Bunche's Bend cut-off, known as "Wilson Point new levee ", threw out 10,200 acres. The cost of building the levee across the point was $504,600. The cost of enlarging and improving the old levee line would have been $1,524,500, a saving of $1,020,500, many times the value of the land thrown out. It is an inhuman law, unjust and criminal, which permits Government agencies or State agencies to destroy vast areas of property owned by the. taxpayers without just compensation.

We ask that this injustice be rectified and fair compensation be given to those property owners who have suffered so grievously and unjustly. Very respectfully submitted.

F. H. SCHNEIDER,

Member Fifth Louisiana Levee Board.

The CHAIRMAN. There is one more witness. Mr. Summerlin.

STATEMENT OF J. W. SUMMERLIN, PRESIDENT OF THE TENSAS BASIN LEVEE DISTRICT, RAYVILLE, LA.

Mr. SUMMERLIN. I would like to bring up some other questions in connection with payment for rights-of-way, and also in reference to the Jadwin fuse-plug spillway.

The CHAIRMAN. We can finish that before we adjourn. If you have any statement on set-back levees, please complete that now, and you may take that other matter up later.

Mr. SUMMERLIN. We were confronted in the beginning on the execution of the Food Control Act of 1928 with a threatened setback on the Arkansas River that would have thrown out something like 55,000 acres. That was during the time of Colonel Potter's presidency of the Mississippi River Commission. They then had their headquarters at St. Louis. We construed at that time that the bill relieved our board from furnishing those rights-of-way. At that time the Mississippi River Commission was under the impression that the furnishing of rights-of-way on the Arkansas was one of the duties of our district. Judge Street, an attorney in the Southeast Arkansas Levee District, appeared with us, and I think Mr. Adams and Mr. Schoenberger, then the chief State engineer, and I think the president of the Southeast Arkansas Levee District, also called on the Mississippi River Commission. Judge Street seemed to have convinced them that it was the duty of the Commission to furnish those rights-of-way. At any rate, the remark was made that if the Government had to pay for those lands thrown out then the levee line would be moved in closer to the river, which was afterwards done.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. May I ask you if the Government has reimbursed your levee board for the rights-of-way along the south bank of the Arkansas River that you furnished at their request? Mr. SUMMERLIN. No, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. What is holding that up, Mr. Chairman?
The CHAIRMAN. It is a question of title.

Mr. SUMMERLIN. It is a question of getting the approval of the United States Attorney General.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. In other words, you furnished rights-of-way along the south bank of the Arkansas and you have made agreements with the district engineer as to the valuations and as to the matter of payments, and it is simply a question of getting the title which has been made to the Government approved by the Attorney General of the United States?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. So that your rights-of-way are being paid for in that way?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. Yes, sir. I thought you wanted me to go into that. I would like to dwell on that with some figures I have.

The CHAIRMAN. The question of Mr. Whittington is have they agreed to pay for the rights-of-way on the south bank of the Arkansas when titles are approved?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. Yes; that letter was placed in the record by the Red River, Bayou Boeuf, and Atchafalaya Basin levee representatives.

The CHAIRMAN. You are not involved in the same dispute as to the conditions that exist on the south bank of the Red River? Mr. SUMMERLIN. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. They did not require you to furnish any certificates there that you would give them without cost?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. No.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you remember what the amount was for the rights-of-way on the south bank of the Arkansas?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. Approximately $76,000, besides $31,534.10 for the Lowden property, and other expenses amounting to $2,408.57. That figured $109,942.67 with an additional $8,400 as approximately expended by the Southeast Arkansas Levee District.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. They agreed with your valuation on the Lowden property?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. Yes.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Under the laws of Arkansas you are required to pay for that property, for the damages to it?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. We do not appropriate it, but by expropriation proceedings when they refuse to give us the right-of-way.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. In the Lowden case did you bring condemnation proceedings?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. No, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. It was by agreement as to the damages and valuation?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. That was satisfactory to the district engineer? Mr. ADAMS. I think it ought to be stated right there that the district engineer made those figures and agreed himself. The levee board merely accepted. The district engineer made them.

