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BIGELOW SOUNDS CALL TO FIGHT FLOOD PERILSupreme Court Expansion Is “Real New Deal Revolution”Weekly messages from U. S. Congressman Herbert S. Bigelow to the people of Southern Ohio will be heard every Friday evening at 7:15 over Station WCPO. High-lights of these addresses will be printed in THE PEOPLE’S VOICE.I hope some provision is going to be made to extend credit from the R.F.C. or other government agency that people who have lost their homes or whose businesses have been entirely swept away, may secure loans which they could not hope to get from the banks, to make a new start in life. I have hoped also that all the WPA forces might be thrown into the job of cleaning up private homes as w'ell as public property.I think we Have, in Mr. Harry Hopkins, and other administrative leaders, men who, in this emergency, will have little respect for red tape and who will not hesitate to stretch the law and use all their powers to help to the utmost.“Thrilled” by Court StepI am thrilled by the President’s determination to curb the power of the courts. Congress undoubtedly will support the President and this does mean a Real New Deal!May 1 cite but one example of the need for such a change. After Congress last year had faited to pass flood prevention legislation, the President, in his eagerness to do something, allocated funds under his control to start the building of the Blue Stone Dam on the Kana ivah River. Immediately the Allegheny Power Co. slapped on an in junction. This Power Company virtually said to the President: Floods or no floods, you shan’t build that dam!—unless you’ll agree to waste the waters of the dam and make no electricity with them.”Thus the courts have been hamstringing most everything that this Government has tried to do, even though, as everybody knows, rarely in American history has any government ever* represented so fully the sovereign will of the American people. President Roosevelt has taken a bold step. It is a revolutionary step. But is a peaceable revolution and one that has been long overdue. Now we may have some assurance that the measuresto be taken for Flood Prevention are not going to be blocked and obstructed by utility and judicial opposition.Land Has Been LootedLet me come to this problem of flood control. Socially speaking, we have been criminals. We have been wicked wasters of our God-given heritage. We have hacked down our forests, intent on immediate profits and .giving not a thought to posterity. We have'not loved the land We have looted it. A new Gobi Desert of our own making is creep ing upon us. This is what rugged and ruthless individualism has done for us.Fortunately, millions have already been spent on Army engineer surveys and estimates, and work can start in the tributaries of the Ohio within thirty days from the time Congress makes the necessary ap^ propriations. I believe you are going to be w’ell satisfied with the speed of this Congressional action.Twenty-five Feet ProtectionYou will be much concerned to know how much flood protection you may expect at Cincinnati from the plans that are now being con sidered. The best advice I can get is that it w’ill be possible to reduce by twenty or twTer.ty-five feet the height of any flood that we can ever have after these plans are carried out.But I should say that to get this maximum protection would involve flood control projects in our twoMiami rivers as well as in streams farther up the Ohio.Cincinnati’s flood situation is worsened by the fact that we are caught right here at the junction of three rivers with the Ohio, the Big and Little Miami and the Lick ing. These rivers when flooded, plunge into the Ohio flood waters and push them back, causing a Cin cinnati hump in the river. The Ohio flood piles up on top of the other three rivers. Now the Army engineers are planning to put in two dams to control the Licking.We are going to have to make an effort to have the tw'o Miami Rivers included in the program. If this is done, and if dams are installed up in tlie tributaries in Pennsylvania I and w est Virginia, wre may assure ourselves that our flood troubles will be over. We know that these I plans cannot be carried out by a
Newspaper Details
The Peoples Voice
Cincinnati, Ohio, US
Wed, Feb 10, 1937
Page 2
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USA 09 Oct 2024
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