The House Week

Work Done. Last week, the U. S. Representatives :

P:Debated and passed a bill appropriating $2,290,000,000 for the Treasury and Post Office Departments; sent it to the Senate.

P:Approved a funding agreement on the $62,850,000 Jugoslavian War debt to the U. S.; sent it to the Senate.

P:Passed a bill to allow heads of government departments to settle tort claims up to $5,000 without bothering Congress; sent it to the Senate.

Flood Control. Last week, not quite one year after the beginning of the most enormous peacetime calamity in U. S. history, residents of the Mississippi Basin, looking northward, saw millions of acres of snow that would soon melt and incalculable clouds of rain that would soon fall. Winter had come and spring was not far behind. The peace of the public mind was not promoted during the week by an address to the third annual Midwest Power Conference, in Chicago, by Major-General Edgar Jadwin. As Chief of Engineers for the Army, General Jadwin may be expected to know what he is talking about. Said he, without giving any date: ". . . We now have a responsible forecast of a superflood, greater even than the 1927 flood. This is the result of investigations made by the United States Weather Bureau. . . ."

Looking eastward, residents of the Mississippi Basin saw another spectacle, at Washington. After months of wrangling, a committee of the House last week reported a flood-control measure to Congress. But the smoke of conflict, instead of trailing away, was just beginning to thicken. "The greatest fight this session" instead of a national necessity was what Congress was prepared to supply.

Army engineers had surveyed. The Department of Commerce had calculated. The Administration had conferred and announced: "$290,400,000 for federal flood-control, the States to bear 20% of the cost and furnish the land for earthworks."

Lobbyists had pressed special claims. Businessmen had pictured the Basin's real financial extremity. Politicians had embarked on the flood for a joyride, and the bill at last said: "$473,000,000 for federal flood-control, without local contribution."

The difference between the administration's figure and that of the House Flood-Control Committee was just $183,000,000. As the "greatest fight" began, and the "superflood" abated, citizens wondered what part of a 183-million-dollar stumbling-block should be scored against:

Coolidge "stinginess."

Congressional "plundering."

Administrative discretion.

Legislative sympathy.