In the operation of a railroad, tangent or straight track is the most desirable, both from a maintenance and a safety standpoint. The nature of caving banks, which require track setbacks, is such that additional and longer curves are required. In the trackage between Shreveport, La., and Alexandria, La., we have 12 more curves that we had in the original construction and we have 5.25 additional miles of curved track, not to say anything about the line being approximately 1 mile longer. It has been the policy of this company to improve its track structure, but it would be a needless waste of money to highly improve trackage at a temporary location where the encroachment of the river would necessitate its early removal.

This system has in the past expended large sums of money for bank protection work where the Kansas City Southern crosses the Red River about 10 miles north of Texarkana because the caving river banks immediately adjacent to the crossing were endangering the railroad bridge. It has also expended a great amount of money in the past years for track setbacks and bank protection work between Shreveport, La., and Alexandria, La. Since much of our trackage is located immediately adjacent to the river, it is only natural that we should be vitally interested in maintaining the river banks at their present location. It means much to this company in formulating and adhering to a permanent plan of improvement for speeding up its operations, not to mention the loss sustained by reason of continued moving of the railroad, due to caving river banks. We know that the Army engineers have been highly successful in the stabilization of river banks and such a program, if continued, would in must instances prevent the continual setbacks of levees, highways, railroads, and other utilities, not to mention the loss forever of many acres of valuable land.

Insofar as this railroad system is concerned, we are very much interested in the construction of the Ferreils Bridge Reservoir on Cypress River above Jefferson, Tex. Our line crosses Cypress in the western edge of Jefferson. I have been acquainted with this stream for more than 30 years. During that time the city of Jefferson has suffered a number of floods and this railroad has encountered many severe transportation delays account of closing the line to traffic due to high water and expensive washouts. Highways in this vicinity have also been inundated many times and closed to traffic due to the flooding of Cypress. There have been no changes recently that would tend to improve this condition to make it any better in the future than it has been in the past. While in the past, water has on occasion reached a depth of as much as 7 feet above our top of rail and even though at times we have operated through water at this location with as much as 18 inches over the top of rail, we are not now able to do this account of the use of diesel locomotives. Four to six inches above top of rail is the maximum depth of water through which diesel locomotives may be operated and our line is entirely dieselized. In the event of high water on Cypress River, whereby it would be necessary to close our line to rail traffic east of Jefferson, we would not be able to serve Jefferson proper from the east and the same applies to the Lone Star Steel Co., near Daingerfield, Tex. This steel plant will be of great importance to the country in times of national emergency and this railway system is the only rail connection with the Lone Star plant. It is, therefore, of utmost importance that rail traffic to and from that plant proceed uninterrupted. In conclusion, we wish to go on record as approving a program for maintaining the present alinement of Red River by the stabilization of its banks and for the early construction of the Ferrells Bridge Reservoir.

Senator LONG. Next is Mr. J. H. Williams, president of the Cane River Levee District.

STATEMENT OF J. H. WILLIAMS, PRESIDENT, CANE RIVER LEVEE DISTRICT, NATCHITOCHES, LA.

FERRELLS BRIDGE DAM AND RESERVOIR

Mr. WILLIAMS. Gentlemen, I am president of the Cane River Levee District, which embraces that area around Natchitoches and Natchitoches Parish. The bridge which our highway attorney, Mr. Pegues. spoke of, one end of which is in our district, we would therefore like very much to endorse funds for the construction of bank-protection work.

We would like also to enclose this Ferrells Bridge Reservoir because any work done up there will relieve us of some of our water.

We, however, are particularly interested in the Kisatchee Reservoir which lies wholly in our district. The Kisatchee Reservoir, if it had been built at a cost of, we estimate, $22 million, would have protected us from a flood last year which cost the area $3 million. There is hardly a year in which this area does not sustain some flood damage. Last year during the flood some of the schools were so badly damaged that they had to be completely discontinued and schools moved to other areas.

We are asking that $40,000 be appropriated for planning money and engineering on that.

Gentlemen, we hope that you see your way clear to give us that appropriation.

Senator LONG. Laurie G. Campbell, secretary of the Bossier Parish Levee District.

STATEMENT OF LAURIE G. CAMPBELL, SECRETARY, BOSSIER PARISH LEVEE DISTRICT, BENTON, ARK.

