Engineer Memoirs
valley. He knew about the flood control. The second reason was that the Nicaraguan
Canal Board had completed its work, and Jadwin turned to my father as one of his
capable people to deal with the flood control problem.
Up to that time, the Corps had had only very limited responsibility for flood control on
the Mississippi. After the 1927 flood, there was a clamor for the Corps to do more. A
few Corps officers put together a concept. It had two elements. One was to have a plan.
They hadn't really had a unified plan up to that point. The other was to support this
plan with much greater federal contributions. While there had been some federal work
up to that time, previous legislation did not provide that the federal government would
be responsible for flood control. That was a local responsibility. This policy was a
watershed with two aspects--the engineering aspect and the aspect of responsibility for
funding.
Q:
It is really unusual for an engineer officer to be involved in writing a piece of legislation.
A:
That's right. But that continued during the 1930s, partly because of the Depression. Of
course, the 1928 act was during the Coolidge administration. Incidentally, [Calvin]
Coolidge was one of my father's heroes, although many people have not thought
Coolidge was a very good President. My father had the other view.
The flood opened a great opportunity for the Corps. The members of Congress and the
people in the valley turned to the Corps of Engineers for help. This brings out one of
the themes that I am sure we will return to as we talk here. One of the historic strengths
of the Corps is that they have had good people. They have had people with a lot of
brains. They have had people with a lot of motivation, people that were interested in
getting things done.
This is the reason you see the Corps involved in these things. They do this in peacetime
and then when the war comes along, they do it again. A different group might not have
reacted to the 1927 flood the same way. The Corps saw that something had to be done.
The political element--the members of Congress, the governors, and the local
people--all turned to the Corps, and in the Corps you had some people that knew how
to put it together.
They were very savvy politically. They had ideas about how you get things done in our
government. I am very proud of the fact that my father was one of the leaders of this.
Q:
Do you remember that your father had regular contacts with congressmen in that area?
A:
Oh, yes. Yes.
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