La Fourche bottom. The water goes on south through the La Fourche bottom. Mr. WHITTINGTON. You have a fine country. That is all. Mr. QUINN. What is the average price per acre of your farm land in Morehouse Parish? Mr. SMITH. Our land in Morehouse is assessed on "A" and "B" Mr. QUINN. I am not talking about assessments. Mr. SMITH. You said what was the average value? Mr. QUINN. Yes; sale value. Mr. SMITH. Oh, I misunderstood you. I would judge that the average value of your good upland farmland there would be around $50 or $60 an acre. Mr. QUINN. When was that price established? Mr. SMITH. That is established from time to time. Mr. QUINN. A recent sale? Mr. SMITH. During this depression there has been land that was foreclosed on. Mr. QUINN. When was that price established, recently or when? Mr. SMITH. That is over a period of time. Mr. QUINN. What is your assessment down there? Mr. SMITH. It runs from $10 to $40 an acre, according to the class. On the same farm you may have "A", "B", or "C" assessments, and that runs from about $10 to $40. Mr. QUINN. How does Morehouse Parish compare with the value of similar parishes throughout the State? Mr. SMITH. The land? Mr. QUINN. The value. Mr. SMITH. Down in the alluvial lands they all run along about the same. Mr. QUINN. You are assessed form $10 to $40 an acre and average price is $50? Mr. SMITH. No; I would not say an average price; no. Mr. QUINN. That is what I understood you to say. Mr. SMITH. Your good farm land, I said. Mr. QUINN. $50 an acre? your Mr. SMITH. Your good farm land would run around $50 or $60 an acre. Mr. QUINN. Then the assessment on good farm land would be about 40 percent? Mr. SMITH. No. Our assessment runs on an average-I mean Parish-wide, now-about 40 to 50 percent. Mr. QUINN. That is assessed valuation? Mr. SMITH. Yes, that is assessed valuation. Mr. SMITH. What is the sale valuation? Lately there has been none. Mr. QUINN. I know there is no value, because there is no demand. I understand that. I mean in normal times. Mr. SMITH. On the other hand, though, there is land in that parish that you cannot buy, that they will not sell at any price. Mr. QUINN. But on a sale under normal conditions what would it sell at? Mr. SMITH. You can go out under normal conditions and buy land on an average of right around $30, $40, or $50 an acre. It depends on the location. Mr. QUINN. That is all. The CHAIRMAN. Are there any further questions? Mr. FERGUSON. There have been several resolutions offered here by police juries, Kiwanis Clubs, and so forth, from over in the Boeuf Basin. To your knowledge have there been any similar resolutions endorsing the Markham plan from the area that is going to be in the new floodway? Mr. SMITH. No, sir; none that I know of, no. Mr. FERGUSON. If only a limited amount of money would be spent, say that the Government did not have all this money to spend, if that levee from that point there at Eudora to up along the south bank of the Arkansas should be brought up to the 1914 grade, do you think it would take care of a flood equal to the 1927 flood? Mr. SMITH. That would just be merely a thought on my part. It would not be from any scientific standpoint. That is perfectly true. Mr. FERGUSON. The common idea of this work is to take care of the superflood when you get that big flood. But if the present works were completed and the cut-off were completed, do you think that they would take care of a flood as big as the 1927 flood? Mr. SMITH. Possibly, but I would not say that. There was an enormous amount of water came down there in 1927. Mr. FERGUSON. That is all. The CHAIRMAN. We thank you very much, Mr. Smith. Mr. MCCLELLAN. Mr. Chairman, if the committee will permit me, I would like to ask Judge Gillison just one question in that connection. I think it might give us some information. STATEMENT OF J. C. GILLISON, OF LAKE VILLAGE, CHICOT COUNTY, ARK.-Recalled Mr. MCCLELLAN. Judge, in view of the condition you described the fuseplug levee to be in, when you speak about building it up to its 1914 grade and section I am just wondering-I do not knowif it would be necessary to set it back some distance. Mr. GILLISON. Yes, sir. Mr. MCCLELLAN. It will probably be necessary, if you build it up there, to set it back in a few places? Mr. GILLISON. I think they recognized that. The CHAIRMAN. At the present time, is the fuseplug levee up to the grade and section from begining to end? Mr. GILLISON. No, sir. Mr. WHITTINGTON. Are you on the levee board? Mr. GILLISON. No, sir. Mr. WHITTINGTON. Are you connected with it? Mr. GILLISON. No, sir. Mr. WHITTINGTON. You are not an attorney for it? Mr. GILLISON. No, sir. Mr. WHITTINGTON. You are not a member of the levee board? Mr. GILLISON. No, sir. I am county judge, and I have nothing to do with the levee board or the levee district. Mr. WHITTINGTON. Does your levee board ever report to the district engineer down there