BOSSIER LEVEE DISTRICT

Mr. CAMPBELL. Gentlemen, I have nothing to add except to draw attention to our particular district and the effect that bank stabilization would have on the Bossier Levee District. The Bossier Levee District is 43 miles long. It ranges from 2 to 9 miles wide and it has 140,000 acres of river-bottom land. This river-bottom land has been caving into the Red River for the past 10 years on an average of about 800 acres per year. Within less than 200 years the entire Bossier Levee District would have caved in at its present rate and carried away. The past year the estimated yield in crops alone in the Bossier Levee District was approximately $30 million; $30 million per year would be the loss that this country would ultimately be forced to bear in farm produce alone.

Senator MCCLELLAN. You are talking about losses now, and that is farm produce lost in floods.

Mr. CAMPBELL. Just farms.

VALUE OF LAND

Senator MCCLELLAN. What is the value of that land, say that 800 acres a year that is being lost by erosion?

Mr. CAMPBELL. That farmland sells for from $300 to $500 per acre. Senator MCCLELLAN. That is the improved land.

Mr. CAMPBELL. That is the improved land.

Senator MCCLELLAN. That loss is from farms being washed away from the cultivated lands.

Mr. CAMPBELL. That is correct. And we feel that we in the Red River Valley area and the people that have been suffering from floods in the past several years have taken our cut heretofore in view of the fact that in the past 6 or 7 years the Bureau of the Budget has seen fit to reduce, and the Congress, I might say, the appropriations for flood control approximately 50 percent over what it was 6 or 7 years

ago. We feel that any further cut along this line is not economically sound.

Thank you.

Senator LONG. I would like to present Mr. Sam W. Cavett, president of the Caddo Parish Levee District.

STATEMENT OF SAM W. CAVETT, PRESIDENT, CADDO PARISH LEVEE DISTRICT, SHREVEPORT, LA.

CADDO LEVEE DISTRICT

Mr. CAVETT. Mr. Chairman, I am Sam Cavett, of Shreveport, representing the Caddo Levee District. We have 82 miles of main-line levees in our district. Last year, in 1953, we lost 3,000 acres of land into the river in my district. Figuring that at a very conservative figure of $250, that is $750,000 worth of the most fertile land in the United States gone. I am a cotton farmer. Part of that was mine. I lost 240 acres myself. Income on that land would be-and I am speaking of the land actually lost-around $450,000. Over a 10-year period that is $42 million on the land that we lost in 1 year. And that is occurring every year.

Senator MCCLELLAN. When you speak about income, you mean its gross production value, do you not?

Mr. CAVETT. That is right.

Senator MCCLELLAN. You are not talking about profits.

Mr. CAVETT. That land will raise two bales and a half of cotton per acre. That is $400-an-acre income.

Senator MCCLELLAN. I am not arguing; I am just interested and curious. I would like to have an acre of that.

Mr. CAVETT. You come down there. We have got the best land in the United States. And we are seeing it go down the river. I have been there all my life, and I have seen many, many acres go. I think we should treat this bank-stabilization work as an investment, not as an expenditure. You have to save this soil, and it is getting away from us.

So I would earnestly request that you gentlemen please include in your budget the review for bank stabilization in the Red River Valley as per Senate Public Works Committee resolution adopted October 10, 1951.

Senator MCCLELLAN. What you want is this budget restored, the amount restored that the engineers requested within ceiling.

Mr. CAVETT. It has been all eliminated; there is no money at all for a report on this bank stabilization, to review that report, and to bring it up to date, and I think it is going to take a whole lot of planning to do that. We are asking for $75,000; that is from below Denison on the Red River.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Senator LONG. I would like now to present Mr. Daniel C. Cresap, district engineer, Louisiana State Department of Public Works, of Alexandria.

STATEMENT OF DANIEL C. CRESAP, DISTRICT ENGINEER, LOUISIANA STATE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS, ALEXANDRIA, LA.

