.A 3 CONTENTS. Page. I COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, The committee met at 3 o'clock p. m., Hon. Henry D. Clayton, chairman, presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will be in order. I say to Representative Dickson and Representative Collier that at their instance this meeting was called this afternoon to hear them, if they desire to be heard themselves, and to hear gentlemen from Mississippi who are interested in the subject matter of the bill now before the committee. The bill is as follows: [H. R. 19412, Sixty-second Congress, second session.] IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. FEBRUARY 3, 1912. Mr. Dickson of Mississippi introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary and ordered to be printed. A BILL To create a commission to investigate and report the question of the liability of the United States Government for riparian damages on the east bank of the Mississippi River between Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Bayou Sara, Louisiana. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a commission shall be, and is hereby, instituted to investigate and report upon the question of the liability of the United States Government for damages done to riparian lands on the east side of the Mississippi River, from Vicksburg down to Bayou Sara, Louisiana; that it shall be the duty of the commission to determine, first, whether there is or ought to be any liability upon the part of the 3 Government for the damages done, and, if it shall determine that there be any liability, then to investigate and report upon the amount of the damage done, and such report shall show the amount of the damage ascertained and determined to have been inflicted upon individual landowners, and shall be certified to the Court of Claims, and in the adjudication of all claims arising under this act by the Court of Claims the findings of the commission so certified shall be held to be prima facie correct. SEC. 2. That the said commission shall consist of three men; one to be an engineer of the Army, one an engineer from civil life, and one a lawyer, all to be appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. SEC. 3. That said commissioners shall hold their offices for the term of four months, and shall be paid each the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars. SEC. 4. That said commission shall be authorized to summon witnesses, to take their testimony, and to obtain and keep and compile documentary and other testimony; to hold meetings at such places as to them seems necessary and advisable, with the view of performing the duties imposed upon them; and to employ such clerical and other assistance as may be necessary to the performance of said duties. SEC. 5. That there is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of seven thousand five hundred dollars for salaries of the commissioners, and a sum not to exceed five thousand dollars for the traveling and other expenses of the commission and for the compensation of its employees. Mr. COLLIER. I wish to state that I am much obliged to the committee for giving us this hearing, and I requested the chairman to give us this hearing at the instance of my colleague, Mr. Dickson, who had been called home by sickness in his family. I am in entire sympathy with the measure, but it is Mr. Dickson's bill, and he will, of course, take charge. The CHAIRMAN. We will be pleased to hear from Mr. Dickson. STATEMENT OF HON. WILLIAM A. DICKSON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM MISSISSIPPI. Mr. DICKSON. Mr. Chairman, on February 3 I introduced House bill 19412. There has been in that section of the State whence I come a characteristic suffering by all the people in the inundated or unprotected sections where levees have not been built. It so happened that in the western border and in the eastern border The CHAIRMAN. Let me interrupt you here and read the title of the bill again: "A bill to create a commission to investigate and report the question of the liability of the United States Government for riparian damages on the east bank of the Mississippi River between Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Bayou Sara, Louisiana.' Mr. DICKSON. Yes. That scope of country on that coast of the river, Mr. Chairman, comprehends and contemplates about 254 miles, as I understand it. That does not necessarily mean the line as the crow flies, or in direct course of procedure. It is, as you know, who have traveled that river, the subject of many bends, deflections, and complications in the flood of that mighty tidal stream. We have a peculiar condition existing there. It is one that involves judicial consideration, material consideration, and the matters that belong to commerce and to navigation. It has been well demonstrated by those who advocate the theory of the building of levees for the purposes of navigation, with a continuous line on each side, without any flood line, without the crevasse that results by a lack of that levee, that there is an impediment at once established. I might mention that a little south of the city of Natchez, at what is known, I believe, as Fords Bar, there is one of the greatest impediments to the flow of the Mississippi River, notwithstanding it did not impede the coming of two of the mightiest crafts that float the waters of earth and fly the flag of this great Republic. It has been accepted as the theory of our Government that the building of levees was for the purpose of establishing better navigation of that great stream, through which for less than 1 mile at its mouth the greatest commerce upon the face of God's earth passes. The Amazon, none of the rivers of the earth, Europe with her teeming millions, with her Volga, with her Rhine, with all other streams-all these pale into insignificance when compared with this splendid auxiliary of commerce and civilization and the navigation progress of a progressive people. I live in a river county, not immediately on its banks. My own possessions are not those that are usually termed riparian lands, but in that county there are thousands and thousands of acres which in my memory knew no inundation by reason of nature's flood, until, by a wise procedure, this Government did incorporate the system of the building of those levees for the purpose of deepening the channel of that river. But we have committed errors; we have erred. Mistakes always occur in the lives of men, and we have left what may be termed a gap in that river from Vicksburg to Bayou Sara, some 254 miles, unprotected on one side, .with great pockets, troublous minor crevices, accumulation of sand causing the lessening of depths, the destruction of properties inevitable and to be expected and suspected by every youth who has ever fished with a pole and line and found. the sand bars, where the incoming or outgoing stream came or went. Mr. WEBB. Is that continuous on the west bank; that is, the levees? Mr. DICKSON. Yes, sir. Mr. HIGGINS. May I ask you, Mr. Dickson, for information, whether the Government is now appropriating money for levees at or near this point? Mr. DICKSON. At or near this point? Mr. HIGGINS. Yes; that is, within several hundred miles? Mr. DICKSON. There is not; I think I speak with accuracy, a mile from Cairo, Ill., and even beyond, to the mouth of the river, some 1,300 miles, and I think I speak accurately, where the Government has not built and maintained, with the assistance of the States Mr. HIGGINS. That is a continuing project, is it not, now? I am very unfamiliar with just what the Government has done there. Mr. DICKSON. It is not a continuing project. It was held-to explain to you more fully-that the hills, the bordering hills, the great palisades of nature that extend back from 7 to 15 miles, would afford a sufficient barrier against the encroachment of these levees. That, in a measure, is true; but what is it doing? It is lessening the power of navigation by reason of the raising of the bottom of the channel and consequently impeding commerce and navigation, and I speak particularly of one location which I have in part, with my Senators, the honor to represent-the city of Natchez. Mr. HIGGINS. I am not speaking in criticism, but for information. It occurs to me, upon reading the bill, that it is a matter that would more properly be considered by the Rivers and Harbors Committee. than by this committee, because they know to a far greater degree than we, I take it, just what the Government has been doing on the river. Mr. DICKSON. I appreciate the gentleman's liberality, and I wish to say in response that it is not the purpose of those who come here to |