The National Guard should be recruited up to 210,000 officers and men. This increase is necessary in order to round out organizations, properly balanced in various types of units essential in modern warfare.

At least 30,000 Reserve officers should be given two weeks' active duty training each year. This number is in addition to those on extended active duty with the Regular Army and the Civilian Conservation Corps.

The number of youths receiving training at citizens' military training camps each year should be increased from 30,000 to 50,000. Many more young men apply for this training than can be accommodated at the camps each year. The additional expenditure required is well warranted by the results attained.

The reenlistment allowance of career soldiers should be restored. This allowance which was granted to soldiers for many years was withdrawn a few years ago as an economy measure. Pay reductions and other features of economy legislation have become inoperative, but the withdrawal of the reenlistment allowance remains in force. Provision should be made for adequate compensation for career soldiers suffering disability incident to their military service. Occasionally soldiers of long service are injured or otherwise incapacitated in line of duty and thus prevented from serving the necessary length of time to qualify for retired pay. In equity suitable provision should be made in such cases.

There should be at least 120,000 active Reserve officers available for assignment. This strength may be best obtained through the increase of the number of Reserve Officers' Training Corps units in our colleges. Lack of maintenance funds and of officers to serve as instructors has prevented a material expansion of the Reserve Officers* Training Corps.

A reserve of 150,000 enlisted specialists to be recruited to this strength over a period of years should be authorized. In an emergency such a body of trained and experienced men to occupy important positions in the ranks would be an asset of tremendous value. The United States is practically the only major power without such a trained reserve.

The present policy of aircraft procurement should be continued in order that we may reach and maintain a strength of 2,320 modern serviceable planes by 1940.

The program of modernizing the equipment of all components of the Army should be accelerated in order that we may quickly improve and expand such organizations as the Air Corps, the antiaircraft artillery, and seacoast defenses. New and improved weapons, transportation, and means of communications should be procured at increased rates in order that the orderly rearmament and reequipment of our combat units may proceed as rapidly as budgetary limitations will permit.

A new War Department building should be begun if at all possible within the next year and completed as soon as practicable.

Construction of barracks, quarters, and other essential facilities at Army posts should receive a high priority in the Government building program.

CIVIL ACTIVITIES OF THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS

The activities of the Corps of Engineers, in the maintenance and improvement of rivers and harbors for navigation, and the construction of works for the control of floods, have been vigorously prosecuted during the year with funds provided by regular and relief appropriations.

ALLOTMENTS AND EXPENDITURES

The civil activities of the War Department for rivers and harbors and flood control received allotments totaling $192,989,120 for the fiscal year. The total expenditures from these allotments and from balances of funds previously allotted for civil activities conducted by the Corps of Engineers amounted to $233,976,284. These expenditures have furnished a large amount of direct and indirect employment, have stimulated conditions in general industry and have advanced the completion of many meritorious navigation and flood control projects, thus making their benefits immediately realizable in the economic, commercial, and social life of the country.

RIVERS AND HARBORS

The movement of the waterborne commerce of the United States, amounting in 1936 to over 500,000,000 tons, valued at more than $18,000,000,000, is dependent on the continued expansion and maintenance of channel and harbor facilities. Improvement and maintenance works have been actively prosecuted on 342 separate projects, the available funds having been applied to the works most necessary in the interest of navigation.

Notable progress has been made during the year in the canalization of the upper Mississippi River to provide a dependable 9-foot channel to Minneapolis. Of the 26 locks and dams of modern design included in the project, 24 locks and 15 dams are now completed. The completion of a fully utilizable 9-foot channel is expected in 1939.

Work has been in progress and is well advanced on the construction of new locks and dams at La Grange and Peoria, Ill., on the Illinois Waterway to provide a 9-foot channel connecting the Mississippi inland system of waterways with Lake Michigan. These works will insure a stabilized channel of project dimensions when the limited diversion of water from Lake Michigan, established by Supreme Court decree, becomes effective December 31, 1938.

