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That property shown outside of the levee has been rendered unfit for any purpose whatsoever and has been practically taken off the assessment rolls, thereby reducing our revenues to that extent for the purpose of operating our parochial government and paying off our bonded indebtedness.

I wish to call your attention to this enormous floodway that is now being proposed by the Chief of Engineers, which, if you will notice, beginning at the line of Arkansas, which is the northern line of East Carroll Parish, will consume more than two-thirds of the area of the parish of East Carroll. I am informed by the assessor of East Carroll Parish, who has very carefully calculated the balance of the land that will be lying east of the east guide line of the floodway and the main river stem levee of the Mississippi, that that leaves to carry on the functions in the parish of East Carroll an acreage of only some 61,000 acres. That 61,000 acres of land has to carry on the functions of the parish government.

It has to carry on the function of paying off the enormous bonded indebtedness of its drainage district, of its rural districts, of its school districts, of the enormous debt that it now has placed upon itself for flood control, that is, its portion of some 2 millions of dollars of levee bond indebtedness, because this area in here will cease to have any value of whatsoever character.

The Federal land bank at New Orleans has unofficially announced. that if this floodway is constructed it will have no loan value insofar as that bank is concerned. Though the Army engineers have abandoned the Boeuf spillway, the mere passage of that act had the effect of taking that entire acreage out of commerce insofar as any loan value on that property is concerned.

If you were on the loan committee of a bank and a planter or a farmer would come to you, if this floodway is constructed, to borrow funds for the purpose of growing and harvesting a crop for any particular year, would you recommend that loan, not knowing when the engineers in their discretion might see fit to open the spillway and divert that water down through the floodway?

Therefore, gentlemen, it is useless for me to stand here and testify to your committee that that land will not be reduced to a figure practically wiping it off the assessment rolls. Under the law of Louisiana, our property cannot be assessed at a greater value than its actual value. Having no loan value, having no borrowing value to grow crops, then what is its value? It has no value.

That being true, we are called upon in this small area that is left in this parish, about 50 percent of the area taken in the parish of Madison, about one-third of the parish of Tensas, to bear the burden. of carrying on our parochial government, of paying off all the bonded indebtedness of the entire area.

I might say here that great stress is laid on the fact that these people residing in this immediate area will receive a compensation not exceeding one and one-half times the assessed value. Suppose, gentlemen, that those people were willing to sacrifice their homes. and hunt the hills of Mississippi or the hills of Louisiana, if they were so inclined. Has not the balance of the parish an interest in this floodway? When these bond issues were voted, they were parish-wide bond issues. This acreage was part of the acreage that was to help pay that bonded indebtedness. If you take from us that

large area, it practically destroys, and does destroy, in fact, East Carroll Parish and Madison Parish. We cannot exist under such a floodway as they propose.

Gentlemen, they have added additional taxes upon us. With that generous equity, they have said, “We are going to give you this floodway and we are going to make you like it. We are going to make you maintain those additional 200 miles of levee, 2 sets of them, 1 on the west and 1 on the east." That little area that is left has an additional burden placed upon its shoulders. For what? To protect somebody else. We are getting no protection. We are destroyed. And yet they are going to construct a tremendous drainage canal east of this east guide line levee of this proposed floodway. And they say to us, "We want you to maintain that, too, keep the willows cleared out and the brush cleared out." That, too, will fall on this little area that is left in that small section.

I say that the construction of the Eudora Floodway means everlasting ruin to the Fifth Louisiana Levee District. Every one of those parishes will either have to default on their bonded indebtedness or they will have to go out of existence.

Now, is this floodway necessary? Why should we be so crucified; why should we be sacrificed? Are we being threatened by any great calamity? Have we not lived in that country for generations? Did not General Ferguson no longer ago than yesterday tell you in so many words that it would be better, since he has found out the results that he has obtained by these cut-offs, to eliminate this Eudora Floodway and permit him to continue his experiments with the cut-offs on the Mississippi River?

