area had purchased the bulk of its dependable output. They had purchased it from Southwestern Power Administration, which has several other dams on its transmission system. They were designing and building and rebuilding their systems to accept it.

But a little more than a year ago the defense agencies decided they had to build another aluminum plant. There was not sufficient power available anywhere else in the country; so they conscripted Bull Shoals power.

Now the farmers and city folks in the area were agreeable provided Table Rock Dam would be begun and accelerated to completion to make up the deficit. Many conferences were held. Finally all parties agreed. These included defense officials, the Corps of Engineers, congressional leaders, rural electric leaders, the President of the United States, and others.

Table Rock would not solve our power problem, but it, together with its regulatory effect on the downstream Bull Shoals project, would, in time, substantially compensate for the loss of Bull Shoals power.

The President declared Table Rock a defense project and submitted a supplemental budget request for it. The Corps of Engineers and others testified for it. The people of the area came to Washington en masse for it. Congress appropriated $3 million to begin it.

And Table Rock was started. I was there for the ground-breaking ceremony in October. Congressmen Dewey Short and Jim Trimble were there. Incidentally, that section is home to me, and I can tell you from personal knowledge that the people are practically all for it, farmers and merchants, Republicans and Democrats.

Some wondered whether, if Eisenhower were elected, the Table Rock Dam might be stopped. Congressman Short and others assured the folks that Table Rock would go forward. Both the Republican platform and General Eisenhower had promised that the river-development program would go forward. Our people were convinced and proceeded to reshape their building and other plans, looking forward to Table Rock power.

Eisenhower carried all counties in that immediate area, as I recall, in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.

To say that the people in that area were shocked, embarrassed, and disappointed when the Eisenhower budget asked that Table Rock Dam be killed, is to put it mildly.

OAHE DAM

The other project in which we are particularly interested is the Oahe Dam on the Missouri River in South Dakota, the key dam in the comprehensive development of the Missouri.

We are aware of the fact that while the administration had originally requested that construction of Oahe Dam be stopped, it has not sent up a supplemental request asking that it be continued.

Rural electric systems in North and South Dakota, as well as those in nearby Nebraska, Minnesota, and Iowa, are looking forward to the availability of the low-cost Missouri River hydroelectric energy, and many of our systems have been and are being designed to accept delivery of Missouri Basin hydroelectric energy as soon as it becomes available. We are informed by the Corps of Engineers that although the Oahe project is designed for an installed capacity of 170,000 kilowatts, the effect of a delay in its construction on power production on the main stem of the Missouri would be out of proportion to the proposed appropriations cut. We are told by the Corps of Engineers that on the stream reregulation at Oahe will depend 50 percent of the dependable capacity and one-third of all energy produced on the river. Last year an 80 percent reduction of funds for construction of this project was imposed by the House, most of which was restored in the Senate. During the Senate hearings, it was testified by the Corps of Engineers that were the reduction contemplated at that time carried through, embankment placement would be seriously endangered by high water, a 1-year delay in completion would almost certainly result due to the impossibility of closing the river, land acquisition would be delayed, and large amounts for power would be lost which would otherwise be produced at Oahe during the period equal to the length of a shut-down.

In addition, large amounts of power would be lost at Garrison and Fort Randall Dams due to lower heads and the smaller Fort Randall Reservoir would be exposed to a high sedimentation rate which will be prevalent there prior to the closure of Oahe. It was also testified that delay in completion of

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Oahe would also mean an increase in the calculated risk being taken with the spillway at Fort Randall, the capacity of which is predicated on Oahe regulation.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, gentleman, we of the rural electrics thank you for your consideration of their needs and interest in connection with these several projects. We urge you to appropriate funds to begin Ice Harbor Dam and keep the other projects going at maximum efficiency, including Oahe and Table Rock. We hope you can accelerate Table Rock.

TABLE I.-Peak demand and dependable capacity of class I utilities in the United

1 Federal Power Commission Electric Power Statistics. Estimates by FPC based on reports of class I utilities.

TABLE II.-Army civil functions appropriations for fiscal 1954

NOTE. This represents a total installed capacity of approximately 5,490,400 kilowatts. Advance planning funds: Appropriated for fiscal 1953, $1,300,000; requested for fiscal 1954, $3,500,000; revised budget, fiscal 1954, $3,000,000.

Mr. ELLIS. There are two dams that our people are very greatly concerned about: One of them is the Table Rock Dam in southern Missouri. I would like first to give you just a little background on that project, insofar as the rural electric cooperatives are concerned.

The REA program has been delayed, greatly delayed, in the more thinly settled area of southern Missouri for a long time. Finally a plan was evolved by which the REA cooperatives could build some of their own lines and build them in to dams. There are several dams in that immediate area. And by connecting our lines with those of the Southwest Power Administration which integrate several dams in four States, we would be able to get power from a number of other dams as well.

The Bull Shoals Dam is located on the mainstem of White River, just south of the Missouri border, in Arkansas, but a part of the lake is in this area. The dam was completed about this time last year.

Bull Shoals Dam is producing or will produce a very substantial amount of power, even more than Table Rock, which is before you here, would produce. The REA cooperatives of that area had purchased practically all of the power, of the usable power, of Bull Shoals Dam. But a little earlier than this, last year, the Federal Government decided that it must have that power for a new aluminum plant, and the Government took it. The Government did not actually issue an order, conscripting it, taking it away from the REA co-ops for, the REA's finally agreed to the proposal. But there were several other matters in the agreement, one of which was that the Table Rock Dam, upstream, immediately above Bull Shoals-well, there was a little private company dam and lake extending just a few miles in between-would be begun at once and the work expedited to completion.

