more cotton shipped by boat to New Orleans during this past season than there has been for 20 or 25 years. As Greenville is located in the greatest cotton producing centers of the United States, we have also taken advantage of the cheaper rates and have shipped in the neighborhood of twenty-five to thirty thousand bales to New Orleans, at a saving from $1 to $2.15 per bale, and the producer is bound to get some of the savings if not all of it. The same thing would apply to the people living on the Arkansas, upper Missouri, and upper Mississippi Rivers in the disposing of their crops, and it is my opinion that the expenditures for the improvement of these streams would be saved in a few years and it would enable the agricultural industries of the Mississippi Valley to purchase new equipment and other necessities, and the money would go back to the manufacturing industries of the United States and we would all be gainers in the end. Hoping that you will report this bill favorably, I remain, FS: AH. FRED SCHELBEN, Director Mississsippi Valley Association. Hon. GERALD P. NYE, Chairman Subcommittee of the BURLINGTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, Committee on Commerce of the Senate, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: We have just been informed that the Shipstead-Mansfield bond issue bill for improvement of inland waterways will be given a hearing before the Commerce Committee of the Senate Monday morning, April 4. Our association is intensely interested in the passage of this bill, and we earnestly urge you to use your able influence for this bill, as the only way to get justice, equality, and transportation advantages to millions of people in the great Mississippi Valley, who are not being discriminated against because of the Panama Canal. The Federal bond issue is the only economical and business like method of procedure on this Government project. It would same many hundreds of thousands of dollars over any other method. We respectfully urge you to give favorable consideration to this measure. Yours very truly, C. W. BOND, Secretary-Manager. OSHKOSH, WIS. Hon. GERALD P. NYE, Subcommittee of Commerce Committee of Senate, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: Business conditions prevent me from coming to Washington to appear in person to give my reasons for supporting Senate bill 175. I therefore respectfully ask that my letter be read to the committee and on the floor of the Senate and House of Representatives, if possible, when this bill comes up for debate or passage. Respectfully, ALAN P. TRIPP. OSHKOSH, WIS. To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: GENTLEMEN: Being a member of the Mississippi Valley Association of St. Louis, representing the State of Wisconsin as a director, and also being a director of the Wisconsin to the Gulf Waterway Association of Oshkosh, Wis., I earnestly request your honorable bodies to give the following statement of facts very careful deliberation, thought, and study: I. For nearly three years our Nation has been going through a period of great business depression such as no other nation in the world has yet experienced. Banks have failed by the hundreds, the lifelong earnings and savings of our wage earners have been wiped out, many thousands of homes and farms have been lost by no fault of our citizens but, due to the fact that being unable to find employment, they thereby defaulted in their interest or taxes, their home is taken away, and due to the low prices on farm products the farmer is also losing his farm through being unable to pay his taxes or interest. These are facts no one can deny. II. All plans so far as mapped out by our Federal Government to bring relief have failed. There are more men out of work to-day, in April, 1932, and more suffering going on to-day than there was in April, 1931. These are facts also that can be substantiated by the American Federation of Labor, notwithstanding what you read in the daily press. III. As yet no Senator, Congressman, editor, or American citizen has formulated any concrete plan or policy for our Government to adopt or pursue to restore confidence to our Nation so that prosperity can return. IV. The time has arrived, in my estimation, that if the principles of American Government are to endure, all party lines must be eliminated. Republican, whether he be stalwart or progressive, Democrat, or other political party, and all who believe in the principles of true Americanism should stand shoulder to shoulder under our flag with only one motto in view, and that is "To save America." Further, all citizens of our Republic who may suggest a remedy or plan to put us back on our feet as a Nation, such plan or plans should be given consideration and not ridiculed by our Government. V. Your honorable committee, considering bill S. 175, are respectfully asked to consider the following questions and my answers to said questions. Prosperity can not come back unless men go back to work. Question A: Can prosperity come back unless men go back to work? Why so? Factories can not open up because 8,000,000 people out of work have no money to buy with. Many factories, thinking prosperity would come back in 1931, kept their men working part time and have used up their surplus or reserve and are now forced to shut down themselves. Question B: Whose duty is it, in a crisis like this, to bring relief? Why so? Because history teaches us that no government has ever lasted or endured when its citizens are in want or distress, and are forced to lose their homes through no fault of their own. Question C: Who, then, has the power to put men to work? My answer: The Federal, State, county, and city governments. How can that be brought about? By the Federal Government adopting the following plan: 1. Congress first to pass a resolution "That a national emergency is with