[From the Cincinnati Enquirer, October 15, 1955]

PREDICTION

The economic blight of the Ohio Valley that would result from the imposition of Federal tolls on river traffic is scarcely a debatable matter.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the Ohio Valley Improvement Association here, Keen Johnson, vice president of Reynolds Metals, outlined the $8 billion expansion of industry during the last 5 years and asserted that his own company was "not theorizing in regard to the importance of water resources development." Mr. Johnson said: "Within the next few years we hope to build a $168 million plant somewhere in the Ohio Valley which will produce 200 million pounds of aluminum pig a year."

Then, referring to the proposed imposition of tolls, he went on to say: “Let the solemn pledge of the National Government be broken and the entire process of development will be reversed. Plants built in reliance on low-cost water transportation will be dismantled, unemployment will result, and further growth will be stultified."

[From the Columbus Dispatch, October 2, 1955]

THE OHIO VALLEY'S GROWING PAINS

When the Ohio Valley Improvement Association holds its 60th annual meeting at Cincinnati, October 3-4, the recent industrial activity up and down the Ohio River will be thoroughly discussed.

It's sure to come up because 2,450 new plants built in the valley since the war have raised numerous navigational problems involving dams and locks constructed many years ago.

It should be noted that from where the Ohio starts at Pittsburgh to where it pours into the Mississippi at Cairo, Ill., we observe a wide variety of terrain. While the hills and wonderful scenery may have great eye appeal, what the veteran rivermen see in many places is something else again.

There veterans of the river see the water running thinly over shoals, tumbling down falls. They tell you that it's not all smooth navigating by any means. This is because inadequate or antiquated locks make it quite a problem to keep the water at safe levels for navigation during dry seasons.

With industry booming all along the river during the last decade, the Ohio Valley Improvement Association has a cumulative problem on its hands which is showing signs of becoming larger with each passing month.

It has now been 18 years since the last locks and dams were built, according to one river veteran at Ironton who has been making a survey of the situation with a view to obtaining a sizable picture of needs during the next decade. In 1954 a total of 55.1 million tons of freight moved on the river, records of the Corps of Army Enginers disclose. This amounts to 11.6 billion ton-miles. While this figure is under 1953's record 62 million tons when coal and coke shipments were 6 million tons greater, it is still a most impressive figure alongside tonnage totals of a decade ago.

To get an idea of how Ohio River traffic has been booming, it should be remem bered that 1946's total was only 35.9 million tons. By comparison the 1954 tonnage jump was about 54 percent. The gain in ton-miles was 131 percent. reflecting longer hauls.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland estimates that 2,450 new industrial plants have located along the Ohio during the last 10 years. How much has been invested? Conservatively, one would say about $9 billion.

At the present time big river tonnages are in oil and gasoline, iron and steel. coke and coal, with the latter scheduled for substantial increases in 1955, 1956, and 1957 in order to supply atomic energy power needs.

Barges are today carrying a variety of cargo including pharmaceuticals, automobiles, molasses, plastics, groceries, and so on.

What concerns the Ohio Valley Improvement Association is the fact that all of this cargo-now well over 55 million tons annually-is moving through a series of dams and locks designed many years ago to handle no more than 13 million tons a year.

What about the cost of new locks and dams? This was touched upon by the report of the Hoover Commission on Water Resources and Power. It recommended that Congress authorize "a user charge on inland waterways sufficient to

cover maintenance and operation, and authorize the Interstate Commerce Commission to fix the charges."

The Ohio Valley Improvement Association, however, is understood to feel that the Hoover Commission's proposal is not the answer. It claims a tool charge for users is contrary to the historical precedent of free waterways.

Hudson Biery, executive vice president of the association, said: "River transportation has had an influence on the entire valley's economy back through the years. It would not be wise to disturb this balance of stability."

The Ohio River adds up to 950 miles from Pittsburgh to Cairo. This splendid river is suffering from acute growing pains. Long-range planners all agree that something should be done to relieve them.

What finally is done about these growing pains of the Ohio will be of great interest to every resident of central Ohio and of southern Ohio.

