Senator ELLENDER. You must not overlook the senior Senator from Louisiana either.

Senator SYMINGTON. Thank you, Senator. May I also pay my respects to the senior Senator from Arizona over there. I know you are all very busy. May I read a brief statement here with respect to this problem. Many of my constituents are here today and we again respectfully plead the cause of Table Rock Dam, as we did last year.

We would respectfully urge that you approve the release of the $2,349,546 previously appropriated for this project, but now held up. This request is substantiated by the December 16, 1953, report of the Army engineers to the House and Senate committees. The report unconditionally recommends continuation of the construction of Table

Rock.

Second, we ask the appropriation of $3 million additional funds for construction work on Table Rock Dam during the fiscal year 1955. As members of this committee know, Public Law 504 of the 82d Congress included $3 million for Table Rock.

CONFERENCE REPORT

Last year the Congress appropriated an additional $1 million but the conference report-H. R. 5376—included the following statement: The conferees are in complete accord that no further construction is to be commenced at Table Rock Dam, Ark. and Mo., until approval has been obtained from the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and of the Senate. It is the desire of the conferees that a study be made of the project by the Corps of Engineers as to the need for power in the area, the ability of present governmental facilities and private power utilities to meet any future need that might exist, and the adequacy of the present estimated cost of the project. Such study should be presented to the above-mentioned committees not later than January 1, 1954.

On December 16, 1953, Maj. Gen. S. E. Sturgis, Chief of Engineers, wrote to this committee as follows:

From the studies made pursuant to the request cited above, I conclude that: (a) The power needs in the area of the Table Rock project are expanding at a rapid rate and there will be a need for substantially more additional power by the time Table Rock Reservoir can be completed than the project will make available.

(b) The power which will be made available by the Table Rock project can be fully integrated into the power supply of the area.

(c) The cost of power which will be made available by the Table Rock project will be considerably less than the cost of equivalent power from the alternative source considered likely to be utilized if the project is not completed.

(d) In addition to needed low-cost power, the Table Rock project will provide needed flood control and will provide other benefits incidental to the primary purpose.

(e) The project is economically justified.

(f) The present estimate of money required is adequate to construct the project.

TABLE ROCK KEY IN RESERVOIR SYSTEM

Table Rock Dam and Reservoir is the key unit in the system of reservoir projects for the control and development of the White River and its tributaries. By regulating the flow from 4,000 square miles above the dam, the flood storage will protect the towns of Hollister and Branson immediately below the dam, and will protect more than 1 million acres of land downstream in the White River Valley, plus additional flood-control benefits in the lower Mississippi.

This site long has been recognized as a desirable location for a power dam. In fact, the first studies were made by Ozark Power in 1912, and again in 1921.

In 1923, the Empire District Electric Co.-successor to Ozark Power-received a permit to build a dam at Table Rock.

Twelve years later Empire's license to build Table Rock was revoked by the Federal Power Commission for failure to begin construction.

The Flood Control Act of 1941, authorized the Table Rock Reservoir project for flood control and power generation, designating it as an integral part of the comprehensive plan for the White River Basin.

All other approved projects in this overall plan are now complete, or nearly so.

Members of this committee will be interested in these graphic pictures. This first shows a flood on the Main Street of Branson, 8 miles below the proposed dam. This particular flood took place in 1945. Senator MCCLELLAN. This will afford complete protection so far as floods there are concerned?

Senator SYMINGTON. Yes.

Senator MCCLELLAN. It has partial protection, as this project will help down in the lower valley, but it will afford complete floodcontrol protection in that area.

Senator SYMINGTON. That is right, Senator; yes.

This dam would have prevented some 30 serious floods that have swept down the White River Valley in past years.

This second picture shows the main street of Hollister, Mo., near Branson on the White River. This is a dead town. People will not live in it any more. They have moved out. There is nobody in the shops. There is nobody in the houses. The flood danger is so great that this is an entire town that is just as dead as an old mining town, if I may say so, Senator, where the lode has just run out. Yet it is right in the middle of our State in southwest Missouri.

