those who were lost. She told men working at the site that she had held fast to the tree trying desperately to calm the 7-year-old girl nearby.

I know that neither the members of this subcommittee nor I would underestimate the quality of human courage. When the chips are down, human nature often comes through.

This was the primary lesson we have learned from the flood. That courage is a conquering thing. That courage, determination, and

faith in humanity are regarding.

But we have learned another lesson, too. In the long run this may, perhaps, be the greatest lesson we shall ever learn-if, in the end, it saves other lives.

We know now, with deep and abiding certainty, that a large overall flood-control project is needed in this area just as it has been needed in the past in other areas of this Nation.

We know, too, that the Federal Government has a part in that picture of responsibility. For the floods which have hit us in this region have struck at not only Pennsylvania, but at New Jersey and other areas below.

It is my opinion that, in any case where the public interest is primary and pertinent to the problem, the Federal Government has the duty to assist as much as it possibly can. It must do this, not only in helping to clean up the mess after a disaster, but in helping to prevent the disaster before it comes.

It does not make sense to say that flood control is the State's responsibility and shrug it off at that alone. As Americans we believe that the State has its own rights as a sovereign body. We do not ask outright handouts from the Government; we do not wish to become "kept" municipalities living at the whim and fancy of a centralized machine.

But neither do we wish to be strangled by our own lack of funds. Neither do we wish to see our Federal Government close its eyes and nod, half asleep in the stupor of a decadent philosophy. There is a moderate ground between the mythical "socialism" we have heard so much about and the "ignore the States and they will go away" philosophy of the present administration.

We need help. We do not need it next century. We did not need it, in this particular way, last century. We need it now-at this

moment.

Pennsylvania is making every effort possible to help itself. We are not sitting and waiting. Recently, the State legislature wiped an old barrier from the records-a bistate treaty which had prevented the construction of a dam on the Delaware between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. This was a forward step. We are doing our best to take more steps, as rapidly and as long as we can financially make them.

When we ask for Federal aid in these projects, therefore, we do not come as complete and utter cripples, begging on the corner with a Hoover apple in one hand. We are doing the best we can.

I do not pretend to be an expert on the Hoover Commission or on its report. I have not come before you as such, and I do not wish to give anyone that impression. One of the purposes of this subcommittee, I have been told, is to study the effects of the recent flood in

Pennsylvania. I have tried my best to give you a portrait of the suffering in my own area.

Yesterday, Mayor Clark spoke of one wing of a party which he termed the "Piltdown thinkers." I have a term for the attitude of the present administration as it has been manifested in its public utterances during the past 3 years. I would call it a "do it yourself" administration.

That is the phrase that most often seems, in substance, to be the reply to any appeal for lasting assistance of a constructive nature made to Federal sources these days.

Afew moments ago, I mentioned the substance of human courage. It has been greatly in evidence in Monroe County, I think, during the recent days.

But this, Mr. Chairman, is the very quality which, it seems to us, is totally lacking in the present governmental attitude-the Federal Government toward the problems of our society. It takes courage to be constructive. It takes guts to get out and try to help someone who needs it.

For my own part, I would like, again, to thank this group for the chance you have given me to appear and make this statement. I hope, perhaps, it may in some way help to alter one tiny particle of the concrete wall of misunderstanding which Washington seems to be building up between itself and the human beings it supposedly rep

resents.

If the chairman will permit me to do so, I should like to mail him copies of the special flood edition of the Daily Record, our county newspaper, which will appear on Saturday. In it the subcommittee will find the story and pictures behind the human suffering and damages of the recent flood in this area. I should like it submitted as an exhibit of these damages, if the subcommittee will so permit.

Mr. JONES. We will be glad to receive it, Mr. Yetter.

Mr. YETTER. We here in Monroe County have lived the past 412 weeks in a determined nightmare. The backwash of the flood has left us with an indelible conviction that something has to be done to prevent such floods from happening again. The Brodheads is not a large river. It is a stream. But in floods such as the one we experienced on August 18, boundaries mean nothing.

I submit this is true in the case at hand. The Federal Government, as an agency concerned with the welfare of all the people, needs to think less about "boundaries" and think more of the community of

man.