[From the Evansville Courier, October 9, 1955]

BROADER APPROACH TO FLOOD CONTROL

Only those who have followed the long battle between the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the conservationsts over their respective methods of flood prevention a battle that reached its climax in the Missouri Valley controversy, as well as in the Ohio Basin--can fully appreciate the significance of the speech made before the Ohio Valley Improvement Association in Cincinnati last Monday. The conservationists long have argued that the proper way to prevent floods was by impounding excessive rainfall in reservoirs and slowing the runoff and returning it to the ground in grasslands and forests. This, they argued, not only would check floods before they got started, but would also conserve water resources and topsoil.

The engineers, however, traditionally have adhered to a policy of accelerating the runoff, once it reached the watercourses. Their approved method was to straighten channels and depend on levees, walls, and other flood works to protect river communities. They reviewed with suspicion any project that was not designed simply and solely for the purposes of navigation or to carry floodwaters as rapidly as possible to the gulf.

Both camps were sincere and dedicated, but they were as far apart as the poles.

When, therefore, the Chief of the Army Engineers says in a major policy speech that "although it is true that navigation has contributed greatly to the economy of your valley, and flood control is necessary to safeguard it, it is also true that an assured, adequate supply of water for domestic and industrial use is absolutely necessary if the valley's economy is to be sustained and further expanded"-that is big news, important news.

It means that the engineers and the conservationists no longer are pulling in opposite directions—they are ready, apparently, to work together for the longrange interests of the people of the Ohio Basin and the other great valleys of America.

For Evansville, this historic speech of Lt. Gen. S. D. Sturgis, Chief of the Engineers, has especial significance. For General Sturgis' proposal for water conservation through the establishment of reservoirs, financed by the United States Government, capable of impounding water for the use of municipalities, private industry and other community agencies has a direct application here; it is almost an exact blueprint of the Pigeon Creek diversion project.

The reversal or rather, liberalization—of engineer policy, therefore, greatly enhances the chances for a favorable recommendation on this proposal that can mean much to the safety and prosperity of Evansville. It should also be a highly constructive factor in the economy of the entire valley.

More and more, the people of Evansville are beginning to recognize that their economic future is tied to the development of the Ohio River. They will heartily second, therefore, the OVIA recommendations for congressional appropriations to finance advanced engineering design and continued construction of projects that eventually will materalize in a 12-foot channel for the entire Ohio. It is encouraging also to have OVIA President Harry Mack state publicly that "We are deeply and vitally interested in the Evansville area. The entire system of lockages is only as good as its weakest link."

Evansville recognizes that priority must be given to the improvement of the · oldest locks and the areas of heaviest traffic-and that the 12-foot channel must

start at the upper reaches of the river and work downstream. It only asks that the program be carried through to completion, and as swiftly as possibleand that when Evansville's turn comes it will receive the same support from up the river that this community is giving to the Greenup, Markland, and other essential upper view improvements.

The Ohio can be a river of promise for Evansville. First the Pigeon Creek diversion, and then the extension of the 12-foot channel to the mouth of the river, should bring a rich, new day for this community.

[From the Courier-Journal, September 22, 1955]

LIFE IN THE OHIO VALLEY LOOKS TO THE RIVER

Next to taxes, transportation looms as the hottest issue facing the next session of Congress. The Federal roadbuilding program is high on the congressional agenda, railroads are asking relief from strict regulation by the Interstate Commerce Commission, and river users are gathering their forces to seek an accelerated program of navigational improvements. Kentucky has a stake in each of these efforts. And in none does it have a more vital interest than in the plan being urged for the improvement of the Ohio River.

Slowly but steadily people are coming to realize the value of the Ohio. Over the past 15 years the availability of low-cost river-barge transportation has been a deciding factor in the location of hundreds of industries in the Ohio Valley, and has helped to give meaning to the claim that the valley is the "Ruhr of America." Industry springing up because of the river represents billions of dollars in new investment, has created thousands of new jobs, and has brought a new prosperity to cities along the river's course.

Now the future of that prosperity is clouded by the inescapable fact that the river cannot continue, in its present state of development, to handle the increasing cargoes put upon it. The dams that pool the water deep enough to float modern tows and the locks through which the tows must pass from one pool to another are old, small, and crumbling. They break down often or are forced out of operation for structural repairs. Their 600-foot lock chambers force rivermen to break their chain of barges, often more than 1,000 feet long, into sections for transit through the locks, a time-consuming and expensive procedure. And while the locks labor, tows of costly cargo wait for hours for their turn through the antiquated chambers.

