Theodore
I used to go up to the congressional hearings, not so much to testify as to
observe. In fact, the first week I was in Washington I was asked to go up to
one of the hearings of the Senate Committee on Commerce on the 1946 act-so
I could report when my boss, Jack Dixon, or Mike Strauss came up and tell
them what the situation was. I remember that I was almost brand new in the
office and I guess I looked a little bit shocked at going up on the Hill. And Jack
asked me, "You don't mind going, do you?" And I said, "No. I really was
delighted, but a little bit
-And even more apprehensive when I saw Senator [John]
practically
take the skin off the representative of the Fish and Wildlife Service who was
opposing the Red River Waterway on the grounds that it was going to destroy
the fish and wildlife, and Senator Overton-he was somewhat like Mike
Strauss, the same kind of a big man, tanned-I guess you might call it a
bourbon tan-but anyway, he says, "Now, what about these catfish in the Red
River? What are you worried about?" And no matter what the Fish and
Wildlife Service man said, it seemed like he would say something and
would take another chunk of his skin off.
And then later the Corps decided to call that the Overton-Red River Waterway.
I don't know whether that's still the name of it or not.
Valley Gravity Project
Q: Yep.
A: But anyway, that was where I fitted into the picture when I got back to
Washington. It did give me a lot of exposure to a lot of people, and I guess I
learned a lot, because I was always the person that ended up holding the sack
when we'd sit in on some big meeting and I'd have to write up the conclusions.
The first time it happened was on the Valley Gravity project in south Texas.
The Mexican Treaty provided that a dam would be built on the Rio Grande to
provide water for the lands irrigated downstream on the American side, the
problem being that, even though you have a treaty dividing up the water, the
Mexicans may not necessarily pay attention to it, and the water might not be
there when it got down to the lower part of the river.
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