bids asked for on various constructions sought by the Army engineers for flood-control works of different kinds in both the Merrimack River and the Connecticut River Basins, and it appears that after the specifications or calls for bids have been sent out, the Wage Adjustment Board here in Washington has provided for an increase in wages for persons who are in his particular union. Many classes of them. And the wage increases run from approximately 15 cents an hour for the different types, although in some instances, like scrapers, it runs to 21 cents an hour. This would, of course, increase the cost of construction to any contractor, provided he was bound by these increased figures set by the Wage Adjustment Board. It also provided in the decision of the Wage Adjustment Board, which was made on February 27, 1946, apparently, that the decision of this Wage Adjustment Board was that they should recommend recognition of new authorized rates in the next wage determination issued by the Secretary of Labor pursuant to the amended Davis-Bacon Act with respect to Federal building construction in the Springfield, Mass., area.

Now, that, to Mr. Byrd and to me, who are interested in the actual construction as soon as possible of these projects, is a rather serious proposition, because the Springfield, Mass., area covers the whole State of Vermont. Most of the State of New Hampshire is included in the Merrimack River Basin, and the four counties in western Massachusetts. His concern was that contracts or, rather, bids, which were made in accordance with specifications sent out and containing the old Davis-Bacon Act rates would be much lower than they otherwise would be if the contractors had known of this decision of the Wage Adjustment Board and the recommendation that the Davis-Bacon rates should be amended in accordance with it. I am wondering, in order that there shouldn't be any mix-up later oǹ, and anybody pulling off employees from work that was undertaken, if you can explain what the position of the Government or the Army engineers is when bids are called for with certain Davis-Bacon Act rates for wages in effect, and before bids are opened and the contract let there are amended Davis-Bacon Act rates that are higher, with the result that either the contractor is in a position of being squeezed pretty badly or else the locals in charge of these men will perhaps not permit their men to work and thereby stall action on these contracts.

General WHEELER. The contractor has to protect himself in advance on that when he bids for the job, as he is in competition with all other bidders, and he would have to take care of himself in the case of any increase in the cost.

Mr. CLASON. Yet when he files his bid, he may file it having in mind existing Davis-Bacon Act wages, and by the time his contract is accepted, the wages go up 15 cents an hour, and nevertheless on that date a new wage scale is in existence?

General WHEELER. That is a circumstance which may arise.

General CRAWFORD. If the Davis-Bacon rates are changed, the contractor is forced to pay them. I would like to look into this question in greater detail and discuss it with you tomorrow. Mr. CLASON. Thank you very much.

The CHAIRMAN. Any general questions by Mr. Larcade?

Mr. LARCADE. Mr. Chairman, I might say that I have followed the statement of General Wheeler with much interest. I think it is one

of the finest statements that I have heard since I have been a member of this committee.

Of course, I am interested very much in flood-control matters because my section of the country is susceptible to perennial floods, and I am south of my colleague, Congressman Allen of Louisiana, and whatever affects him naturally affects me because the waters that pass through his district eventually find their way down to mine.

I was particularly interested with respect to the Denison Dam and Red River projects because in 1943 I presented to this committee for inclusion in the hearings a statement with regard to the comprehensive plan that General Wheeler referred with respect to the Red River Valley, and which in the future will present some other problems and projects that we have which will come before this committee and the Rivers and Harbors Committee.

The chairman stated that he hoped that General Wheeler and his assistants would be able to appear before the committee, and I desire to call the attention of the chairman and members of the committee to the fact that on tomorrow the Rivers and Harbors Committee also begins extensive hearings which will proceed probably for the balance of the month, and also I think it is quite probable that we will have to ask the chairman of this committee to share part of the time of General Wheeler and his assistants for appearing before this committee.

The CHAIRMAN. We have already arranged that, anticipating your question. Tomorrow General Wheeler will be before the Rivers and Harbors Committee, and General Crawford will be available to us. On the other days we have the priority on General Wheeler.

Mr. LARCADE. I am glad to see that the chairman of our committee has given some thought to the action of Mr. Chester Bowles and the OPA with respect to the manner in which they have exceeded their authority given by the Congress in trying to control profits on materials which might affect our programs here; and I hope that he will assist in bringing about some satisfactory arrangement whereby the OPA may be straightened out so they won't interfere with our flood control, and the general economy of this country.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. McCowen, any general questions?

Mr. McCOWEN. Mr. Chairman, I desire, too, to compliment General Wheeler on his most excellent statement.

Of course, I am particularly interested in the Ohio River, and I notice on page 8 of the statement, we have the Ohio River-refers to the items listed. I am wondering if either today or tomorrow the General could include for the record the list of projects that are completed or under way, and also the list of projects that have been approved. They are referred to in the first and second column of the figures.

The CHAIRMAN. Will you furnish that information when we reach the Ohio, the day after tomorrow, Wednesday, in connection with Mr. McCowen's request?

General WHEELER. Yes, sir.

Mr. McCOWEN. I think that is all I have.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Stigler.

Mr. STIGLER. No questions at this time.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Adams.

Mr. ADAMS. I think the General might have strengthened his argument had he pointed out not only those projects destined to protect, but also that a great deal of increased property being built all the time is going to be protected. I assume that he, in making that statement, assumes that those projects are going to be paid for by the American people, and that the costs of the projects are not going to be added to the public debt to be paid by future taxpayers on depreciated values in the future; otherwise there might be some fallacy in his argument. General WHEELER. We consider that the benefits resulting from the projects pay for the project; in other words the benefits justify the

costs.