I do not want to misquote the general, but it is my recollection that he said that to date at Arkansas City they had received a decrease in flood heights of some 22 feet already, and at the gage at Vicksburg they had received a decrease in flood heights of some 5 feet, and that those cut-offs were not functioning at more than from 10 to 50 percent. Then why sacrifice us when these great experiments are now in the process of their making? Why destroy the Fifth Louisiana Levee District, the most fertile alluvial land of the entire United States, not excepting that portion that lies east of us? Why not build the levees or the reservoirs over in the Yazoo? Why not go up into the St. Francis and build the reservoirs as provided for in the St. Francis? Why not come down at Morganza and construct the floodway at Morganza and eliminate this monster that is now being proposed to be placed upon our poor people, which means utter destruction to our people?

Gentlemen, in the opinion of my people-and this is expressing the sentiment of about 99 percent of the entire section-to place this burden upon our shoulders and so destroy our section of the country would be nothing less than criminal. We love our homes. We have a rich fertile country. For God's sake, gentlemen, do not assist in our destruction.

I thank you.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Sevier, the recommendation of the Chief of Engineers of the Mississippi River Commission was that this work would be undertaken only in the event of cooperation of the people affected.

Mr. SEVIER. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. I judge from your statement that that cooperation cannot be expected.

Mr. SEVIER. Mr. Wilson, I can tell you here that they would not get over two rights-of-way in that section of the country without lawsuits through the Federal courts, State courts, and every other court.

The CHAIRMAN. I thought that was a little bit strong that the engineers were endeavoring to crucify you without any consent on your part, because their recommendation is that they do not propose to undertake this work without local cooperation. I judge from your statement that may not be expected.

Mr. SEVIER. I want to say here that I see no just reason why this fuseplug levee during these experiments should not be brought up to the 1920 grade and section. I have listened carefully from the very beginning of this hearing, and I see no just reason why that fuseplug levee should be left in the state that it is now.

The CHAIRMAN. Are there any further questions?

Mr. WHITTINGTON. What do you think about the fuseplug levees on the Atchafalaya, Mr. Sevier?

Mr. SEVIER. That is a condition down there, Mr. Whittington, with which I am absolutely not familiar.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. You live at Tallulah?

Mr. SEVIER. Yes, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. You are opposed to the recommendations of the Chief of Engineers in the pending bill?

Mr. SILVER. Insofar as the Eudora Floodway is concerned solely, sir.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. I say, you are opposed to that?

Mr. SEVIER. Absolutely, unequivocaily, and unqualifiedly so.

Mr. WHITTINGTON. You do not think that will be for the best interest of your country. You are a member of the bar at Tallulah? Mr. SEVIER. Yes, sir.

STATEMENT OF MARTIAN HAMLEY, OF LAKE PROVIDENCE, LA.

Mr. HAMLEY. My name is Martian Hamley, of Lake Providence, La. I am the tax assessor of East Carroll Parish.

Gentlemen, I am going to be very brief. I had a whole lot in my system, but I am not going to try to get it all out. I am just going to show you, Mr. Chairman, a little bit about this thing from an enlarged map.

I live here in the parish of East Carroll. I come here representing the levee board, also the citizenship of that parish, and the political subdivisions in the parish like the school board, the police jury, and so forth. I also appear here on behalf of a large group of people in my parish and in those other parishes affected by the floodway area who will never be heard by this committee. Mr. Chairman, they are the little fellows, the fellows that are not able to get enough of their nickels and dimes on the barrelhead to send anybody here. I am here at the request of those people. I have met with them at their request, and we have discussed this situation. They have asked me to present their side of it, and I am going to do it, if I can, just briefly. I say, Mr. Chairman, that in all justice to everybody concerned that little man is entitled to just as much consideration as the largest property owner that ever appeared before this or any other committee.

Here is a large map of the parish of East Carroll. Here is the west line; that is the hills between the parishes of East and West Carroll. Here is the Mississippi River. This red line is the proposed 9/2-mile floodway.

There are 235,000 acres of land in the parish of East Carroll. Already 26,100 acres have been adjudicated to the State of Louisiana for unpaid taxes. That leaves on the assessment roll of 1934, 208,900 acres of land. A careful calculation of the acreage included in this floodway is 128,000. If you take that off what is now assessed, you have 80,900 acres left on the assessment rolls. Off this you have to take 19,700 acres of land that lies outside the Mississippi River levee. Here is an area [indicating] known as Bunch's Bend. There is a small levee line there which the Government has constructed, a mainline levee. They have put out into the river on this peninsula exactly 12,000 acres of land, for which nobody has ever received anything.