NEED FOR PROJECTS

Mr. CRESAP. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am he district engineer for the Department of Public Works in the Red River Valley area. The projects that have been spoken of are projects hat are needed, and I am glad to see them going forth and being comleted and being started, but as an engineer I think one thing that hould be brought out; I know that it takes money, it takes planning, lesign, surveys, to get these projects started. If we do not receive planning money, in the years to come when the projects that we are working on now are completed we will have a period in there where no work is being done in the overall proposed plan for flood protection. To give us a wise investment for Federal funds it can only be assured by such sound planning, and to do such sound planning we need finances. So I, as the engineer, recommend the four projects, Millwood Dam, review of reports for the Red River bank stabilization, the Kisatchee Dam, and the Overton waterway be given funds for planning so that our program can be continued in the future. Unless we do get these funds the work that we do now will not be the answer to the overall flood-protection program that we had hoped to get. Thank you.

Senator LONG. Thank you very much for hearing our Louisiana witnesses, Mr. Chairman." I am sure you understand our needs in that vicinity, and I, too, want to add my word of support for the undertaking of the Ferrells Bridge project, this year if it can possibly be undertaken, and I want to stress the need for bank stabilization funds on the Red River.

Thank you.

Mr. MATHIAS. I know it is a pleasure for this committee to have some people come up here and thank them on the completion of a project, and the next witness I would like to introduce is here to thank this committee for the finishing of construction funds on Texarkana Reservoir. I would like to present Mr. Carroll L. Shiffer, mayor of the city of Texarkana, Tex.

TEXARKANA RESERVOIR

STATEMENT OF HON. CARROLL L. SHIFFER, MAYOR OF CITY OF TEXARKANA, TEX.

GENERAL STATEMENT

Mr. SHIFFER. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I am Carroll L. Shiffer, mayor of Texarkana, Tex. I am here expressly in the interest of Texarkana Dam and Reservoir. I first wish to express on behalf of my people of Texarkana their deep gratitude for the fair consideration that this fine committee has given them in the past. And now that Texarkana Dam is nearly completed and the budget has requested $4 million, we also respectfully request that this honorable committee favorably report the $4 million for the last year of construction of this reservoir. It is vital to the people of Texarkana

and the Texarkana area, and they, too, are suffering an acuteness in their water problem at the present time. It is necessary from that standpoint that early completion be made.

Thank you.

Senator MCCLELLAN. Does this complete the dam, this $4 million? Mr. SHIFFER. It completes the dam.

Mr. MATHIAS. The next witness is Mr. Hershel Hanner, president of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Atlanta, Tex., representing the city of Atlanta.

STATEMENT OF HERSHEL HANNER, PRESIDENT, ATLANTA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, ON BEHALF OF THE CITY OF ATLANTA, TEX.

Mr. HANNER. I want to add my thanks for the dam at Texarkana, and urge your approval of the $4 million.

Mr. MATHIAS. The next witness is Everett Winter, executive vice president of the Mississippi Valley Association of St. Louis.

STATEMENT OF EVERETT T. WINTER, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, MISSISSIPPI VALLEY ASSOCIATION, ST. LOUIS, MO.

GENERAL STATEMENT

Mr. WINTER. I appreciate very much the compliment of being asked to make a statement here today. I have a very brief statement that I will file for the record.

I think the only bit of distinction I have here today is that I am the only person in this part of the room who has a Yankee accent. Our 35th annual meeting of the Mississippi Valley Association was held in St. Louis February 8 and 9, and our good friends from the Red River Valley came in as a part of the 1,007 delegates that we had from 34 States. They so completely sold those delegates from Montana to Florida and from Arizona to New York State that they completely endorsed the program of the Red River Valley Association which they have presented to you here today. I was very much impressed by the distinguished chairman's comment a few minutes ago about the money that we have available for projects such as this outside of the United States. I am a native of Nebraska, but I think that most people from the Red River Valley are just as important in our economy as citizens of America as the people from the Rhone Valley in France, the Rhine Valley in Germany, or the Jordan Valley in Asia, and we hope that you will treat them equally as well.

Senator DwORSHAK. Thank you. The chairman overlooked mentioning the fact that Louisiana's two distinguished Senators and Senator McClellan, of Arkansas, have been numbered among those who have opposed this excessive spending abroad. I am sure you people should know that.

Mr. WINTER. We do know that, and appreciate it, sir.

I will submit my statement for the record.

Senator DWORSHIAK. That may be inserted at this point.