(b) All money expended for actual construction, reconstruction, or other work under the direction of the commission and carried out as provided herein under the supervision of the Chief of Engineers, United States Army, shall be expended by the Secretary of War upon voucher of the Chief of Army Engineers, in accordance with the plans, specifications, and directions of the commission, but the commission shall have authority to expend any funds appropriated under authority of this act for plans, surveys, studies, and other functions necessary to the carrying out of the provisions of this act and for such expenditures as may be necessary for the proper maintenance of the commission, its personnel, offices, and equipment.

CERTAIN STATUTES NOT AFFECTED

SEC. 12. Nothing in this act shall be construed to amend or repeal or in any manner interfere with the administration of any of the provisions of sections 201 and 500 of the transportation act of 1920, approved February 28, 1920, as amended, the Federal water power act, approved June 10, 1920, as amended, the Inland Waterways Corporation act, approved January 3, 1924, as amended, or the upper Mississippi River wild life and fish refuge act, approved January 23, 1924, as amended, or any act conferring jurisdiction upon the Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Agriculture, or Secretary of the Interior, or upon any governmental agency in respect of conservation, and nothing in this act shall be construed to take from the Secretary of War or any other governmental agency any of the powers or duties granted or imposed by law in the emergency of war or in preparation therefor, or to interfere with any of the provisions of section 124 of the national defense act, approved June 3, 1916, as amended.

SAVING CLAUSE

SEC. 13. If any provision of this act is declared unconstitutional or the applicability thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the validity of the remainder of the act and the applicability of such provision to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

REPEAL CLAUSE

SEC. 14. Paragraph (a) of section 1 of the flood control act, approved March 1, 1917, is hereby repealed.

Paragraph (b) of section 1 of the flood control act, approved March 1, 1917, is hereby repealed.

Section 642 of chapter 13 of title 33 of the Code of Laws of the United States, December 6, 1926, is hereby repealed.

All other acts or parts of acts inconsistent with provisions of this act are hereby repealed.

SHORT TITLE

SEC. 15. This act may be cited as "the flood.control act of 1928."

[S. 2850, Seventieth Congress, first session]

A BILL To provide for control of floods of the Mississippi River, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Federal Government hereby recognizes that the protection of interstate commerce from the destructive flood waters of the Mississippi River and of its navigable tributaries affecting such floods is a national duty and responsibility, and that all costs and charges connected with flood-control work shall be paid by the Federal Government without contribution from the States or local levee boards or districts.

SEC. 2. That for controlling the flood waters of the Mississippi River and its navigable tributaries affecting such floods and continuing its improvement from the Head of Passes to the mouth of the Ohio River, the Secretary of War is hereby authorized, empowered, and directed to carry on continuously and as expeditiously as possible, by hired labor or otherwise, the plans of the Missis

sippi River Commission heretofore or hereafter adopted for the control of the flood waters of said Mississippi River, and that there is hereby authorized to be appropriated, out of any sums of money not otherwise appropriated, from time to time as such appropriation may be needed, a sum not to exceed in the aggregate $775,000,000 for the purpose of carrying out the plans of said Mississippi River Commission to give complete protection against flood waters on said river. SEC. 3. That all flood ways and spillways shall be controlled and the lands adjacent thereto be as fully protected from floods as those on the main river. That said commission, by purchase or by condemnation proceedings hereinafter authorized, shall have full power to acquire rights of way for flood ways and spillways, or new additional levee ways or the relocation of levee ways as shall from time to time be considered necessary, the payment for such lands and ways to be made out of any money appropriated under the authority of this act.

SEC. 4. That where levees have heretofore been constructed on one or the other side of the river and the lands on the opposite side have been thereby subject to greater overflow, or where the Mississippi River Commission has heretofore recommended or may hereafter recommend that levees be built, the said commission is hereby authorized to acquire, by purchase or condemnation proceedings, rights of way for such new additional levees and to build the same out of the funds herein authorized to be appropriated.

SEC. 5. That the act of June 28, 1879, providing for the appointment of a Mississippi River Commission, and for other purposes, be, and is hereby, amended by authorizing the Chief of Engineers to be an ex officio member of said Mississippi River Commission with equal rights and powers now devolving upon other members of the commission; and by providing that the president of the Mississippi River Commission shall receive the rank, pay, and allowances of a brigadier general of Engineers.