us." By passing this resolution Congress will have the power to put our Nation on a war footing or basis; put all war boards back, like during the World War; make every citizen register and state his or her status of affairs as to finance; the job he or she wants; mortgage or other indebtedness; land owned and cultivated. First of all, let us get down to brass tacks by finding out facts of the citizens within our Nation. Have all questionnaires come back to the war board of each county, and one go to the Department of Labor at Washington. Then each county will know exactly how many men are idle or not, and what it would cost to put these men on public work for one year. 2. Settle prohibition by putting the matter to a national referendum, giving the States the right to handle their own liquor law. 3. Float a $5,000,000,000 bond issue in $50 bonds only, to bear 21⁄2 per cent interest; Congress to pass a resolution that these bonds are to be par value, and if the bearer can not hold such bonds, they are to be accepted as legal tender, and the bearer who holds these bonds at the interest date to collect the interest. The Federal Government to loan this money to any county or city that needs it, not as a dole but by putting men to work on public work such as the completion of our inland waterway program, the building of harbors, sewerage-disposal plants, irrigation of farm lands, reforestation, roads, public buildings, flood control, and game preserves. If you even put 4,000,000 idle men to work, they would start spending money and our factories would have to start up anyway. Whose duty is it to protect our farmers, whose prices are so low that they can not exist? My answer: The Federal Government. Question D: How can this be done? My answer: When Congress passes a resolution that a national emergency is with us, it has unlimited power to act, as during the war we were told how much sugar we could use and how much bread we could buy of a certain kind, and how much flour we could use. Congress has the power to save our farmers by setting the price of all farm products for one year; for instance, hogs 51⁄2 cents per pound; potatoes 50 cents per bushel; eggs 15 cents per dozen; butter 30 cents per pound. All prices on our natural resources, such as oil, copper, coal, zinc, etc., should be fixed by our Federal Government to prevent national bankruptcy. These prices could be fixed by calling in all agricultural department heads of each State in the Union. The price of wheat could be fixed by an international conference. Gentlemen, don't you think if we gave Germany one year lay-off to pay us our just war debts, we ought to declare a 1-year lay-off on foreclosing any home or farm of our own American citizens? Not one single move has as yet been made by our Federal Government to protect our American workingman from losing his home. I ask your honorable bodies to give Senate bill 175 deep consideration. I have all of my life supported the Stalwart Republican Party. I do not wish to criticize anyone. I consider that President Hoover has done the very best he knew how to try and steer our Nation back to good times again, but the fact remains, we are slipping. God forbid that our dollar should be only worth 50 cents! I am a traveling salesman covering Wisconsin, Michigan, and parts of Illinois and Indiana, and business in every line is slowing up. Not a single merchant in any city I make is making one dime. The time to act is now, before it is too late. On behalf of suffering humanity, I ask that Senate bill 175 be passed so that some of our American workingmen can be given a job, and I also ask that you give this entire plan your deep consideration before civilization is lost. The situation is more serious than the average politician realizes. I submit this as a tribute to the Nation I love and to the flag I stand ready to defend with my life, if necessary. Respectfully, ALAN H. TRIPP. Senator NYE. Now, Senator Shipstead, if you will proceed. STATEMENT OF HON. HENRIK SHIPSTEAD, UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MINNESOTA Senator SHIPSTEAD. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I want to express our gratification to the committee that it has seen fit to give this hearing on S. 175. In view of the fact that many representative men from all sections of the country are here this morning to be heard in favor of the bill, I think it would be out of place for me to make any extended remarks, and I shall confine my statement to just a few words. This bill has the indorsement of these men who are here to-day representing business organizations from all parts of the United States. It has to do with the program of construction that has already been authorized by the Congress. It has the indorsement of the Mississippi Valley Association and National Rivers and Harbors Congress, as well as the Chambers of Commerce of various sections. These men who are here to-day are deeply concerned and interested in the economic welfare not only of their own communities but in the economic welfare of this great Nation. They believe that they have a project here that is deserving of the most earnest consideration of the Congress and the President; as a matter of fact, it aims to put into effect a program initiated and sponsored by the President before the last election and in an address he made later at Louisville, to complete the work within five years. These gentlemen here will tell you why they think it ought to be done and how it can be done. I will introduce, first of all Senator VANDENBERG. Senator, before you start introducing your witnesses may I ask you one or two general questions? Senator SHIPSTEAD. Yes. Senator VANDENBERG. What is the total authorization now on the boards of the War Department and not appropriated for? Do you have that figure in mind? Senator SHIPSTEAD. I do not