acre in 1939; $9.50 per acre in 1942; perhaps 3 cents per bushel, normally.
"We cannot t~ke heaVily from the fiow of smaller streams, even though they had suffi- cient volume during the hot months account riparian rights which insure this water to aU along its route. The solution, it seems to us, is in b1Jilding a network of impounding dams along our larger streams; building fair- size lakes, from Which we could draw the Winter-sprIng surplus rainfall as we need it.
"PROJECT ALREADY SURVEYED
"Fortunately, most of this has already been suryeyed and blue-printed. United States Army engineers, some 15 years ago, did all this in working out a combined hydro-elec- tric-and-fiood-control project for the entire Cumberland-PotQmac-Shenandoah area.
From south-central Pennsylvania through western Maryland and eastern West Virginia and southwest to Staunton, Va., a compre- hensive program was surveyed, blue-printed and costs set up. How much of that would be needed for agricu~tural irrigation remains to "be worked out. But the plans are at hand.
"The West is far ahead of us on this. The huge Federal system of dams and irrigatIon 18 established th.ere. Western growers built their own water systems, before the Govern- ment came In.''