Material progress has been made on the Missouri River in extending stabilization of the 6-foot channel to Sioux City. A channel of this depth is now available at ordinary river stages to St. Joseph, Mo., 460 miles from the mouth and to Rulo, Nebr., at somewhat higher river stages. Above Rulo to Omaha, the work accomplished has secured a well-stabilized channel with the exception of a few limited reaches, and from Omaha to Sioux City the channel stabilization work is continuing at a most satisfactory rate. Work on the great earth dam at Fort Peck to create a reservoir for impounding waters

of the upper Missouri River during flood season has progressed at a remarkable rate and is now 71 percent completed. Over 65,000,000 cubic yards of material have been placed in this dam. The closure of the dam was effected on June 24, 1937, and the entire flow of the river diverted through tunnels constructed for this purpose. The release of stored water through these tunnels, upon completion of the project, will provide a regulated flow during low-water seasons to insure adequate channel depths below Sioux City for water transportation.

Construction of the concrete masonry dam and power house on the Columbia River at Bonneville, Oreg., has been successfully prosecuted and the project is now 84 percent completed. This project includes a lock with the highest lift of any navigation lock yet constructed and fishway installations of unprecedented scope.

New locks and dams have been placed in commission during the year and are nearing full completion at Winfield, W. Va., on the Kanawha River, and at Gallipolis, Ohio, and Montgomery Island, Pa., on the Ohio River, replacing nine old locks and dams built many years ago. The reduction in lockages resulting from these new structures will not only promote the movement of vessels by lessening the time of transit, but will also result in material savings to the United States in annual maintenance through the operation and care of the fewer number of locks.

A new lock and dam has been completed during the year on the Savannah River at New Savannah Bluff, 13 miles below Augusta, Ga. The dam at Lake Bankhead on Black Warrior River has been raised 12 feet, extending navigation to the rich coal regions in northern Alabama. Construction has commenced on a new lock and dam on this river at Tuscaloosa, Ala., to replace three old structures.

The system of protected intracoastal waterways now in use along the Atlantic coast to Miami, Fla., and from Apalachicola, Fla., to Galveston, Tex., on the Gulf coast, where completed, is proving of great value to vessels of moderate draft as evidenced by the increased traffic on the waterways. The section from Apalachicola to St. Andrews Bay was completed during the year and work has been in progress on the section from Choctawhatchee Bay to West Bay, Fla. Notable progress has been attained in the improvement of navigation facilities at a number of the more important ports on the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts and in the harbors and connecting channels of the Great Lakes. The enlargement of the channel of the Cape Cod Canal to secure a depth of 32 feet at mean low water and a width of from 500 to 540 feet has been actively prosecuted and was 54 percent completed on June 30, 1937. The channel, in its present stages, is proving of increased benefit to shipping. Likewise the widening and deepening to 27 feet at mean low water of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal to provide a passage for ocean-going vessels between the Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay has been progressing rapidly throughout the year and is scheduled for completion in the fiscal year 1939.

Substantial progress has been made on the enlarging of the New York State Barge Canal to secure a depth of 14 feet from the Hudson River, 187 miles to Oswego on Lake Ontario. This project is at the present time about 22 percent completed.

FLOOD CONTROL

The Flood Control Act of June 22, 1936, established a definite policy for Federal participation in the construction of flood-control projects throughout the Nation in cooperation with the States, political subdivisions thereof, or other responsible local agencies. About 270 flood-control projects having a total estimated construction cost of $300,000,000 were authorized by Congress in this general flood-control legislation but no funds were appropriated for carrying out the provisions of the act. Funds have been made available, however, from the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1936 which, with funds otherwise available, have permitted the Corps of Engineers to proceed with the preparation of detailed plans and definite project estimates so that work can be started without delay when funds are made available for construction and so that local interests can be accurately advised as to the exact cooperation which will be required of them under the law. Emergency funds have been expended on a number of the flood-control projects which could be started quickly and which were of a nature suitable for the maximum use of relief labor.