Senator HAYDEN. There is no doubt but what business and residences would be revived.

Senator SYMINGTON. Right away, sir.

Senator MCCLELLAN. It would be like a new start.

Senator SYMINGTON. Yes. Because of constant floods through the main streets of this town, Hollister is dead.

When I visited here last fall, it was a ghost town, with buildings unoccupied. Hollister will remain a ghost town unless it is given some flood protection.

TOTAL APPROPRIATION

When the 82d Congress appropriated $3 million to continue Table Rock, the people of the White River Valley felt certain it would be built. So they started building new houses. Branson voted bonds and actually erected a fine new elementary school in anticipation of the people who would come to the cite at the dam's completion.

This picture shows the $500,000 highway built to the dam site with Federal funds. It is owned by the American people, but because the Government has walked off the job, the road now goes nowhere-it is total waste.

I went over it myself and followed it to the end.

Senator MCCLELLAN. That is built up to the dam site as a preparation for its construction?

Senator SYMINGTON. That is correct, sir.

Senator DwORSHAK. How long is that road?

Senator SYMINGTON. Four and a half miles. Here is another picture showing more waste. This is the construction headquarters, constructed, completed, and owned by the American people, absolutely useless as this property now lies idle. The Table Rock Dam is more than just a local issue. In fact, it is of vital importance to the future development of six States, as well as the future security of the United States.

Operating companies serving Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Louisiana state that the full capacity of Table Rock can be readily utilized. They assert they are ready and willing to contract for the entire output of the Table Rock project.

The cost of producing equivalent power by steam generators is 6.9 mills per kilowatt-hour, and only 4.7 mills per kilowatt-hour from Table Rock.

Senator MCCLELLAN. In other words, the power this will generate is 2.2 mills cheaper than power can be produced by any other means in that area.

Senator SYMINGTON. That is correct, Senator.

Senator MCCLELLAN. And that saving to the extent of the power generated there can be passed on and will be passed on to that area. Senator SYMINGTON. That is correct, sir. Senator, I have heard that with the exception of some property sites in the chairman's locality around Idaho this is the last really great natural source of the cheapest type and character of power in the world.

Private power companies operating in the area have endorsed the project.

All REA cooperatives serving the area are counting on the completion of Table Rock to meet their growing needs.

POWER DIVERTED FOR NATIONAL DEFENSE

This entire matter is in reality one of good faith, that ingredient so important to every American, because during the Korean crisis, the Federal Government diverted 150,000 kilowatts of Bull Shoals power, downstream from Table Rock, to an aluminum company in Arkansas, under a long-term contract.

This was done in order to increase aluminum production, there being no other source of low-cost power supply for increased aluminum production necessary for national defense.

This Bull Shoals power output had previously been committed to the rural electric co-ops, either directly or indirectly, through the 6State SPA area, and 7 generation and transmission cooperatives were dependent upon Bull Shoals.

When Bull Shoals power was conscripted for national defense production, it was with the definite understanding that the power of the authorized Table Rock Dam would be rushed to completion in order to take care of the otherwise "left hanging on the wire" REA units. Members of Congress and the Defense Department were parties to this understanding-and so the dam was started, and then stopped.

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Senator MCCLELLAN. So was the Department of Interior.

Senator SYMINGTON. Yes; that is correct. Thank you for bringing that up. I am not a power expert or a flood-control expert, although I have seen these dead towns and these devastating floods. I do know something about national defense, however, and how hard it was and is today to obtain enough concentrated power for such security items as increased aluminum production, wind tunnels, and any further atomic development.

It is for that reason I say with complete sincerity that a vote for Table Rock is a vote for the security of the United States.

