Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

ORGANIZATION OF COMMERCE DEPARTMENT

Mr. ALLDREDGE. The commerce department was authorized by a resolution of the Board of Directors on August 13, 1937. Its actual organization, however, was not begun until April 18, 1938, when I was appointed as director. By July 1, 1938, the department was ready to function as a unit although some gaps remained to be filled in its personnel. The proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1938, is $200,000. This figure includes not only the regular work of the department but the cost of maintaining the Ceramics Laboratory, which is now under the supervision of the United States Bureau of Mines, the expense of which is to be carried by the Authority for the ensuing fiscal year.

Copies of Administrative Bulletin No. 25, issued from the general manager's office and which contains the resolution of the board creating the commerce department, and Administrative Bulletin No. 46-0, which deals specifically with the administrative organization of the department, together with an organization chart and more detailed descriptions of the duties and budget of the department, are offered as an exhibit.

Mr. ELWELL. This is Administrative Bulletin No. 25, is it, Mr. Alldredge?

Mr. ALLDREDGE. That is right.

Mr. ELWELL. I offer it as the next exhibit.

Chairman DONAHEY. Without objection, so ordered.

(Whereupon the document above referred to was received in evidence and marked "Exhibit No. 505.")

Senator SCHWARTZ. Mr. Chairman, I suggest that the exhibit be received when it is found, and we go ahead, to save time.

Mr. ALLDREDGE. The department was created by combining with the transportation economics division of the Authority, which had functioned for approximately 3 years as a distinct organization, which I headed, the navigation section of the water-control planning department, the minerals research section of the geology division, and the industrial representative of the power planning department. It is not possible to obtain the exact cost for previous years for the different components of the present commerce department because of the inability to segregate completely these expenses from the organizations to which these components were previously attached, but I have made an attempt to secure an approximation of these costs as far as it has been possible to do so. The total costs of these different components thus obtained has been $712,000 up to July 1, 1938. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1938, it was $194,000. This estimate I offer as an exhibit.

Mr. ELWELL. I believe, Mr. Alldredge, that that is attached to the exhibit that you have previously submitted, is it not?

Mr. ALLDREDGE. No.

Mr. ELWELL. I will offer this as exhibit 506.

Chairman DONAHEY. So ordered.

(The document above referred to was received in evidence, and marked "Exhibit No. 506.")

Mr. ALLDREDGE. The organization of the transportation economics division was begun on September 1, 1934, when I accepted employ

ment with the Authority as its transportation economist. The work of this division has been divided between services for other divisions and departments of the Authority and independent research projects. A break-down of the costs of operating this division from its inception up to the date it was merged with the commerce department is included in another exhibit which I now offer. The total costs to June 30, 1938, of the transportation economics division was $104,264.63.

Mr. ELWELL. That is exhibit 507.

(Whereupon the document above referred to was received in evidence and marked "Exhibit No. 507.")

Mr. ALLDREDGE. The work of this particular division has been summarized under a different classification of duties in the next exhibit which I ask to be included in the record.

Mr. ELWELL. I offer exhibit 508, entitled "Resume of the Principal Activities of the Transportation Economics Division."

Chairman DONAHEY. Without objection, so ordered.

(Whereupon the document above referred to was received in evidence and marked "Exhibit No. 508.")

