Flood Control

_ Sagging and swaying so that its actual dimensions were hard to judge, the Senate's flood control bill rolled through the House last week by a final vote of 254 to 91. Then it went to a House-Senate conference. President Coolidge continued his long-range fight upon what he had called its "extortionate" features.

The nucleus of the bill was still the Army engineers' plan for bigger and better levees along the main stream of the Mississippi from Cairo, 111., down, and spillways at the foot of the river. The Army figure for this work was $295,000,000. The Senate's elaborations raised the figure to $325,000,000 nominally. The actual cost entailed was estimated as high as $1,500,000,000. It was to pare down and fix the Senate's elaborations that President Coolidge's men fought during the House debates. This fight centred on two points: 1) The extent to which the communities benefited should share the expense with the U. S., and 2) the safeguards the U. S. would receive in its acquisition of lands and rights of way.

On both points the Coolidge men were by and large defeated. As passed, the bill required the U. S. to pay all costs except for levee sites on the main stream. And the U. S. was insured only against damage claims by public utility companies which were left to stand on their constitutional rights and sue in court when the flood control work does them harm. A half-victory by the Coolidge men was the provision that for floodways the U. S. shall buy not actual acreage but "flowage rights" across the land where necessary. This provision cut untold sums from flood-control's ultimate cost, said the Coolidge men, who suspected lumber and railroad companies of plotting to sell their valley lands at exorbitant prices.