Show federal plan to tame missouri river after war will benefit I 1 11 I 1 million people living in its basin dams curb erosion provide irrigation electric service by WALTER SHEAD washington correspondent Correspond eat har harnessing essing the nations second mightiest river the turbulent muddy missouri which annually roars its flood crests along its twisting course for 2460 miles through seven states will become one of the major postwar projects more than 11 million people live in this great basin of a half billion acres comprising one sixth of the area of the united states for more than 30 years feeble attempts have been made to shackle the destructive power of the missouri millions of dollars have been expended in in levees and dams in attempts to prevent the costly floods which annually destroy vast sums in crops and property damage of the 1943 floods alone was placed at army engineers and the bureau of reclamation of the interior department have been for some time at cross purposes in the development of a comprehensive plan the army approached the job from the standpoint of navigation and flood control the reclamation engineers were interested also in irrigation erosion control and power projects on november 27 1944 a reconciliation report was filed in which the two agencies were in complete accord and the congress in its flood control bill accepted the entire program and also authorized each to the army and the 4 f 1 1 4 M NO g A fsr X TOO MUCH WATER the rampaging missouri river is eroding millions of tons of good soil away very every year here the flood waters carved into the bank washing out a road and leaving a pillar of earth to indicate the earlier line bureau of reclamation to get the program underway president roosevelt signed the bill on december 23 but put a hiatus in the proceedings by recommending the creation of a missouri valley authority to handle the project and asserting that his approval of the bill was with the distinct understanding that it would in no way jeopardize the creation of such an agency he appealed for early consideration of the new authority by the ath congress the president further asserted 1 I consider the projects authorized by the bill to be primarily maril for postwar construction only blueprint blue print now hence the project is now merely in the blueprint blue print stage and it is possible that a fight may develop in the new congress over whether there shall be divided responsibility as to the army and the reclamation bureau or whether a new missouri valley authority shall be created proponents of single regional control point to the tennessee valley authority and its successful operation as a yardstick for future federal policy in developing and controlling all the nations waterways however there are powerful interests which oppose the creation of these regional authorities such as the power utility interests the rail t roads the national rivers and har bors congress the mississippi val b ley association and even divided S public opinion along the waterway the rule of thumb for instance of the TVA is that regional authority will produce the largest possible benefits at the least possible costs and each task must be carried out in such a way as to contribute to the total result to salvage every |