Many of these locks and dams—there are 46 of them between Pittsburgh and Cairo-are between 25 and 45 years old. Considering their age, they do a remarkably good job. But they are part of a river system built to handle a maximum of 1,300,000 tons of cargo a year, and they are trying now to handle between 55 million and 62 million tons a year. It is, as Business Week points out in its current issue, like a 1929 automobile-too slow, uneconomical, and worn out.

The Ohio Valley Improvement Association, which will hold its annual convention in Cincinnati on the week of October 3, is trying to persuade Congress to bring the 1929 model up to date. They want to replace the existing 46 dams with 21 modern ones, raising the depth of the river to a minimum of 12 feet and affording tows passage through new 1,200-foot locks. The program has the support of the Army Corps of Engineers, which builds and operates the navigational system, but it faces rough going before Congressional Appropriations Committees. For it is not a cut-rate program. Engineers currently estimate that it will cost in the neighborhood of $882 million. Modernization of the facilities at Dam 41 here alone will cost $52,780,000, according to estimates by the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors. To a Congress seeking economies that will make tax euts possible, this is a considerable sum.

Nor is economy the only roadblock ahead of the Ohio Valley Improvement Association's program. River-improvement funds are being eagerly sought by States that took a beating from floods during the past spring and summer, and the railroads, alarmed at the increasing cargoes being carried by competitive river barges, are attempting to persuade Congress to build only those river facilities than can be paid for by river-user tolls. Against this opposition, the rivermen are marshaling an impressive array of facts showing the value of the river to the Nation, as well as to the valley itself, and proving that economic improvement sparked by the river has aided the railroads as well as the barge lines.

These arguments have received a cordial response from Congress to date. The program has been given blanket approval. But funds for the actual work have

been slow in coming, and at present work is going forward at a snail's pace. What is needed now, if the valley is to continue its prosperity, is a greatly accelerated program of construction, which means a drastic increase in congressional appropriations. How to get these appropriations will be the No. 1 task facing the assembled members of the Ohio Valley Improvement Association at their convention. And in their efforts they will have the best wishes of everyone concerned with the continued improvement of the valley region.

BIERY EXHIBIT D

[From the Courier Journal, Louisville, Ky., January 2, 1955]

TO WIN TOMORROW'S PROSPERITY, IMPROVE THE OHIO TODAY

During the past week we have devoted considerable space on this page to a study of the Ohio River. A series of articles by John Ed Pearce outlined its unique contribution to the economy of the valley, advances in river transport that have helped to transform the Ohio Valley region into “the Ruhr of America," and the problem of modernizing the Ohio so that it can continue its vital service to the industrial community along its banks.

This was an effort to show how revolutionary new river transport is benefiting Kentucky. In this we hope, frankly, to win popular favor and in turn congressional support for the great plan developed by the Army Corps of Engineers for improving and modernizing the facilities that make the river navigable.

This plan is going to cost a great deal of money-about $850 million in the next 20 years, or about $45 million a year. Already the plan has fallen dangerously behind schedule. At least 2 of the 46 dams between Pittsburgh and Cairo are in danger of early collapse. The walls, gates, and valves of several other locks are visibly crumbling. Breakdowns in the locks, causing long and costly delays to riverboats seeking passage through them, are becoming increasingly frequent as the old structures wear out. Though the canalization of the Ohio was completed only 25 years ago, most of the lock-and-dam structures are over 35 years old, and some of them are nearly 50. They are part of a system designed to handle no more than 25 million tons of river freight a year, yet today, in their alarming state of deterioration, they are accommodating upward of 64 million cargo tons.

Too many people, we fear, still think of river traffic in terms of the colorful but inefficient old stern-wheel steam packets. They are unaware of the revolution that shook the river with the development of the twin-screw diesel towboat, and the realization that a riverboat could push 10 times as great a load as it could carry. That revolution, far more than is realized, has influenced the tremendous industrial growth of the Ohio Valley region, has helped to bring atomic plants, steel mills, powerplants, metals, and synthetics factories and barge-and-boat construction companies into the valley, and has had a decided influence on our present prosperity.

