 Laun Jean Chronoscope, a television journal of the important issues of the hour, a presentation of the Laun Jean Wittner Watch Company, maker of Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Wittner, distinguished companion to the world-honored Laun Jean. Good evening. This is David Ross. May I introduce our co-editors for this edition of the Laun Jean Chronoscope? Mr. William Bradford Huey, editor of the American Mercury, and Lieutenant Colonel Ansel Talbert, an editor of the New York Herald Tribune. Our distinguished guest for this evening is the Honorable Fred A. Seaton, United States Senator from Nebraska. The opinions expressed are necessarily those of the speakers. Senator Seaton, I believe that you are a Nebraska newspaper man who's serving out the term of the late Senator Wherry. Tonight, sir, we'd like you to tell us something about the unprecedented floods that you've had in your area. Now, can you describe for our audience something about how serious this flood has been, sir? Yes, I'd be glad to, Mr. Huey. This present Missouri River flood is the greatest in the history of man, not only in the history of the white man, but also so far as the archaeologists can tell in the entire history of the Indians and anyone who may have come before them. How many people lost their homes, or were driven from their homes? So far as we're able to tell at the moment, about 80,000 people had to be evacuated, with damage to a larger percentage of those homes than not. And what was the property damage? We believe it will exceed $300 million. Now, of course, this river has been rampaging and flooding for many years. Can you give us some indication of how much loss has been over the period of the last 10 or 12 years? Well, in actual damages to installations of buildings, of towns, of public utilities, of farm, fence, and barns, and that sort of thing, the damage has been about one in three quarters, billions of dollars. Senator, Congress has been blamed in certain quarters for not appropriating enough money for an adequate flood control program. Do you think that's a fair criticism? Well, of course, as a member of that Congress, Colonel, you can hardly ask me to give you a complete affirmative. I would say that some of the fault has been Congress's yes. And the determination of first things first, probably Congress has missed a little bit on what was first. Well, do you think it's a matter of more money or better plans? I think it's a matter of more money because we have the plan. The Picks loan plan, which was first adopted in 1944, is thoroughly adequate so far as taking care of the Missouri River Basin and its flood situation is concerned. What we need is the money to carry the plan out. You can't stop the flood with paper. Our audience would like to know something about that Picks loan plan. Now, is this the plan drawn up by the Army engineers for controlling the river? It is a composite plan, Mr. Huey. The two authors of it were a general pick of the Army engineers and Claire Sloan of the Department of Agriculture. Technically, it is today known as the Picks loan plan with the Young Amendment. The Young Amendment came about through the efforts of a man by the name of Gladwin Young, who carried out the idea of upper watershed control of the river, so that you didn't start all of your efforts on the main stem. You held some of the water back, in other words, on the farms and the hillsides, leading down to the tributaries of the main stem of the river. Now, this is a plan for the construction by the federal government of a number of dams. Is that correct? That's correct. About how many dams is envisioned in the plan? Well, all in all, if you carried out the complete plan, there would be about a hundred such installations in the Missouri Basin. Now, remember, the Missouri Basin just isn't a little thing that a river flows down, because actually, you've got about two-sixth of the land mass of the United States in that basin. But there are four major dams involved in it. Those four dams, when completed, would stop a repetition of the flood we had in 1952, at least. How does this fit into President Truman's plan, I believe, involving $6 billion for national flood control? Is that part of the President's plan? Yes, I'm glad you used the word part. It is part. Of course, the President's plan encompasses a great many things besides the construction of these main stem dams and the flood control in the tributaries and on the farmlands. I'd rather not get in the position of trying to defend the President's plan of $6 billion, sir, if you don't mind. Well, our audience, we know that we can spend a great deal of money and we can get some benefits. But now, just how much money do the people of the United States have to spend to complete the pick-slown plan? Well, to complete the pick-slown plan, again, for the job of controlling these ravaging floods on the Missouri River, would cost the people of the United States about $1,300,000,000 or $400,000,000 less than the floods have already cost the people of the United States. In other words, these floods in the last 10 years have cost the people of the United States more than it will cost to build these dams. Yes, that's right. An actual damage is another damage, too. Now, to those floods out there cost the people in New York and other people who live outside that area, are they expensive to us? Yes, definitely so. In at least two ways. One may be rather intangible and difficult to visualize. But we know that whenever you have flood damage, or damage from anything, a tornado, which of course you can't control, that you then suffer about a 20% loss in income tax collections. Now, I assume that everybody listening to this program pays income taxes in this day and age in America. So you can charge up 20% of this total loss to the people here in New York State, for instance. Fair share of it, they're going to have to pay more taxes because those people out there won't make the money to pay them. Now then specifically, so far as all of us are concerned, the 1952 flood on the Missouri River will cost the average family in the United States at least $15.50 on their grocery bill because, you see, the Missouri Basin is the bread basket of America. And we know that those losses we suffered in farm produce will cause a 1% increase in the cost of everybody's food for the ensuing