FUNDS REQUESTED

The people of the Ozarks, Mr. Chairman, are not wealthy people, but they are proud people. They only ask that their Government carry out its agreement to protect their land from forces of nature over which they have no control-and also give them a fighting chance to improve their low living standards, by carrying out the promise to complete this partially finished edifice.

For these reasons I most respectfully request that this committee again approve the funds necessary to continue the construction of the Table Rock Dam.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are other witnesses here who would like to present the case. I express my appreciation, sir, for your courtesy in listening to me.

Senator DwORSHAK. Who is your next witness?

Senator MCCLELLAN. Thank you very much, Senator Symington. Congressman Short is here and he, I understand needs to get away as early as he can. I would ask the chairman to hear Congressman Short.

STATEMENT OF HON. DEWEY SHORT, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MISSOURI

GENERAL STATEMENT

Mr. SHORT. Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee, it has been my privilege to appear before your subcommittee on various occasions during the past 10 years in behalf of the recommendations for funds for Table Rock Dam. During the past 20 years I have repeatedly appeared before different Government agencies and before committees in the House and Senate seeking approval of Table Rock Dam. The project has been approved by the Congress and by every Government agency that has considered it. The Directors of the Budget in the Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower administrations have recommended funds for this project.

The Congress has appropriated more than $800,000 for exploratory work, designing, and planning, and $4 million for construction work. Although $1 million of this construction money was included in fiscal year 1954 appropriations, after it had been approved by the Congress, the conferees held up further spending of construction funds until the project had been reviewed. The President had asked that all new projects be reviewed, and the conferees failed to recognize that Table Rock is not a new project. It is the smaller part of a unit, authorized in 1941, which included Bull Shoals and Table Rock. Bull Shoals

is about 50 air-miles south of Table Rock, and for economical operation and maximum output of power they must be considered together. Table Rock will increase the output of power in Bull Shoals by 30 percent, and it will also increase by 50 percent the output of power at Ozark Beach Dam, a privately owned utility near Forsyth, Mo., constructed more than 40 years ago.

Construction on Table Rock has been interrupted at great cost to the communities, whose plans for adjustment to this new project were already in process; the construction companies and contractors who had equipment on the grounds, and the workers who had moved into the community. The contractors and engineers are ready to proceed; the workers are available and need the employment.

ADVANTAGES OF CONSTRUCTION

The construction of Table Rock Dam will help the farmers who live in the White River Valley; from the standpoint of flood control alone it is justifiable. The annual flood damage in the valley is approximately $2 million. I have seen the angry waters undermine highways and railroads, uproot farmhouses, destroy livestock, and even take human lives.

The dam is justifiable not only because of flood control but from the standpoint of the development of hydroelectric power. It is selfliquidating; a sound investment that will pay dividends in the future. I am not going to weary you with reiterating the testimony I have previously presented. You will find rather complete statements made by me before your subcommittee in 1943 and 1953; before the House Subcommittee for Civil Functions Appropriations in 1947, 1950, and 1953. I shall be glad to answer any questions, and the people from my district will be glad to again appear before you should you so desire.

OPPOSITION TO PROJECT

There is only a small vocal vociferous group, mostly sportsmen, opposing the construction of Table Rock Dam. Most of those who have appeared before your committee in opposition to this project do not even come from our part of the country-and would in no way be affected by the construction of this dam.

Ninety percent of the people in the area affected by this project, are for it. The engineers' study and restudy of the project confirms the justification from the viewpoint of flood control and hydroelectric power.

Your subcommittee, the entire Appropriations Committee, and the Senate, in fact, the Congress has already appropriated the funds— what we are now seeking is the release of these funds so that the construction may be resumed at an early date. I shall appreciate it if this can be done.

APPROVAL OF PROJECT

I want to thank the members of this committee for their most sympathetic consideration and valuable assistance given us in the years. gone by. I am not here to inform you gentlemen as much as I am to remind you of just 3 or 4 things.