That was an agreement as firm as could be had anywhere, in my opinion, with the Federal Government. I sat in on some of the meetings on the agreement by which the Federal Government was to take the power from the Bull Shoals Dam for the use of the defense plant at Arkadelphia, Ark., and in turn Table Rock Dam was to be begun upstream, and the work accelerated to completion, for the replacement of that power. The REA cooperatives would be hurt, because there would be a period of 3 to 4 years, during which they would be short of power because of it.

Now, who were the parties to that agreement? I can tell you gentlemen that there were several Members of Congress; the Corps of Engineers, and defense officials of the United States of course they could not commit the Congress-but they subsequently appeared before the Senate committtee in support of the Table Rock Dam. And it included the President of the United States, who declared Table Rock Dam a defense project, and asked for supplemental money to get it started. The people of the area came to Washington en masse in support of it, and the Congress, with knowledge of these facts, appropriated $3 million to begin it.

And Table Rock was started. I was there for the ground-breaking ceremony last fall, and Congressman Dewey Short and Congressman Trimble were there and spoke, the machinery started turning and everybody thought the dam was under construction, and it was under construction.

And the REA's in the area had redesigned or rebuilt a part of their systems and arranged it to purchase and accept Bull Shoals power last year. They aren't getting it. When Bull Shoals power was taken from them and Table Rock Dam was started, again they reengineered and redesigned their program to purchase and accept Table Rock power instead. And, there are a quarter million farm families dependent, who are expecting power from Table Rock Dam, through their generation and transmission co-op contracts with Southwestern Power Administration. And if Table Rock is not built there will be a drastic power shortage, so far as the rural electrics are concerned in that area. There will be some shortage if Table Rock is built.

If Table Rock is taken from them, they will be left stranded.

Mr. RILEY. Is the power from Bull Shoals actually being used by the aluminum company?

Mr. ELLIS. Yes. I believe 150,000 kilowatts, I believe, starting in November. It is being delivered to the plant at Arkadelphia, through the Arkansas Power & Light Co. system.

Mr. RILEY. They are wheeling it?

Mr. ELLIS. They are wheeling it for the Federal Government to the aluminum plant.

Mr. RILEY. Thank you.

Mr. ELLIS. The power company is supplying a part of the aluminum load, too, I believe.

Now, the Oahe Dam in South Dakota is another one of the projects about which the rural electrics are concerned; it is in a little different situation as concerns the appropriation, in that I understand some $8.5 million supplemental request for starting it has been added in the last few days after having been deleted. Up until a very few days ago both Table Rock and Oahe Dams were in the same situation, in that both were started, and in that the administration was asking that both be eliminated, but the administration is now asking that only Table Rock be eliminated.

Ŏahe Dam will not only provide substantial quantities of low-cost electric power, as well as many other benefits, but it will provide downstream regulation that will add substantially to power production in other Missouri River projects.

The rural electric system in South Dakota has long been retarded in its development because of the lack of power. We have been working in that State in cooperation with the Northern States Power Co., and other power companies, and in cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation, under an arrangement which we think will work, which we hope will work, for better power distribution, but that arrangement is dependent upon the Oahe Dam power, and without it we are again going to be in distress. Some of our REA cooperatives were not built for years in South Dakota, because we could not find any source of power supply.

We hope, therefore, you will approve not only the Table Rock, but also the Oahe project.

Mr. RILEY. About what proportion of the farmers in the area of Oahe have been able to get REA power?

Mr. ELLIS. Mr. Riley, I cannot tell you from the memorandum I have with me, but I will be happy to ascertain the figures and supply

them for the record.

(The matter referred to follows:)

Percentage of farms electrified in South Dakota and States bordering on South Dakota, June 30, 1952

Mr. ELLIS. I would say this, that a pretty high percentage of the farmers of the general area affected by Oahe itself, in North Dakota, Minnesota, and South Dakota, have electricity, but it is partly because of more or less temporary power supply arrangements which are not adequate for the future. Their loads have grown rapidly and they must look forward to water power or its equivalent, somewhere, and they do not know where the equivalent exists.

As you know, the electric-power industry is the fastest growing major industry in the United States, by far. It is doubling about every 7 to 10 years, as I have indicated more completely in the prepared statement. And, the fastest growing segment of the electricpower industry is the REA segment, which is doubling about every 4 years. If you plot the figures I have given you on a chart, you will see an almost unbelievable upward growth in demand; the consumption demand is actually increasing greater than the power can be produced. With all that the Government and private utilities are able to do, there is still not enough power, in many of the areas of this country. There is still not enough power. About one-fourth of the REA systems right now are in difficulty because of the lack of power supply. Either they don't have enough power now or don't have enough in sight to supply their increasing demands.

We believe that the least the Federal Government can do is to continue these projects to the maximum efficiency, which will still leave the REA's, even with the power companies supplying more than half of their wholesale requirements, still short of power in many areas. Mr. HAND. In your prepared statement, Mr. Ellis, have you indicated in what area of the country the one-fourth of the present farmers are short of power in the system?

Mr. ELLIS. No, sir, but I will be very happy to submit that for the record.