remember what the authorizations are for appropriations this year. Mr. SEAMAN. Mr. Brent has that. Senator SHIPSTEAD. I do not know what has been authorized by the Budget for appropriation this year. Senator VANDENBERG. No; you mistake my question. I mean the total authorization for which no appropriation has been made at all. Senator SHIPSTEAD. About $500,000,000, is it not; total rivers and harbors appropriations. Mr. THOMPSON. $345,000,000, according to the last statement. Senator VANDENBERG. Let me ask you one other question: In your proposal you are limiting these bonds to $500,000,000. The Secretary of the Treasury now takes the position that he now has authority to issue bonds for purposes of this or kindred character? Senator SHIPSTEAD. Yes. Senator VANDENBERG. Would not your proposed bond issue of $500,000,000 really circumscribe it rather than give him new authority? Can he not go further with that limit than he can with it? Senator SHIPSTEAD. The purpose of this bond issue is to assure sufficient funds so that this program may be completed in as short as possible time. Otherwise it would be dependent, as heretofore, on piecemeal appropriations by the Congress, which is the method that we have pursued for the last 30 or 40 years without completing any great project, with the exception of the Ohio and Monongahela Rivers. The urgency of the need and the means of stopping that heretofore piecemeal construction is one thing, and then the other reason for this bill is the economic relief that will be afforded that is so urgently needed now; and that is what these gentlemen intend to address themselves to. If you will hear them, I think they will clear that up for you very well. I would like to introduce first Colonel Randolph, president of the Mississippi Valley Association and president of the Association of Commerce of the city of Chicago. Colonel Randolph will introduce the other witnesses. Senator NYE. Colonel Randolph. STATEMENT OF COL. ROBERT ISHAM RANDOLPH, PRESIDENT MISSISSIPPI VALLEY ASSOCIATION, CHICAGO Senator NYE. If you will give the reporter your full name, Colonel. Mr. RANDOLPH. Robert Isham Randolph, 1444 First National Bank Building, Chicago. I am, as Senator Shipstead has stated, the president of the Mississippi Valley Association. I am not now, Senator, the president of the Chicago Association of Commerce. I was president of the Association of Commerce in Chicago for two years last past. As president of the Mississippi Valley Association, I represent, as do many of these gentlemen appearing here as witnesses, officers, directors, and members of the Mississippi Valley Association. The Mississippi Valley Association is a voluntary organization, with membership extending throughout the Mississippi Valley. We are here in support of Senate bill 175, introduced by Senator Shipstead, and we have a number of witnesses to present. We will try to confine ourselves to the argument for this bill. I do not think it is necessary to make an argument for the approved rivers and harbors projects, because the Congress has already passed upon that, and we may assume that that physical program is one which is not now open to argument. We will direct our testimony to the necessity for a financial plan. I am well aware that there is a very general insistent demand throughout the country for economy in governmental expenses, and I know that you gentlemen have been beset on every hand for governmental economy. But I think that there has not been a proper distinction made between the several kinds of governmental expenditure. In government as in private business, we are faced with the necessity of economy in operating expenses, but if we fail to make further capital investments, to make productive expenditures, we might as well fold up and quit in private business and in the Government. I think that there is a very real need for capital expenditures on public works, and that the distinction should be clearly drawn between governmental expenditures for operating expenses and governmental expenditures for public works that produce added wealth to the Nation. That is the burden of our plea here to-day. We have a large number of witnesses. We will ask them all to be brief, and I am going to call first on Mr. S. A. Thompson, the secretary of the National Rivers and Harbors Congress, representing Mr. Frank R. Reid, the president of the Congress. Mr. Thompson. STATEMENT OF S. A. THOMPSON, SECRETARY NATIONAL RIVERS Senator NYE. What is your address, Mr. Thompson? Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, President Reid is prevented from being present by illness, but I have a letter from him which which I wish to read for the record. Mr. Reid is a Member of Congress from Illinois and was formerly chairman of the Committee on Flood Control of the House. [Reading.] Hon. GERALD P. NYE, WASHINGTON, D. C., April 4, 1932. Chairman Subcommittee of the Commerce Committee, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR SENATOR NYE: The National Rivers and Harbors Congress has been actively engaged in promoting the improvement of rivers and harbors for the past 26 years. Its membership is composed of leading citizens from practically every State in the Union who are interested in the development of our national waterway system. During all this time it has advocated no particular project but has stood for a broad, national policy of river, harbor, and flood-control improvements wherever these are found to be economically sound and conducive to the fullest development of our country. At its twenty-seventh annual convention, which was held in Washington, De. cember 8 and 9, 1931, the congress went on record in favor of the promptest possible completion of all authorized projects, with the help of a bond issue if necessary, as appears from the following paragraph from the resolutions adopted: |