Mr. ADAMS. My point was-your argument was that the increased value of the property justifies the increased cost in the expense of building these projects. If you pay for those projects on taxes that are assessed against the people whose property is increased, all right, but if you simply pass that on to taxpayers in the future and the costs are added to the public debt instead of being paid for by the people at this particular time on taxes that are raised on those particular properties, your argument doesn't hold weight.

General WHEELER. The benefits are related to property values protected. It seems to me that the taxes also go up with the improve

ments.

Mr. ADAMS. And the projects are paid for, as a matter of fact, by the people whose property is being taxed, which value has increased, all well and good. On the other hand, if you are still working on an unbalanced budget and consistently adding to your public debt and tax people on a depreciated value, then there might be some question about your argument. That is all, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. We are glad to have your questions, Mr. Adams. Mr. DAVIS.

Mr. DAVIS. No questions, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, gentlemen, I do appreciate the attendance of the members of the committee, and we will try to confine ourselves to the matters in hand.

General, on tomorrow, we have the matters that are listed in connection with the Atlantic seaboard area that covers New England, Pennsylvania, New York, and all streams flowing into the Gulf of Mexico east of the Mississippi River. I would like for you to make available to the chairman of the committee the reports covering those projects and the reports covering any other projects listed for subsequent days, copies of the reports that you have submitted to the Director of the Budget. We feel that the committee is entitled to have your views and the probability is that the Budget Bureau will pass on those things you submitted to them before you complete the hearings, but in order not to delay the committee and in order that we may have the benefit of the information that this committee and the Congress is requesting you to furnish, I think we had better take up the reports in the order as we have scheduled them. If you will make available during the day, and during the subsequent days all reports that have been submitted to the Director of the Budget, we will be grateful to

you.

Mr. Allen.

Mr. ALLEN. General, with reference to your statement on page 9, I notice that Red River was not included, and I am now wondering

if some time this week you could give me that information with reference to Red River, but I would like to have a break-down on the different projects, approved, constructed, and so forth-any time this week.

General WHEELER. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Allen, I think that is a very helpful suggestion. General, in view of the fact that your statement-I am not saying this critically-refers to approvals aggregating substantially two and one-half billion dollars in the regions named, I believe it would be a good idea to supplement that statement by approvals and by the amounts appropriated, and the balances remaining, if any, not only in Red River, but in other streams in the country. If you do that, I think it will be fine.

Now, gentlemen, the hearings tomorrow are as scheduled, and any time members of the committee, and our colleagues in the House and in the Senate desire to know what projects are going to be taken up, they can refer to the Congressional Record or call the clerk of the committee. These hearings will begin tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock, and the first witness will be the spokesman for the Corps of Engineers, giving us the views of the corps respecting the projects. Then there will be heard the local advocates or the local opponents or the local proponents of the projects, as the case may be, and we will go down through the list, until we have completed those scheduled for the day, and we will do our dead level best to complete during the day, but at the same time without any undue haste, and I think we will give everybody an opportunity, everybody who has anything to say, an opportunity to say it, and we will undertake to assist, if they are not saying it fast enough, or helpfully or constructively enough. If people come before us with prepared statements, outside of the Chief of Engineers, who had to cover this matter, ordinarily those statements are for the committee, and the proponents and the advocates and the opponents can be most helpful to the members of the committee if they know their work, and proceed to give us the high points of that brief and enable us to come to the subject matter on the questions that

occur to us.

So, unless there be some questions by members of the committee or some further matter that members of the committee desire to ask, when we finish our deliberations each morning we adjourn, and the committee stands adjourned until tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock. (Thereupon, the committee adjourned to meet tomorrow, Tuesday, April 9, 1946, at 10 a. m.)

FLOOD-CONTROL BILL OF 1946

TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 1946

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON FLOOD CONTROL,
Washington, D. C.

The committee met at 10 a. m., pursuant to adjournment, Hon. Will M. Whittington (chairman) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will be in order.

General Crawford, we have under consideration this morning the Atlantic seaboard, including all of the area in the northeastern section of the United States, and streams flowing into the Gulf of Mexico east of the Mississippi River.

Generally, in the New England area and in the New York area, the New England area particularly, the matters for consideration will be inquiries into the authorizations for the adopted projects.

Is that about the situation?

General CRAWFORD. Yes, sir; that is the situation.

The CHAIRMAN. I will return to that a little bit later. That is generally the situation with respect to those areas? General CRAWFORD. That is correct, sir.

LEHIGH RIVER, PA.

The CHAIRMAN. The first project that we have under consideration this morning on the schedule, as announced, is the Lehigh River, Pa., Bear Creek Reservoir, and local protection at Allentown and Bethlehem, Pa.

As I understand it, the report consists of a restudy under a resolution adopted by this committee on October 20, 1942, and the Board of Rivers and Harbors has considered the matter, and the Chief of Engineers has formulated his report and the report is now pending before the Director of the Budget. Am I correct in that statement? General CRAWFORD. That is correct, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. I will ask you to either make or have your associate, Colonel Herb, after I have propounded a few preliminary questions, make a general statement with respect to this project, giving the results of your recommendations and the facts with respect to flood control.

As I understand it, the report of the Chief of Engineers which this committee has called for is dated January 31, 1946; is that correct? Colonel HERB. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. The Lehigh River, Colonel, is a tributary of the Delaware River, is it not?

Colonel HERB. That is correct, sir.