Out here there are 4,200 acres of land outside of the Mississippi River levee. At this point there is 800 acres outside.

Right here is the Willow Point cut-off. There are 3,500 acres of land thrown out by that Willow Point cut-off. That is one of the cut-offs in the plan.

Over here there are 3,300 acres in the Newman Towhead—that is, on the Mississippi side of the river-that are assessed.

So if you take off the 128,000 acres in the floodway, take off the land that is on the east side of the main-line Mississippi River levee, there are left 61,700 acres of land in the parish of East Carroll.

I call your attention to this:

Here will be the width of our parish, less than 3 miles right here [indicating]. It is impossible to make this floodway 9 miles, because there is a lake 7 miles long in here. The town in which I live is here [indicating]. This thing gradually widens out a little bit, as you see, until it gets to the end. This is your 61,700 acres of land that is left in that parish, or ultimately will be all that is left for taxing

purposes.

I know, Mr. Chairman, that the mere fact of the passing of this legislation is going to affect the value of that property. Of course, we are told that the water will not run down over it very often. But the mere fact of the passage of the legislation and the construction of enormous levees which would place that land in a floodway with a very uncertain future is bound to affect the value of that property.

With that in view, it is natural to suppose that the assessed value of that land is from year to year going to grow less. Some of that land is going to be abandoned, of course. About three-fourths of that area, all the green area, is in timber or cut-over land, what we call "cut-over land", because there is no virgin timber left in the parish of East Carroll. It has all been taken away, so that the land is cut-over land. All this white area-this is taken from the airplane map of the Mississippi River Commission-is cultivated land. So you see in a large part here in the upper part of this parish they take a great deal of the land that is the finest land that is located in the parish, the most productive land.

I might add here, by way of repetition, that the Agricultural Department here gives the parish of East Carroll an average annual

production of lint cotton of 378 pounds per acre, so you know it is good land.

We have a great development down in this country, the only development we have had in the past few years, by an influx of small farmers. Here is an area down here, you might say in the woods, that has a white high school with nearly 400 children going to it. That is on the bank of Bayou Macon.

The CHAIRMAN. That is Monticello?

Mr. HAMLEY. That is Monticello, yes. You have been there, Judge, and you know it. All this area is the same thing. There is a big school here at Elmwood, on Joe's Bayou, with probably 150 children in it. All that will be included in the floodway. It does not make any difference whether it is two or three miles wide, it gets the best and the newest development we have in our parish.

Mr. Chairman, it is these people that live on this property that I am talking about. I am talking about the man that will never be up here. It is those people; and those people have gone into that country, they have gone into that cultivable land, and by the hardest kind of work of themselves and their families they have built homes and established themselves, and they expect to remain there all the balance of their time. To put this floodway down through there, Mr. Chairman, is going to cast a cloud over them. It is going to demoralize them. And our development is going to stop.

Now, we will come to the practical matter of water flowing through that floodway. Of course, it may not come, perhaps, for 25 years, but that twenty-fifth year may be next year or it may be the year after next or the year after that.

But, Mr. Chairman, when it does come, with the improvements in that country all of frame construction-you and Mr. Whittington and the balance of the Congressmen from our country know what kind of improvements they are-if you put 20 feet of water or even 10 or 15 feet of water in that floodway, everything in it is going to wash away. The improvements there, Mr. Chairman, will be bobbing up and down in that floodway, the houses and barns and schools and churches, just like a lot of fishing corks, and we are going to have to look for them down here in the floodway area of Concordia Parish 100 miles away, after that water comes. So I say that the fact of flooding that area is going to destroy it. Of course, we will admit that it does not take the improvements away if you never flood it, but it is constructed for a purpose and it is put there to take water out of that river. And some time or other that water has to come down through there. When it comes down through there. Mr. Chairman, the destruction of that country is going to be absolutely complete.

Now, look at this thing from a few of the practical things. I say this from the knowledge of a lifetime. I was born and raised in that parish, and have lived there all of my life. I know that there are a great many things to be considered. Of course, I am looking at this thing from the cbservation of the people in that community. I believe that they are justified in coming here and protesting through their representatives against a thing that they honestly believe, and I believe will destroy them.

They are good people. They are entitled to live and they are entitled to pursue their occupations and they are entitled to farm.

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