Mr. JONES. Thank you very much.

Do you have any questions?

Mr. LIPSCOMB. Yes. Mr. Yetter, on page 7 of your statement, and I listened with interest to your statement about flood damage and the suffering that was caused, but on page 7 you said that you had been told about what this subcommittee's duties were. Now, who told you what your testimony was to be here? I mean, how did you get the information?

Mr. YETTER. From what I read in the newspaper and-just what do you have reference to?

Mr. LIPSCOMB. What is the purpose of this subcommittee, in your estimation or to your knowledge?

Mr. YETTER. To determine whether the Federal Government should take a part in flood-control projects, to my understanding.

Mr. LIPSCOMB. And you have not come up here with any idea of recommending to this committee suggestions with respect to or opposition to the Hoover Commission report?

Mr. YETTER. I am not familiar with the Hoover Commission report.

Mr. LIPSCOMB. I would like to read you a statement out of the chairman's opening statement so we are not misunderstood. It said:

The Special Subcommittee on Water Resources and Power, meeting here today and tomorrow, has been given by Chairman Dawson of the full committee the single responsibility of studying and reporting on the Hoover Report on Water Resources and Power.

And that is what our duty is, in my estimation.

Have you read the Hoover Commission reports?

Mr. YETTER. I have not.

Mr. LIPSCOMB. You are a member of the Pennsylvania State legislature?

Mr. YETTER. I am.

Mr. LIPSCOMB. What legislation have you introduced for the benefit of the people of Pennsylvania in regard to flood control?

Mr. YETTER. I introduced a bill that wiped out the old treaty that dates back to 1880 or some such date-I do not know just what date it was that there was a treaty made between Pennsylvania and New Jersey that there would never be a dam constructed between the two States on the Delaware on account of it being a navigable river, and they used to run long rafts down there; they used to float logs down the river, down the lower part of the Delaware, and that seemedthat one thing has been standing in the way for years of building any kind of a dam across the Delaware.

Mr. LIPSCOMB. Have you introduced any legislation proposing an appropriation for flood control, investigation, research?

Mr. YETTER. This bill that we just introduced and passed this session of the legislature just went through a couple of weeks ago. Mr. LIPSCOMB. What is that?

Mr. YETTER. Wiping out this treaty, and we have a committee appointed-there is to be a study on this project.

Mr. LIPSCOMB. Has the State legislature a program on water resources?

Mr. YETTER. There has just been a committee appointed to study them. I am a member of it. There are 2 members of the house and 2 of the senate, and the Governor is supposed to appoint them.

Mr. LIPSCOMB. By your statement you indicate that there is a lack of funds that you can-I forgot just exactly how you put it, but you indicated there was an extreme lack of funds in your community. Mr. YETTER. For flood control.

Mr. LIPSCOMB. Has the State legislature appropriated any money for this purpose, or what are they doing by way of getting help to your community?

Mr. YETTER. We just passed emergency legislation to make available money for cleaning up the streams and for flood control. Mr. LIPSCOMB. And when is that money available?

Mr. YETTER. That is available now. They are going to start immediately, as I understand it. We levied a special tax on cigarettes to raise around $13 million, and for repairing our roads and bridges a special tax of 1 cent on gasoline that they figure will bring in $45 million for repairing damages of the flood and to prevent-help pre

vent recurrences.

Mr. LIPSCOMB. Is that all you have done since the flood, or was that done prior or after?

Mr. YETTER. That has been done since the flood.

Mr. LIPSCOMB. Since the flood, and what had the State legislature been doing prior to the flood? Had they had any forward-looking program as far as water resources or flood control in mind prior to the flood?

Mr. YETTER. I am not in a position-I am a new member of the house, and I am not familiar with that.

Mr. LIPSCOMB. You said this administration was nodding half asleep. Do you really mean that? I mean, this administration, plus prior administrations, have been thinking of flood control, maybe not at the size that they should have, but they have been working at it.

The chairman of this committee is on the Public Works Committee. Now, do you really mean that the administration has been nodding half asleep?