SEC. 6. The officers from the Engineer Corps of the Army assigned to duty as district officers under the Mississippi River Commission shall retain their posts, at the option of the commission, at least six years, and shall devote their entire time to the work of the commission.

SEC. 7. That the Mississippi River Commission shall maintain in the river below Cairo a minimum channel width of three hundred feet, with a depth of nine feet at all stages.

SEC. 8. That the work of flood control on the Mississippi River shall be prosecuted with a view to protecting the valley from a flood exceeding that of 1927 by such percentage as the Mississippi River Commission shall, after investigation, deem necessary fully to protect the valley against destructive floods. SEC. 9. That in acquiring lands necessary for levee ways, spillways, reservoirs, and the like, in the opinion of the commission necessary to carry out the purposes of this act, the said commission is hereby authorized to purchase such lands as they consider proper for such purposes, and in the event the commission is unable to acquire said lands at a fair and just price, it is authorized to go into the district courts of the United States in the districts where the land lies and acquire by condemnation proceedings the said lands. In such condemnation proceedings judges of the several district courts having jurisdiction over said lands are hereby empowered, authorized, and directed to appoint a commission, or jury, of three freeholders, whose duty it will be to go upon said land and make such investigation and hear such evidence as may be adduced and report to the court the amount of land taken and the value thereof; and thereupon the court shall enter a judgment vesting the title of said lands in the Mississippi River Commission, and upon the payment in the court of the amount of award of said commission or jury award the possession of such land to the commission. In case the commission or the landowner is dissatisfied with the report of said commission, or jury, an appeal will lie to the circuit court of appeals as in other cases; but such appeal shall not delay the awarding of the possession of said lands to the said commission.

SEC. 10. That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to borrow on the credit of the United States from time to time, as the proceeds may be required to defray expenditures authorized by this act (such proceeds when received to be used only for the purpose of meeting such expenditures), the sum of $775,000,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, and to prepare and issue therefor coupon or registered bonds of the United States in such form as he may prescribe, and in denominations of $20 or some multiple of that sum, redeemable in gold coin at the pleasure of the United States after ten years from the date of their issue, and payable thirty years from such date, and bearing interest payable quarterly in gold coin at the rate of 3 per centum

per annum; and the bonds herein authorized shall be exempt from all taxes or duties of the United States, as well as from taxation in any form by or under State, municipal, or local authority: Provided, That said bonds may be disposed of by the Secretary of the Treasury at not less than par, under such regulations as he may prescribe, giving to all citizens of the United States an equal opportunity to subscribe therefor, but no commissions shall be allowed or paid thereon; and a sum not exceeding one-tenth of 1 per centum of the amount of the bonds herein authorized is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to pay the expense of preparing, advertising, and issuing the same.

SEC. 11. That all laws in conflict with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.

[S. J. Res. 7, Seventieth Congress, first session]

JOINT RESOLUTION Providing for hearings before a joint committee of the Senate and the House upon the merits of the Riker spillway project for control and utilization of waters of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and ramifications, and report to Congress, and authorizing the construction of a model of said project

Whereas plans for the Riker spillway project were presented to the United States Board of Flood Control in 1913, which board on April 21 of that year pronounced this project "most interesting and fascinating," and later requested that full details of it be furnished at the earliest possible moment; thereafter, on April 25 of the same year H. R. 4296 was introduced, and on July 31, 1914, H. R. 18169, Sixty-third Congress, second session, was introduced, which gave in its sixty-eight pages full details for such spillway project, respecting the Mississippi below Saint Louis, and which, when subjected to such amendments as the elapsed period of fourteen years have made necessary, principally a reduction in the width of the spillway from ten to three miles wide, largely because of the increased value of realty in the valley since said H. R. 18169 was introduced in 1914, and thereby necessary increase in size of the levees which will confine the flood waters to the spillway, the route of the spillway being almost exactly that which said H. R. 18169 then proposed, and extends through the heart of the Saint Francis, Yazoo, Tensas, and Atchafalaya Basins to the Gulf of Mexico, draining and reclaiming more than a million acres of fertile lands, which any other plan than such a spillway through these basins or valleys will not accomplish, is attached, made a part of, and is substantially the project to be presented, together with related and interlocking plans for the improvement of the Missouri River below Montana, also attached; and