HISTORY OF NAVIGATION ON TENNESSEE RIVER

Mr. ALLDREDGE. The Tennessee River, which is now being improved by the Tennessee Valley Authority, has been used for commercial navigation since the region was settled by white people 150 years ago. The river extends from the confluence of the French Broad and Holston, about 42 miles above Knoxville, Tenn., to its junction with the Ohio at Paducah, Ky., a distance of 652 river miles. There are 10 major navigable tributaries of the Tennessee and others of lesser importance. The Tennessee River system drains an area of 40,569 square miles, in seven States. According to the 1930 census, a total of approximately 1,329,000 people-about half the total population of the Tennessee Valley-live within 25 miles of the banks of the main stream. Before the spreading of the railroad network over the Tennessee Valley the Tennessee River constituted the chief means of transportation for the people of the region. They used it in spite of the difficulties presented by numerous shoals, shallows, narrows, and swift currents. When the first steamboat navigated the entire length of the river in 1828, confidence in the usefulness of the stream as a means of commercial intercourse with the rest of the world was considerably stimulated. But the obstructions encountered by this improved type of craft, which carried a deeper draft than the earlier flatboats and keelboats, were too great to be successfully overcome. Finally, after years of effort, steamboat navigation on the Tennessee settled down to local hauling, principally by privately owned and operated craft, supplemented by a few contract carriers. The volume of this local business, however, has been considerable and has actually increased over the years, although there have been temporary fluctuations in the annual totals.

A full and complete history of navigation on the Tennessee River and its tributaries is included in an official publication prepared by the transportation economic division of the Authority, of which I was the chief, and designated as House Document 254, Seventy-fifth Congress, first session. I offer this history as an exhibit in this record.

[ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic]

[Exhibit 510 (see cut on previous page)]

Total tonnage transported on the Tennessee River

[Compiled from the reports of Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army, 1876-1937]

[blocks in formation]

1 Estimated from percentages given in pt. III, report of 1888, p. 1601.

NOTE.-1876 through 1920, total river traffic. including car ferry (arithmetic sum of traffic in sections of the river); 1921 through 1937, total river traffic, including car ferry (duplications between sections eliminated).

Mr. ELWELL. I have got copies for all members of the committee, but to pull them out of these piles takes so much time, and if it is satisfactory to you, I will hand them to you and make the distribution after the witness has finished.

Representative WOLVERTON. All right.

Chairman DONAHEY. Will you have them on our desk at the noon hour?

Mr. ELWELL. This is the History of Navigation on the Tennessee River System.

(Whereupon the document above referred to was received in evidence and marked "Exhibit No. 509.")

Mr. ALLDREDGE. At page 112 of this history will be found a bar chart showing the trend of tonnage on the river, with a few missing years in the early period, from 1876 to 1936, inclusive. I have a separate bar chart with the year 1937 added, together with a tabular statement showing the same information in more precise form. I ask that the chart and the tabular statement be admitted as companion exhibits.

Mr. ELWELL. Is this the exhibit, Tons of Freight Transported On the Tennessee River?

Mr. ALLDREDGE. That is right.

Mr. ELLWELL. May I offer this as an exhibit, Mr. Chairman?
Chairman DONAHEY. Without objection, it is so ordered.

(Whereupon the document above referred to was received in evidence, and marked "Exhibit No. 510" and reproduced on pp. 5118-A and 5118-B.)

In addition to its commercial use, the Tennessee River has also been employed quite extensively in the past in military operations. There is one instance of its effective use during the Revolutionary War. In the subsequent Indian wars it was employed. It also furnished the means of transportation for nearly half of the Cherokee Indians and some Creeks when the migration to the West was enforced by the Federal Government. During the War between the States the Tennessee likewise constituted one of the chief routes employed by the Union forces in bringing supplies and troops to the armies operating in the South. General Grant's entire force of some 45,000 men and their military equipment were transported to the Tennessee River from near Paducah, Ky., to Shiloh, in Tennessee, where the momentous battle by that name was fought a few days later on the banks of the river. In the campaign around Chattanooga, and even after General Sherman started his march through Georgia, the Union forces received a large part of their supplies by the Tennessee River. All of these incidents and others are recounted in the history which I have introduced.

The Federal Government has been actively interested in the navigation possibilities of the Tennessee River for over a hundred years. It was selected by the committee appointed by Secretary of War Calhoun under an act approved April 30, 1824, as part of one of the transportation routes of the country deserving national attention. The national interest in the development of the Tennessee and its tributaries has been attested by appropriations by Congress for the improvement of the streams composing the Tennessee River system since 1852. The corps of Army Engineers, time and again, has rec

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »