gether for health. If we should take the drastic action of reducing expenditures for schools, then we must go backward many years in the educational field.

The counties of Tennessee are in no position to command, but only to entreat, but they can entreat with all the earnestness which their plight in the present circumstances justify. We believe that county government should be strengthened and not weakened. They have made mistakes in the management of their affairs, but what unit of government hasn't made mistakes? I can say this: There has been more progress in county government in Tennessee in the past 10 years than was made in the past 40 years.

What I have said about conditions in Rutherford County apply, more or less, to the other counties affected. True, we have no lands flooded by waters backed up by dams, and are not in as bad straits as a few of the other counties; but we feel, nevertheless, and feel deeply, the force of the circumstances.

We can, as I have said, only entreat, and must accept whatever course is mapped out for us by those in authority. But we do respectfully invoke your careful consideration of the plight of our counties. For the time being at least, we find consolation in the knowledge that you have exercised a patience and forbearance in conducting the hearings before your honorable body in keeping with the magnitude of the question you are called upon to report.

I sincerely thank you for your courtesy.

Mr. GORE. Mr. Chairman, I would like to introduce to the committee Judge B. C. Huddelston, of Tennessee.

STATEMENT OF HON. B. C. HUDDELSTON, OF TENNESSEE

The CHAIRMAN. Judge, do you have a written statement?

Mr. HUDDELSTON. I do not, Mr. Chairman, but I have a few figures which I brought along to make an oral report. I have taken these figures from the county agents, the county trustees, and county court clerk's records of my county just before I left.

I can file those and they will give you an insight as to the condition which confronts us.

The CHAIRMAN. I suggest you hand the list of figures to your Congressman and let him put them in proper form for you and let it follow immediately after your statement and appearance here as your statement in the matter.

(The statement referred to is as follows:)

STATEMENT OF B. C. HUDDELSON, JUDGE, PUTNAM COUNTY, TENN.

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the Military Affairs Committee: Putnam County, Tenn., has a total of 258,500 acres and 404 square miles. Eighty-three percent of the total acreage or 215,400 acres of Putnam County is in farms. There are 3,640 farms and the average farm is 59 acres.

The farm population of Putnam County is 15,071, an average of 4.1 persons per farm. There are 1,837 farm owners and 1,803 tenants.

The assessed value of taxable property in Putnam County in 1933 was $6,037,628:

Farm land.

Personal
Utilities.

$3,465, 555

1,982, 670

589, 403

The real-estate assessment for 1939 was $6,197,170. The personal-property assessment for 1939 was $169,960; the utilities assessment for 1939 was $653,960. The tax rate for 1939 was $2.50 per hundred, an increase over 1938 of 12 cents.

The total tax for 1939 was $174,107.

The tax paid by the Tennessee Power Co. for the year 1938 was $3,001,40. The total annual farm income is $915,303, an average of $330 per farm. The average farm income is composed of:

The CHAIRMAN. The statement can be enlarged upon to whatever extent he may desire.

Mr. GORE. Mr. Chairman, I would like to insert into the record, with your permission, a statement from Cannon County. The county judge was not able to be here. This statement shows out of a total tax revenue of $19,000, that the Tennessee Power Co. paid $8,575.10; and that having been taken away from them represents a 45-percent loss.

The CHAIRMAN. All right, sir.

(The statement referred to by Mr. Gore is as follows:)

Hon. ALBERT GORE, M. C.

Washington, D. C.

CANNON COUNTY COURT, Woodbury, Tenn., February 5, 1940.

DEAR SIR: I received your telegram. Sorry I was not able to appear before the committee for Cannon County Tennessee Valley Authority tax replacement. Tennessee Electric Power Co. paid $8,575.10 this year. We only have about $19,000 in all tax to run the county; we would have at least 40 cents raised, as you know. Cannon, just a little agriculture county, and at the price of farm products, the farmer can't all pay $2, the present rate. As I can't appear could you pass this on to the committee.

Very truly yours,

C. E. GROOM, Cannon County Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. We will stand adjourned until Tuesday morning at 10:30.

(Whereupon at 3 p. m., the committee adjourned until Tuesday, February 20, 1940.)