Whereas it will be noted that July 31, 1914, was the day before the declaration of the Great War in Europe and H. R. 18169 was not given the consideration by Congress at that time which otherwise it might have had; but the Mississippi River Commission and the Chief of Engineers of the United States Army were specifically made acquainted with the contents, and the only criticism ever made by either of them, so far as ascertained, simply stated that the measures proposed were unnecessary, as the levees were amply sufficient, or would shortly be made so, as to protect the Mississippi Valley from any floods that might occur; and

Whereas said H. R. 18169 specifically pointed out both the possibility and the probability of such concurrent floods devastating the Mississippi Valley, as have recently occurred, and which floods would have been impotent to have created any damage whatever in the valley had said plans for the construction of said spillway been carried out before the recent catastrophe, perfect drainage would have been afforded the valley during the last eight years; and

Whereas the complete drainage of the entire alluvial valley of the Mississippi, which the Riker spillway project would effect, will undoubtedly produce a lesser rainfall in that valley, and the benefit of such lesser rainfall would also have accrued during the last eight years; and

Whereas the "Father of Waters," with his arteries thus bled and shorn of his strength, will be perfectly tractable, can be yoked for agriculture, shackled for commerce, and harnessed for power. He will then spread fertility, provide deep water for navigation to Saint Louis, and develop more than seven million horsepower in falling to the Gulf. When man unites and subdivides him, his day of wild riot is over; and

Whereas a model about seventy feet long to scale, showing water at many different heights flowing through the Mississippi River and the proposed Riker

spillway from Cairo to the Gulf, which would show the Saint Francis, Yazoo, Tensas, and Atchafalaya Basins in the Mississippi Valley and how the proposed spillway would drain them, how the spillway will relieve them and control the whole situation during floods, without, as now, in any way retarding the drainage of the valley at any time, could be constructed in a room of the Senate Office Building, at the subway entrance, to cost not to exceed $6,000: Now therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a joint committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives be appointed for the purpose of conducting hearings upon the merits of the Riker spillway project for the control and utilization of the waters of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and ramifications, and which said committee shall call and subpoena the foremost civilian hydraulic engineers and others who are experts upon the various factors involved in the proposed project, including each member of the Mississippi Commission and such Army engineers as it shall deem advisable, and report to Congress, should this project be carried out, will it provide safety against floods in the alluvial valley of the Mississippi below Saint Louis; will it provide drainage for that valley far better than now exists, and ultimately make hundreds of thousands of additional acres arable which are now unfit for cultivation; and if by drying up such vast now wet areas it would prevent some of the excessive rainfall which now occurs there; will it be practicable to complete the entire project within five years; will it be practicable to let the work by contract or contracts for completion within five years; will it afford such absolute control of the waters flowing through the Mississippi River as will permit the construction of dams across it below Saint Louis, and, when provided with locks, make that river navigable for large steamships to Saint Louis at good speed and with safety; will it enable a nearly uniform quantity of water to be passed down the river at all times, and thereby permit of the contraction of the area of the pass or passes at its mouth with safety, and thereby insure a deep water entrance at all times for the river; will it afford an approximate fixed water level in that river which will permit of the erection of freight houses at the water level; will it obviate any need for increased levee height or strength along the river after its completion, and reduced the malaria now prevalent along that river due to the uncovering of its muddy banks after each fluctuation in the height of its waters; will it remove river deposits incident to the reduced velocity of flow in that river below a spillway due to the abstraction of the water of the river thereby; will the spillway entrances or mouths, when constructed with gates and dams, and so forth, as provided be practicable; will the current combs and dams control the amount and velocity and the cutting effects of the waters passing through the spillway; will the antieroding and current directing and deflecting devices for such spillway perform their functions; will the measures to prevent the erosion of the levees and to prevent their being undermined perform their function; will the means for crossing the spillway and the river at frequent intervals be practicable, will the means for filling existing depressions that exist within the spillway and for several miles on each side of it be practicable, as also the means for filling great areas about the shores of the Gulf of Mexico near the spillway, with alluvium passing down the river which now goes to sea; will the top of the levees afford desirable interstate highways and roadbeds for railways; will the drainage canals on the outside of the spillway provide the needed drainage to the valley and can they readily be converted into navigable canals; will the proposed levees require larger dredges than now exist for their economical construction or for the enlargement of the canals; will the proposed lures in the rivers, when combined with the proposed great semifixed dredges, be practicable to produce the results specified; will it be practicable to construct dams in the Mississippi River in the manner proposed, as also to float the locks, power plants, and gate structures into position, and. then concrete them as proposed; will it be practicable to complete the entire project within five years?

RESPECTING THE MISSOURI RIVER

Will it be feasible to dam the Missouri River above Bismarck. North Dakota; will the projected dam meet the requirements demanded to restrain the waters for a great storage reservoir, which will control the floods of that river passing such dam; will an earth dam, with a sheet-metal core reinforced by concre

as designed, be practicable for that purpose and most desirable upon a foundation of clay; will such dam be safer against any convulsion of nature than a masonry dam; will the reinforced concrete covering on each side of the sheetsteel boiler-plate core tend to preserve it for a long period of years and be efficient as the boiler plate has become inefficient; will the drainage of the lake side of the core be better than without any drainage on that side; will the proposed great cylindrical valves for the underflow be practicable; will the concrete-lined steel conduits, embedded in concrete as proposed, be practicable and safe when based upon the clay bottom which exists; will the means for transporting vessels over the dam be pract cable and better than locks for such purpose in a master dam retaining so much water; what is the estimated power which the proposed dam would generate; will the great area of water which such reservoir will afford affect the climatic conditions in the vic nity so as to increase the rainfall and snowfall; will the proposed master dam, by preventing the floods and permitting a practically uniform flow of the waters in the Missouri River below it, lessen the tendency to form sand bars and cause snags; will the construction of similar master dams on other rivers emptying into the Missouri below the aforesaid master dam so control the formation of such obstructions that the river channel can be dredged and freed from snags, and particularly if thereafter navigation for commerc al purposes will become practicable; will the proposed system of nonparallel by-plane canalization be a better method for obtaining practical navigation upon that river?

The joint committee is further requested to express its opinions upon any other detail or matter that it shall deem advisable or pertinent in order to provide a full understanding to the Congress of the project proposed.

That the sum of $6,000 is hereby authorized to be expended and used for the purpose of preparing and constructing a model of the "Riker spillway project," which model shall be built and constructed in the basement of the Senate Office Building, in a room situated next to the entrance of the subway on the right-hand side.

PLAN'S FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE MISSOURI RIVER BELOW MONTANA

The physical features of the Missouri River Valley, below the junction of the Yellowstone with that river, are such that they make its flood control and fitness for navigation impossible, when undertaken by the present methods; but by the construction of a great master dam across this river in North Dakota, where nature has provided a site for it and for a great reservoir, its flood control, navigation, and power production become not only possible and practicable but inexpensive and alluring beyond first conception.

To control this river, so as to maintain navigation by its varying currents and floods, has been the duty of the United States Army engineers for more than half a century, but because they have spent many millions of dollars in their senile petty combats with nature, and have failed, is no reason it can not be done, when nature is cooperated with and her great provisions to that end are embraced.

To this end, the first step is a great master dam across the Missouri River just below the junction of the Little Missouri with it, capable of impounding water to a depth of one hundred and fifty feet. This will produce a lake or reservoir extending to Williston, near the Montana line, about one hundred and thirty-eight miles long, averaging about two miles wide, and which will contain about five hundred billion cubic feet of water, or amply sufficient to make uniform, or to otherwise control the flow of this river which will then be absolutely under man's control at this point.

As proposed, this dam will reach to a height of two hundred and ten feet above the present river level and can impound water two hundred feet deep if required, which would increase the contents of the lake to about one thousand billion cubic feet, and extend it to the Montana line.

This dam will be composed of clay, sand, and silt, be pumped into position somewhat as was the dam at Gatun, Canal Zone, and will contain nearly one hundred million cubic yards.

This earth will be placed in the dam by great floating dredges of the most improved construction and by other means, at low cost, and they would complete the work in less than one-fourth the time and at less than one-fourth the cost which would be required to provide a dam made of concrete or of masonry having equal capacity, strength, and safety under normal conditions.