BIG SCALE PLAN

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 95, 19 October 1933, Page 8

BIG SCALE PLAN

A VALLEY'S RESOUECES

TENNESSEE PROJECT

President Roosevelt's ,pplicy of de: velopment of tho Tennessee River Valley is the subject of articles in the October number of the "Scientific American," which deal mainly with th'o hydro-electric aspect and with the 'sale of township lots at false values.' The articles touch the representation question only lightly. One writer, Mr. Wm. J. West, is non-committal as to the , degree to which forests regulate waterflow, but he agrees that if reforestation is entitled to a ; place in. the Presidential relief-of-uiiemployment programme, then the uplands, of the Tennessee basin are entitled to their share of reforestation. He also expressly admits tho novelty and importance of a plan which takes the whole drainage basin of a river and deals with it as one whole. As was pointed out some time ago in the "Evening Post," generally a riversystem is dealt with piecemeal by private owners;, one owner on a tributary is cutting bush down, and another owner is trying to, conserve it; and since a uniform plan is incompatible with such piecemeal operations, then the Tennessee ,yalley\reforestation experiment is of special interest, and embodies an important principle. Mr. West puts it this way: "Never,.before has a Government taken ' -hold of a stream for such purposes, and no private agency could justifiably undertake work of this character.'' • He also writes that "it is possible that reforestation of these areas may nave at least some effect upon flood flows in the (Tennessee river," but he quot.es the Corps of Engineers, of the U.S. Army as reporting that the effect could not be carried on to tho main river Mississippi floods in which would be practically, unaffected by tho Tennessee operations. , Mr. West deals at length* with, the hydro-electric aspects and gives the history of Muscle, Shoals power' station and the criss-cross of economic and political currents. Tt is "a gigantic Federal experiment." ','. -. ' . The "city" of Muscle Shoals,is the subject of some positive opinions by the* editor of the "Scientific. American." Ho states that "uninformed school teachers" (can the; teachers' union let that pass?) and other innocents have been persuaded by gogetters to pay 5000 dollars a lot for vacant Muscle Shoals land with a tax valuation of 50 to' 100 dollars a lot. Plans of non-existent ' factories and homes are used to sell the lots in this "city." Also, "not content'with such, robbery, the operators have- charged 6 per cent, on .the unpaid balance- when the lots were not'paid for in full. In the event of a default for thirty days or more, the contract is cancelled and the money already paid in is retained by tho seller as liquidated damages." Tho Tennessee Valley, "is indeed rich in natural resources," but "an influx of industries to'1 the,region is as yet a very uncw'tasiin.thing.',' . , •,