TO AMEND THE TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY

ACT OF 1933

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1940

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS,

Washington, D. C.

The committee met at 10 a. m., Hon. Andrew J. May (chairman) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will please be in order.

While we do not at this time have a quorum except by proxies that other members of the committee hold, we will proceed, anyway, in order to save time.

We have with us this morning Mr. Rankin, of Mississippi, a Member of the House, who has been interested in this T. V. A. matter for quite a number of years and is the author of one of the bills pending before the committee. I am glad to have you, Mr. Rankin, and we will be glad to have you proceed as expeditiously as possible so that we may complete the hearing.

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN E. RANKIN, REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM MISSISSIPPI

Mr. RANKIN. Mr. Chairman, as you will recall, I was coauthor of the bill creating the Tennessee Valley Authority. Senator Norris introduced the bill in the Senate and I introduced it in the House, and we got it enacted by striking out the enacting clause of the bill passed by the House, and substituting therefor the NorrisRankin measure.

That was in 1933. When the measure came back from conference there was a fight waged on this provision for paying to the States of Alabama and Tennessee 5 percent of the gross revenues in lieu of taxes. In order to save the measure, I had to defend that provision on the floor of the House. I stated then that if it were a new proposition I would not favor it. But we had to accept it or lose the whole bill. It had been inserted as a result of a threatened filibuster in the Senate.

We had to accept in order to get the bill enacted into law.

I am here this morning supporting the Norris-Sparkman bill which provides that that amount be raised, I believe to 10 percent and then gradually cushioned down to 5 percent in a few years. The CHAIRMAN. Will my colleague pardon me for a question at this point?

Mr. RANKIN. Certainly.

The CHAIRMAN. What was the basis of the threatened filibuster in the Senate? In other words, What were they contending? That has slipped my memory.

Mr. RANKIN. Contending for this 5 percent.

The CHAIRMAN. Contending for it?

Mr. RANKIN. Yes; that was on the part of the Senators from the States involved.

I would not be here at all if it were not for the fact that I introduced a bill asking that this 5 percent be redistributed to take care of the counties in the area whose lands were flooded. One of those counties is in my district-Tishomingo County, named after a Chickasaw chief. If you will follow its course on the map, you will see that the Tennessee River flows in a southwesterly direction until it gets to Guntersville, and then it flows almost due west to the Mississippi State line then turns north, cuts the corner of Mississippi for 10 or 15 miles and then flows north into the Ohio River.

The Tennessee River was discovered by Hernando De Soto. He followed it from somewhere near its source down to Guntersville and then turned south to Mobile.

De Soto left a map which was published in 1543, showing the Tennessee River as being the upper stretch of the Mississippi. He later struck the Mississippi River about where Memphis is now situated and thought it was the same stream as this map indicates. Tishomingo County has several streams in it that flow into the Tennessee River, particularly Yellow Creek and Bear Creek which empties into the Tennessee on the line between the States of Alabama and Mississippi. A good deal of the land along Yellow Creek and Bear Creek, and other streams tributary to them, and the Tennessee River in Tishomingo County, is flooded by the backwaters from Pickwick Dam.

The CHAIRMAN. By what dam?

Mr. RANKIN. Pickwick.

If the T. V. A. is going to continue to pay out a portion of its gross revenues in lieu of taxes, certainly Tishomingo County is entitled to her pro rata share to remunerate the county for the lands that has been flooded and taken off the tax rolls.

As I understand it, this Norris-Sparkman bill provides that they start with 10 percent and gradually scale down to the original 5 percent, as provided in the original act. So far as I am concerned, I would not care if they scaled it on down to zero within, we will say, 10 or 15 or to 20 years, giving those counties time to rehabilitate themselves.

I want it understood in the beginning that I do not think the State of Tennessee or the State of Mississippi or the State of Georgia or Alabama are entitled to a nickel of this money. I think it should go to those counties whose lands have been flooded, and whose property has thus been taken off of the tax rolls.

All of those States have derived a great deal more benefit from the T. V. A. than they will ever lose in taxes. I understand that one of the questions agitating this committee is the question of taxing Government property.

I would be unalterably opposed to giving a State the right to tax Government property. I think when you start out on that program