River barges to carry coal, ore, and chemicals into the mills, and to haul away the finished products-have spurred the growth of steel production in the valley. They have been largely responsible for the development of the valley into the heartland of America's atomic-energy production, for atomic-energy plants require great blocks of electricity, and the plants that produce this electricity require vast amounts of water and the cheapest coal transportation possible both of which are made available by the river.

The growth of these steam plants with their great coal consumption and the continuing development of river transport, have an obvious meaning for the State's hopeful coal industry. River transport, too, has placed an integral part in expansion of our oil and chemical industry. Officials of one new industry after another have listed availability of water transportation as one of their reasons for choosing the valley as the site for new industrial location.

Another advantage of low river rates, and one that few people appreciate, is the effect of these low rates on other shipping rates. Throughout the valley, as promoters of the river love to point out, competing transporters have reduced their rates to river-port towns in order to compete with the river boats.

It is not surprising, therefore, that competing shippers oppose Federal spending for improvement of river facilities. Their opposition is, we believe, basically shortsighted. Figures prove that as river traffic has grown on the Ohio, and the regional prosperity has increased, the tonnage carried by other shipping media—

rails, truck and air-has increased also. And we think that Congress will make a grave mistake if it yields to pressure from these competitors and decides to finance river improvements by tolls levied on river users.

In the first place, if the river is modernized only as fast as toll collections will permit, the river will never be able to meet the demands of our growing industrial community. Furthermore, if a boat must pay a toll for a 4-mile trip during which it uses locks (and many boats going between Louisville's upper and lower harbors do just this), should not a boat making a 30-mile trip without locks pay a charge also? And if a towboat must pay for use of the river, must not also pleasure boaters, and sportsmen, and industrial plants, and cities and towns who use the water for drinking?

River boats and barges, like railroads, trucks, or planes, are licensed, and pay all other State and Federal taxes. To force them to bear also the cost of navigational improvements on the rivers they use would contravene legal and historical precedent. For the United States undertook to improve and maintain river navigation long before it gave land grants to railroads, built highways for the use of trucks, or helped in construction of airports and other aeronautical aids for planes. There is no more reason now to reverse traditional river policy than to turn all of our highways into toll roads, or make the railroads or planes pay a toll for each mile of land across which they run or fly.

Instead, we hope Congress will see not only the obligation but the tremendous opportunity that the Ohio River represents. We need at least $50 million from this session of Congress for accelerated work on the Greenup and Markland Dams, if we are to keep pace with our developing economy. With public support we will get it.

BIERY EXHIBIT E

[From the Paducah Sun-Democrat, November 1, 1955]

NEW CALVERT CITY CHAPTER

The addition to an organic fluorine chemicals plant to the Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Co.'s works at Calvert City will, in the words of a company spokesman, be a "highly important" development.

It will form a major part of Pennsalt's integrated chlorine-fluorine production facilities there, and it will begin full-scale operations next year.

It is the second expansion announced for the company's Calvert City works in a period of less than 3 weeks, a plant for the production of potassium hydroxide having been announced October 13. While Pennsalt made no announcement as to the cost of the two developments nor of the number of workers they will employ, it is understood that the investment will be considerable, and this should mean a significant increase in the company's payroll.

The Calvert City industrial area is being developed by a number of major companies along a well-thought-out plan extending over a decade or more. Thus the Pennsalt additions announced in October are a part of that developing story, in the recording of which all of western Kentucky has a justifiable pride.

[From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 2, 1955]

COMEBACK FOR COAL

The rise in freight charges for hauling coal is an ill wind. But it bids to blow a lot of good for this region of the country.

A Cleveland power company, pinched by rail rates, has hit on a bold idea: instead of moving coal to the powerplant, move the powerplant to the coal. It's much cheaper to transport electricity by wire than coal by rail.

The company, Cleveland Electric Illuminating, has bought a site along the Ohio River between Wheeling and Steubenville. It hopes to build a powerplant there that will be fueled by the coal that abounds in the area, and whose product will be sent over power lines to consumers in northeastern Ohio.

Cleveland Electric is already a party to the novel project being undertaken by Pittsburgh Consolidated Coal Co. to ship coal by pipeline from near Cadiz, Ohio, to Cleveland-a distance of over 100 miles. The coal will be pumped through the pipeline as slurry, a mixture of coal and water. The slurry will be dried back into coal, near Cleveland, for use by Cleveland Electric and,