Ernest Graves
it over a lot. But he never interfered with anything I proposed. He left that to me
completely.
But he undertook to make contact with President Carter through talking to people. He
did go and see President Carter in the White House. He worked up by himself a little
presentation that he gave to Carter.
He and I worked together to an extent because he gave his ideas and I made
suggestions. He went over and saw the President. The basic outcome of that was to
dispel, to an extent at least, some animosity that Carter felt toward the Corps as a result
of what the Corps did about one of the dams in Georgia.
When he was running for governor, Carter opposed the Spewrell Bluff Dam project on
the grounds that it was not necessary and would be environmentally damaging. He was
then elected governor, and there was a fight in the state legislature over this dam.
The Corps was asked by one of the proponents of the dam to help prepare legislation
to deal with this issue in the state legislature of Georgia. The Corps did help. It became
public knowledge that the Corps had helped draft this legislation, which basically was
aimed at thwarting Carter. Carter was very upset and he went public on this thing. It
was a very unpleasant situation.
The general view in the Corps was that Carter came away from this experience as
governor of Georgia with considerable animosity towards the Corps and that this was
a factor in the water project business because, if you will, Carter was determined to put
the Corps in its place. I think that's probably true.
What Jack Morris did was to make contact with Carter. He went over to the White
House and he told Carter that he had been the Director of Civil Works when this dam
controversy had occurred. That probably President Carter and he were the two greatest
experts on this problem. I think the way he handled this whole thing, which epitomizes
my earlier statement that he was very sharp on what it takes to make contact with
people and get through to them, helped the Corps a lot.
You know, they dealt with another government reorganization proposal in the Carter
administration. I don't think the things that the Corps did about that were as important
as what our friends up in Congress did.
I think that Morris's ability to handle all these political issues was outstanding. As a
manager, his experimental approach to organization and to policy caused a lot of work.
And there were changes in direction.
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