Flood-control operations in the alluvial valley of the Mississippi River have been actively in progress on the project authorized by the Flood Control Act of May 15, 1928, amended by the act of June 15, 1936, and detailed plans have been and are being prepared for carrying out the provisions of the extended project.

The value of the work which the War Department has executed throughout the six States of the lower Mississippi Valley was demonstrated this year. With the 1928 project on the lower Mississippi River practically completed, the great flood which devastated the unprotected Ohio Valley, causing direct damages estimated at over $400,000,000, was carried to the Gulf of Mexico without failure of any part of the Federal system of protective works. The New Madrid floodway and the Bonnet Carre spillway were placed in operation for the first time, saving Cairo, Ill., from inundation and insuring the safety of New Orleans.

The flood-control and navigation project for Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River in Florida, which will provide protection against hurricane-driven flood waters, is about 98 percent completed. The authorized flood-control work on the Sacramento River in California has been actively prosecuted and is practically completed.

Substantial progress has been made on the flood-control projects undertaken with Executive approval for prosecution with funds appropriated for the relief of unemployment. The project for 14 reservoirs in the Muskingum River Basin of Ohio is about 81 percent completed. Work on Conchas Reservoir on the South Canadian River in New Mexico is approximately 20 percent completed. Work has been commenced on the Sardis Reservoir on the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi. The Tygart Dam in the Monongahela River Basin is rapidly approaching completion. The two flood-control reservoirs on the Winooski River in Vermont, constructed with Civilian Conservation Corps personnel under the supervision of the Corps of Engineers, have continued to demonstrate their value in preventing flood damages. Construction under similar supervision of a third reservoir on the Waterbury River at Waterbury, Vt., is well advanced.

After the great flood which devastated the Ohio Valley in January and February, 1937, the Flood Control Committee of the House of Representatives by resolution requested the Chief of Engineers to review plans for the Ohio and Mississippi River flood control in the light of experience gained in that flood, and to present a comprehensive plan for protection of the Ohio Valley and for additional protection of the Mississippi Valley. The mass of factual data available to the Department concerning the flood problems of the Ohio River and other tributaries of the Mississippi River, accumulated in previous surveys, permitted the prompt preparation of a report as requested. The report was transmitted to Congress by the President on April 28, 1937.

BEACH EROSION

Congress authorized and directed in the River and Harbor Act of July 3, 1930, that studies be made in cooperation with appropriate agencies to devise effective means for preventing erosion of the shore of coastal and lake waters. The act, Public, No. 834, approved June 26, 1936, increased the scope of the studies to permit the Beach Erosion Board to report on the nature of any Federal interests which may be included in the area under investigation. Increasing demands for beaches as recreational areas indicate their importance to the welfare of the people at large. When a direct Federal interest is involved, the works to prevent beach erosion should be encouraged with financial and engineering support from the Federal Government. Projects to which local interests are prepared to contribute should receive careful consideration for inclusion in any construction program in the interests of employment relief, as work of this type is frequently particularly suitable for execution with relief labor. Substantial progress has been made in this growing activity. Reports on cooperative investigations have been completed for 15 localities, including 4 for the present fiscal year. There are 11 additional authorized projects for which reports are being prepared.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Preliminary examinations and surveys as authorized by Congress, and the review of such reports as requested by congressional committees, have been made on a large number of rivers and harbors for the formulation of definite recommendations to Congress on the justification for improvement of navigation, flood control, and other related subjects; 266 of these reports having been transmitted to Congress during the year after thorough and extended study by the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors as required by law. Many of these reports contain, in addition to economic considerations, a wealth of engineering and hydrologic data, the record of which will become of increasing value as the years advance.

The safety organization established to embrace Engineer Department activities has materially reduced the number of accidents and lost time to workmen during the year.

The Corps of Engineers has continued to undertake investigations for the emergency agencies and has loaned its officers to assist these agencies in their administrative duties.

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