Mr. YETTER. My understanding is that they are not making any money available for these projects.

I think Mr. Goddard said that they had been I do not know how many years trying to get help on this Bear Creek Reservoir.

Mr. LIPSCOMB. Bear Creek Reservoir, as I remember the testimony, was authorized in 1946, and the plans are ready now. Is that what you heard yesterday?

Mr. YETTER. Yes, but there is no money available; is that right? Mr. LIPSCOMB. I also heard testimony that it takes 9 years to get a program authorized and the plans and preparations drawn and on its way.

Mr. YETTER. I think that is too long. I do not think we ought to wait that long.

Mr. LIPSCOMB. Perhaps you do not know all the technicalities that are involved. Maybe it is too long, but that is the way it has been. But do you really feel and do you have the facts to state that this administration has been nodding, half asleep?

Mr. YETTER. That is my feeling, yes.

Mr. LIPSCOMB. What facts do you have? What facts do you have that justify your saying that you would call this a "do it yourself" administration? Do you have any facts at all? Can you discuss social security or all the other programs that the present administration has encouraged, expanded?

I do not like to see the committee used for a political speech of any kind when we are up here to do a job on the Hoover Commission report to find out whether it is good or whether it is bad.

And I have no foregone conclusions myself. We came up here to do a job.

Mr. JONES. Any other questions?

Mr. LIPSCOMB. Just one thing. You referred to Mayor Clark's statement. He referred to President Eisenhower's philosophy of what

Abraham Lincoln thought government ought to be. Do you agree with Abraham Lincoln's philosophy?

Mr. YETTER. Surely.

Mr. LIPSCOMB. Then you agree with President Eisenhower. That is the philosophy that he has in government, and I think in 3 years he has been in office, he has proven that is his thought.

Mr. YETTER. I do not think that Lincoln would subscribe to the things that Eisenhower subscribes to. I cannot go along with that. I do not think that Lincoln was for big business and to hell with the average small-business man and the workingman. I do not believe that.

Mr. LIPSCOMB. If you want to inject into the record the political program today or the way you feel, that is your business, but you are not staying with the facts. If you desire to testify on the Hoover Commission report and what you think should be done about the Hoover Commission report and how it would help or correct or injure the properties that you have in this district, I would like to hear your testimony. If you cannot, I still appreciate and was very interested in your report as far as the damage and the suffering was concerned. I think that every Member of Congress should know this, but I also believe that when a committee is here to work on a particular subject, that you should stick to the subject and offer your recommendations and not enter into the political demagoguery.

Mr. JONES. Mr. Yetter, from parts of your testimony I believe that you have the firm conviction that it is the Federal responsibility to aid and assist in the planning and development and construction of dams and projects incidental to dams, to arrest and temper the floods that have occurred recently in Pennsylvania.

Mr. YETTER. That is correct.

Mr. JONES. And any thing that stands in the path of that program you would be in opposition to.

Thank you very much. It is good to have you, Mr. Yetter, and we appreciate your taking the time and appearing before the committee. Our next witness is Mayor Earl Schaffer, of Bethlehem, Pa.

Mr. Schaffer?

Mr. STURDEVANT. He is not here yet.

Mr. JONES. Mr. Joseph E. Nicholson, manager of the Jefferson Electric Cooperative, Brookville, Pa.

Mr. NICHOLSON. I have printed reports, and I have copies for everybody.

Mr. JONES. All right. You may proceed, Mr. Nicholson.

STATEMENT OF JOSEPH E. NICHOLSON, PRESIDENT, PENNSYLVANIA RURAL ELECTRIC ASSOCIATION

Mr. NICHOLSON. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the subcommittee, my name is Joseph E. Nicholson. I am manager of the Jefferson Electric Cooperative, Brookville, Pa., and president of the Pennsylvania Rural Electric Association. I am also president of the Brookville Lions Club and a member of the board of directors of the Brookville Chamber of Commerce and a member of the executive committee of the Brookville Chapter of the American Red Cross.

As president of the Pennsylvania Rural Electric Association, I wish to express to this subcommittee my appreciation for this opportunity