Chapter 34 Summary

The dynamiting of the levee below New Orleans is a tacit admission by local, state and federal government that the levees-only policy of Mississippi River management is a failure. New plans will allow the river to spread over larger areas. In effect, outlets and reservoirs will be used.

The legislation that will result will be the most expensive single piece of legislation Congress has ever enacted. The legislation is designed in large part by a Tri-State Flood Control Committee, which includes LeRoy Percy and Butler. Hoover heavily influences the committee. Hoover decides that relief to flood sufferers by Congress is inappropriate, and the committee adopts that position.

A long series of committee, Congressional and public meetings debate the appropriate scope of the legislation. Thomson, unasked, moves to Washington to engage himself in the debates. Eventually, the original scope proposed by the committee is...