officially that that levee is not up to the grade or that there have been any slides or caves? Mr. GILLISON. Oh, yes, sir. Mr. Adams, who is a member of the State Board of Engineers of Louisiana, is here. The Tensas Basin has long made joint use of Mr. Adams and the Tensas Basin people in the South Arkansas Levee District. He is the engineer of that district. He goes over that levee all the time. He recognizes that condition, I am sure. You can get all the information from him. I do not know. Mr. WHITTINGTON. I want to ask one question of you because I recognize you are a good lawyer: Has the levee board asked the district engineer to do any work down there that he has declined to do or has refused to do? Mr. GILLISON. No, sir; I do not know that they have ever asked him anything that he has declined to do. But you know they are about half out of funds, too. They have to do and get along with just as little as they can to keep in shape. We have been begging them that that is part of their levee, to at least restore that to the 1914 grade and section. Only a few months ago we brought a good deal of pressure to bear upon them. They did go down there and start to repair this Carmichael break that I am telling you is 82 feet lower than the levee on your side. It is sunk, and it is broken all to pieces, slough. Mr. WHITTINGTON. How long has that levee been there in that condition? Mr. GILLISON. Three or four years. Mr. WHITTINGTON. It was just brought to their attention? Mr. GILLISON. No. We have plead with them and begged them and done everything we could to get the Government to do something to it. Only since this Congress convened have they agreed to do anything, and we brought all the pressure we had and could not do anything. Mr. WHITTINGTON. You mean to say the district engineer has done no work in there since 1928 prior to the time this Congress convened? Mr. GILLISON. The district engineer? Mr. WHITTINGTON. The Government engineer. Mr. GILLISON. Oh, no; they have done nothing there. Mr. WHITTINGTON. They have done nothing in there prior to the time this Congress convened? Mr. GILLISON. No, sir. Mr. WHITTINGTON. Did you hear the testimony of Major Oliver the other day? Mr. GILLISON. No, sir. I do not know that I heard it all. I heard him testify. Mr. WHITTINGTON. Did you hear him testify he brought that levee up to the 1914 grade? Mr. GILLISON. No, sir. Mr. WHITTINGTON. Except in the part where he is now working. Mr. GILLISON. No, sir. Mr. MCCLELLAN. Did you hear him say that they did not begin that work until just recently? Mr. GILLISON. No, but I know that is a fact. I well remember how hard it was to get them, since this Congress convened, to go up there and try to give us a little repair work just ahead of this water. Mr. WHITTINGTON. I understand they have been doing some work there off and on for the past few years. I understood it to be stated here in our prior hearings. I want to get it correct. Mr. GILLISON. If they have, I do not know it. It is possible. But Mr. Adams knows. He has been over on that levee. Mr. MCCLELLAN. Let me ask you one further question: Is there anything in the Jadwin plan or in the Flood Control Act of 1928 that says that somebody else somewhere else must call the attention of the engineers to the grade and section of the levee in the fuseplug area before they will do any work on it? Mr. GILLISON. No, sir; not that I know of. Mr. MCCLELLAN. Does not the law say that that levee shall be maintained to that grade and section? Mr. GILLISON. Yes, sir. I imagine you gentlemen are familiar with that, but I want to call your attention to a provision in the law creating the Jadwin plan. It says until the guide levees for the Jadwin spillway are erected, the territory at the head of the Jadwin spillway or the fuseplug shall have the same protection as the territory above and below on the Arkansas side and over in Mississippi on the other side. They paid no more atention to that than the fact of the business is, they studiously found a way to evade it. They said, "We will not build quite down to it on the north and not build quite up to it on the south, so you cannot say that it has not the same protection that it has just above the area," because they did not go quite to it above or quite to it below. I never heard an excuse for that. Mr. MCCLELLAND. In other words, that part of the law has not been complied with? The CHAIRMAN. What the act actually said was that the lands adjacent to the fuse-plug territory should be given the same protection as the land on the opposite side. That is a very elastic construction given to the word "adjacent ". Mr. RANSDELL. Mr. Chairman, in fairness to all concerned would it not be a good idea to let Mr. Adams, who is here, and who knows all the facts in regard to the fuse plug The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Adams is part of the Louisiana engineers. These people that are going to leave have the preference tonight. Mr. RANSDELL. Then I ask that he be given the chance sometime to tell the facts in regard to these fuse plugs. The CHAIRMAN. That is all on the schedule and arranged, yes. Mr. RANSDELL. And that he be requested to stay here until he gets a chance to do that. The CHAIRMAN. He expects to do that, and that is understood. I have consulted with him on that. STATEMENT OF E. D. SHAW, OF BASTROP, LA. Mr. SHAW. My name is E. D. Shaw, of Bastrop, La., and I represent the Morehouse Parish School Board. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I shall not take much of the time of the committee. I heartily endorse the report that has come from the parish and the other members. I represent the school board, which is vitally interested in the protection not only of its public property located in areas that are subject to flood but its existence. also. We are glad that an improved plan is being considered by this committee, and we think it gives us a very adequate protection, and have so endorsed it by resolution, which I should like to have filed. The CHAIRMAN. That may be filed. Thank you very much, Mr. Shaw. (The resolution referred to follows:) STATE OF LOUISIANA, Parish of Morehouse: At a regular meeting of the Morehouse Parish School Board held in its office in Bastrop, La., on Tuesday, April 2, 1935, the following resolution was unanimously adopted: Whereas it has come to the attention of the Morehouse Parish School Board, which is vitally interested in the welfare of Morehouse Parish, that the citizens of the parishes of East Carroll, Madison, and Tensas are opposing the Markham plan for Mississippi flood control as recommended by the Mississippi River Commission, and that they did under date of March 23, 1935, adopt resolutions which were published in the newspapers of the Fifth Congressional District, in which resolutions statements were made that opposition of the citizens of the parishes of East Carroll, Madison, and Tensas is more wide-spread and intense than the local opposition to the Boeuf Basin plan, which embraces portions of the parishes of Morehouse, East Carroll, Ouachita, Richland, Franklin, and Catahoula; and Whereas the Morehouse Parish School Board did by resolution go on record as being unalterably opposed to the Boeuf Basin floodway plan as a means of flood control as soon as it was proposed and has continuously opposed this plan from its inception; Now, therefore: SECTION 1. Be it resolved, by the Morehouse Parish School Board in regular session, That the opposition to the Boeuf Basin floodway plan as expressed by the citizens of Morehouse Parish and other parishes affected is as wide-spread and intense as possible, which is evidenced in the records and by the hearings heretofore held concerning the Boeuf Basin plan. SEC. 2. Be it resolved, etc., That it is the opinion of the Morehouse Parish School Board that the territory east of Bayou Macon Ridge offers a site for the most feasible and practical method of controlling floods of the Mississippi River rather than the Boeuf Basin. SEC. 3. Be it further resolved, etc., That the Markham floodway plan east of Bayou Macon Ridge is now recognized and scientifically known by the Mississippi River Commission, General Markham, and the local authorities of Morehouse Parish as being the one affecting the smaller acreage of cultivated land, the smaller total acreage, the smaller population, the fewer incorporated towns, and the one least affecting natural drainage and watersbeds and the plan which would be far more economical to the Government. SEC. 4. Be it further resolved, etc., That the Morehouse Parish school board endorses the Markham plan, because it is more feasible from an engineering standpoint than the Boeuf floodway plan with its fuse-plug system and uncontrolled spillway, and further because the Markham plan provides for the flowage rights and, therefore, deals more fairly with the property owners than does the Boeuf Basin plan. SEO. 5. Be it further resolved, etc., That the Morehouse Parish school board endorses the Markham plan and opposes the Boeuf Basin plan not only because the Markham plan endangers less private property than does the Boeuf floodway plan, but also because it affects less public property, such as schools, bridges, etc., for which there is now existing considerable bonded indebtedness which would have to be assumed by other governing units. SEO. 6. Be it further resolved, etc., That the Morehouse Parish school board concurs in the action and resolution of the Tensas Basin Levee Board and in the recommendation of the Mississippi River Commission that the Markham plan be adopted in lieu of the Boeuf floodway plan. SEC. 7. Be it further resolved, etc.. That the Morehouse Parish school board does go on record again as being unalterably opposed to the Boeuf floodway 131791-35-25 |