The CHAIRMAN. The point is the district engineer approved these valuations?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Did you have to condemn any of them?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. We had to bring condemnation proceedings on some of the tracts.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Was any approved values fixed in those proceedings?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. We did not submit them to him, however. He knew what they were.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. They have been approved for payment since then?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. Except on the Lowden property. We are in this kind of a position. They furnished a complete abstract of title to the

Lowden property, and as to many of the tracts the actual cost was $30, $40, or $50 and to get an abstract on the property would run $100 or $200 to complete the abstract. We would like to have the matter threshed out so that the Government would accept titles showing that we purchased from the proper owners, and even paid off the mortgages, payment checks and warrants were made payable to the mortgages as well as the owners. All liens and everything else were taken care of. Now, we would like to submit a statement of that kind rather than prepare those voluminous abstracts which would be very costly and take up a lot of time. Now, on the Lowden property, while we paid $31,534.10 and a few hundred dollars expenses in bringing down the abstracts, and some other work amounting to $2,408.57-the exact amount figured for the right-of-way involved 666.97 acres. We have expended in perfecting or bringing down that title, trying to get it in the form that the Attorney General would approve the sum of $2,408.57.

The CHAIRMAN. What Mr. Whittington is interested in knowing is that the only obstacle in the way of compensation for rights-ofway on the south bank of the Arkansas is the proposition of approval of title by the office of the Attorney General?

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Yes, sir.

Mr. SUMMERLIN. That is right.

The CHAIRMAN. There is no other question involved in it, and Captain Dean made a suggestion to relieve the Government of the trouble of these abstracts by accepting the titles transferred by the local agencies?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. It may be necessary in amendments to the act to include that so that they may do that.

Mr. SUMMERLIN. It might also relieve us of expense.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you anything further on the subject of setbacks?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. I suppose our set-backs along the line of the levee would amount to 1,500 or 2,000 acres.

The CHAIRMAN. That is in your district?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. That is on both the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers. Now, let us inform these new members how and why we build our levees in Arkansas, we in the Tensas Basin Levee District, which is composed of the alluvial portions of eight parishes in northeast Louisiana, with an area of something like 1,300,000 acres. Possibly about 30 percent of the area is open cultivated land, very productive land. It is improved and it is most all in the spillway. We cooperate with the Southeast Arkansas Levee District, which is the same line of levee that protects our district. We tax our property in Louisiana and spend our money in Arkansas on this line of levee. It begins at a point known as the "Jefferson-Lincoln County Line", 20 miles below Pine Bluff, and extending on the Arkansas River to a point known as "Cypress Creek" on the south bank of the Arkansas River a distance of about 67 miles, and then south on the west bank of the Missisippi River to the line of the States of Arkansas and Louisiana, a distance of about 85 or 86 miles, making a levee line 153 miles long. A few years ago we approached the Missisippi River Commission about the proposed set-back levee made on the Arkansas River. I made a statement of what acreage

our levees protected and figured it at something over 4,000,000 acres.. It protects more than any one levee line in the Mississippi Valley, and we showed that to be a very important point, and the district engineer disagreed with us as to the set-back, but the Mississippi River Commission gave it to us. Some parts of that levee are about 42 feet high. That is one of the highest levees in our district.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Where is that 4 million acres located, what district?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. The Fifth Louisiana Levee District, 1,450,000, the Tensas Basin Levee District, 1,300,000 acres, the Atchafalaya, 1,500,000 acres, and the Southeast Arkansas Levee District about 731,000 acres. Any break in our line of levee would affect all of those districts. In fact, 20 miles above the State line the levees in our district protects more of the fifth Louisiana district than our own. A break in that levee would not affect our district except in the extreme lower portion.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. But, the converse of the proposition is not true, to wit, if you built those levees in your district, that 4 million acres would not be protected, would it?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. Yes; it would, relative to which, the 1,300,000 acres of our district?