year. In other words, every family in New York, or Atlanta, or Jacksonville, Florida, or Chicago, every family in the United States will have to pay $15 more for food this year because of this flood. Is that correct? That is correct, and that's a very conservative figure that we can defend. Senator, floods seem to be getting worse and worse. In your opinion, have we really accomplished anything in flood control up to now? Oh, yes, Colonel. We could talk all evening about that, but just so far as the Missouri Basin is concerned, the construction of the Fort Peck Dam, which was closed last year, held enough of those floodwaters that had the dam not been there. The flood would have been two feet higher at Omaha Council Bluffs, peer in South Dakota than it was. Well, of course, it would just have caused additional millions and millions of dollars of damage because the chances are it would have been impossible to hold that flood within the levees, which did hold the flood. Now, the Fort Peck Dam has been completed. Now, that's part of your pick-slown plan. It's one of the four major dam gestures. So you're telling us that because you had that dam completed, the flood was not as bad as it would have been without that one. That's absolutely correct. And each dam that is now completed will reduce the danger of any future flood. Yes, I think everybody who has studied the river, the Army engineers, the civilian authorities, even the people who argue about the Peck-slown plan, all will agree that the four dams, when completed, would have held these floodwaters back to the extent that instead of having a flood, we would have had a stage of the river about two feet less than flood height all the way down the river. To where it joins the Mississippi. Does that make it clear for you? Yes. One of the issues that divides our people is the issue on the Tennessee Valley Authority. I think we Americans are divided into those of us who think TVA is something pretty great and those who do not. Now, is there any enthusiasm in the Missouri Valley for a TVA plan? Very little, sir. And what there is is engendered primarily by the executive department of the United States government and by the Bureau of the Interior of the federal government. Well, Senator, thinking on a national scale, in whose hands will the flood control problems of the future fall and the Army engineers in a national authority? Of course, that's a national question so far as the Missouri Basin area is concerned of the 10 states out there in the middle west and the west. If we have our way, the control of this thing will be in the hands of representatives of those 10 states drawn from the so-called 10 state compact and from the governor's conference of those 10 states. Now, the Fort Peck Dam, I believe, is not a hydroelectric dam, is it? No, it is not. It's just for flood control. That's right. Now, are any of the other proposed dams to be hydroelectric dams? Yes, some of them are. However, the production of hydroelectric power or the production of electrical energy is not a major part of the pick-slone plan. It is interjected into the plan only so far as it is necessary to amortize the cost of some of these dams so that the irrigation water drawn from the dams will not be prohibited in cost to the farmers. In short now, our people can understand that in the Missouri Valley, you are not going to have under that plan a power development similar to what we've had in the Tennessee Valley and then out in the northwest. No, you will have neither the emphasis on power that you had in the Tennessee Valley nor will you have the extent of manufacture. And that area will remain primarily agricultural then and your plan is designed primarily to aid irrigation and crop development. Irrigation, of course, with the ensuing crop development, flood control and navigation on the Missouri at least up to the point of Omaha. Now, when, sir, will the pick-slone plan for controlling this river, when will it be completed according to the present schedule? Well, according to the present schedule on the basis of the appropriations which have been made up to fiscal year 53, it would be at least 1960 before these major dams were completed in the major installations that were in on the river. Now, if we get our way, we will try to hurry that up and certainly cut down that terminal date by three years anyhow. I see. In other words, now at present is eight years, it'll take eight years to complete it and you as a senator from Nebraska are trying to cut down that time. I'm sure that our audience very much appreciate your views tonight, sir, and thank you for being with us. The editorial board for this edition of the Laun Jean Chronoscope was Mr. William Bradford Huey and Lieutenant Colonel Ansel Talbert. Our distinguished guest was the Honorable Fred A. Seton, United States Senator from Nebraska. Do you have the problem of selecting a gift of great prestige for someone important to you? Well, that problem is most happily solved with Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch, because of the fine quality of the Laun Jean watch and because of what the name Laun Jean stands for. To the whole world, Laun Jean stands as the only watch in history to win highest of all awards 38 times at world's fairs and international expositions, including 10 grand prizes and 28 gold medals. Laun Jean stands as the watch of first choice in sports, science, and other fields of precise timing, and Laun Jean stands for the watch that has won highest observatory accuracy honors. The gift of great prestige for any important occasion is Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch, and throughout the world, no other name on a watch means so much. Yet you may buy and own or buy and proudly give a Laun Jean watch for as little as $71.50. Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch, premier product of the Laun Jean Witner Watch Company since 1866, maker of watches of the highest character. For the Laun Jean Chronoscope, a television journal of the important issues of the hour, broadcast on behalf of Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Witner, distinguished companion to the world honored Laun Jean, sold and serviced from coast to coast by more than 4,000 leading jewelers who proudly display this emblem, agency for Laun Jean Witner watches. This is the CBS television...