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Outside of your district, would it protect any area, any of the remainder of this 4 million acres? In other words, if we have a construction on the south bank of the Arkansas?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. Yes; it would protect the southeast Arkansas, fifth Louisiana, and Atchafalaya districts.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. But, the construction of the levees on the south bank of the Arkansas and the west bank of the Mississippi River to the Arkansas-Louisiana line would not protect the lands in the Fifth Louisiana Levee District or in the Atchafalaya Basin if you leave no improvements at all on the west bank of the Mississippi River? Mr. SUMMERLIN. Leave no improvement?

Mr. WHITTINGTON. In other words, you could not stop with your improvements?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. They must extend down to the mouth of the Red River there.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. All of which goes to the point, Mr. Summerlin, that a levee line is no stronger than its weakest link, and yours is a link in that just the same as the others?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. Yes; we are in the upper reaches, however. Mr. WHITTINGTON. It would be foolish to strengthen your levee line and not the other lines at the same time?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. The point is that the maximum amount of flood water that would come into the Tensas Basin district would come through breaks in the river on the south bank of the river into Arkansas.

Mr. SUMMERLIN. Yes.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Where have you got a set-back on the Mississippi River?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. At Grand Lake.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. Has that Grand Lake Levee been built yet? Mr. SUMMERLIN. Yes, sir.

+.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. They have paid for the levee but not landwhich was left between the new levee and the old levee?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. Yes.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. How far apart are they?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. From one quarter to half a mile.
Mr. WHITTINGTON. Are they both in Arkansas?
Mr. SUMMERLIN. Yes.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. That is in Chicot County?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. That levee district is in Chicot, Desha, and Lincoln Counties.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. I knew about the set-backs at Grand Lake.
Mr. SUMMERLIN. There are some on the Arkansas River.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. We are talking about the Mississippi River. That has been straightened out. How many acres of land have you got on the Mississippi River?

Mr. SUMMERLIN. I have not any figures on that.

Mr. ADAMS. One thousand five hundred acres.

Mr. SUMMERLIN. One thousand five hundred acres on the Mississippi and about 500 acres on the Arkansas.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. That is all, unless you have some further state

ment.

Mr. ADAMS. You might mention this, Colonel, that on the Grand Lake set-back there is a half million dollar investment in there besides the land which is thrown out.

Mr. SUMMERLIN. Oh, yes; for moving houses, and so forth, and then we had a number of ditches in there. That is, the levee line ran across the drainage canal, and we spent several thousand dollars there digging two ditches alone. That amounted to about $3,000 or $4,000.

Mr. ADAMS. In the Grand Lake set-back levee in addition to the land thrown out they also had their property valued at $500,000. There was the Standard Oil Co. properties in there. They had large pumps and docks in there for loading and pumping their crude oil. This is the termination of their pipe lines from the oil fields in there. Mr. WHITTINGTON. Have you paid the Standard Oil Co. yet? Mr. SUMMERLIN. No; we have not paid them.

The CHAIRMAN. So far as the Southeast Arkansas area is concerned, from Cypress Creek down, the lands exposed by the set-back levee lines will not exceed how much?

Mr. ADAMS. One thousand five hundred acres.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you any other statement you wish to make?
Mr. SUMMERLIN. Except on the Jadwin fuse plug spillway.

The CHAIRMAN. That will go over to some other time.

Mr. SUMMERLIN. I am anxious to give you that.

(Thereupon, after informal discussion as to the hour of recess, the committee recessed until 2:30 p.m. of the same day.)

AFTER RECESS

The committee reconvened, pursuant to recess, as 2:45 p.m., Hon. Riley J. Wilson (chairman) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will be in order. Proceed, Mr. Kemper.