SABINE PASS AND PORT ARTHUR CANAL, AND SABINE AND NECHES RIVERS, TEX. COMMITTEE ON RIVERS AND HARBORS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Washington, D. C., January 19, 1916. The committee met at 10.30 o'clock a. m., Hon. Stephen M. Sparkman (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Dies, we are ready to hear you now. STATEMENT OF HON. MARTIN DIES, A MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS. Mr. DIES. I will not detain the committee but just a moment. Mr. Weed, the engineer for the Beaumont navigation district, wants to present some matters, and probably Mr. White, of the Orange district, has something to say. I only want to call attention in a general way to the growth of our commerce down there, and some of the inconveniences that we are laboring under. I almost hate to refer to the fact of the amount of tonnage that has passed through the Sabine Pass district, because it makes all the other ports look so small, but it has grown almost a million tons since I last pleaded with this committee. I am speaking now in a general way of the entire project. I believe about 6,224,000 tons passed over these waterways. We carry to that port about half the commerce, in tonnage, of the whole State of Texas. I believe the engineers have estimated that they needed $600,000 to carry on the jetty work, and I hope, when you gentlemen come to treat with that matter, that you will not, if you can possibly avoid it, pare down that $600,000 that the engineers have estimated for that need. The CHAIRMAN. $690,000. Mr. DIES. I know it was someting above $600,000. I am having a world of trouble with two ports, both Port Arthur-of course, Port Arthur never has had the facilities to do the business. I want to tell you that it was a private port to start with. No Government official had any affair with it. Individuals built it. Even one concern has spent between $300,000 and $400,000 of its own money in order to get facilities to do business there. Of course, the Government has done a whole lot for them, and has been very liberal in that, but it has grown so fast that nobody could keep up with it, not even the Government. The Government recently finished the Beaumont-Orange projects. I think they did two years ago at least, but before they could do it commerce was getting around and running up around this spillway to do business, and before they had dredged out the canal Orange had 6 ocean-going steamers up there8 ocean-going steamers up there-and they already have 20 more under contract. I merely mention this to show the pressure of commerce upon the waterway. Now, just yesterday I had a telegram from a transportation company of Beaumont to the effect that they had a cargo of imports coming in from Mexico, and they could not get by Port Arthur on account of something. The Government has not recognized those two places as subports. We did get a little dispensation from the Treasury Department, but it takes a telegram from them and about 36 hours, and what little influence a Congressman has to get the vessels by Port Arthur and get them up to these ports. The CHAIRMAN. What is it that you would like to ask? Mr. DIES. I want to ask in a general way that the committee look with a good deal of favor on this recommendation of the engineers that they spend $690,000 this year on the jetties. The CHAIRMAN. Whatever is needed there you would like to have? Mr. DIES. I would like very much to have that, because that matter is a matter that affects all of these ports. Speaking of the pressure of commerce, you must bear in mind that there are two more great ports just about to come in. In other words, they have not been finished two days. The opening up of this lock that has cost $250,000 will open up the water from Port Arthur up to Beaument, and from Port Arthur up to Orange, up the two rivers, and a tremendous commerce, I will say to this committee, is restlessly waiting the opening of this waterway to do business. The CHAIRMAN. Which waterway is that? Mr. DIES. The entire waterway, for that matter. Take this one concern, the Magnolia Petroleum Co., a $20,000,000 concern, they are spending a vast sum of money on this river. I went out and examined their concrete wharves, and I think there is nothing in the country so substantial, so modern, so up to date as the facilities they are making for shipping. There is nothing in New York State to equal it, as far as my little experience has been, nothing in the country to equal the fine improvement that these oil people are making to handle these shipments. I do not know how many hundreds of thousands of dollars they have spent. They have $20,000,000 invested. As I said a moment ago, 8 vessels are now waiting to get into this waterway, and 20 more are chartered. I do not want to take up the time of the committee. The CHAIRMAN. I think that the committee will not be inclined to cut you off. I think it would be inclined to grant you as much time as you need. Mr. DIES. I would like to introduce Mr. Weed, the local engineer of the Beaumont district, who has some matters he wants to present. STATEMENT OF MR. JAMES T. WEED, ENGINEER OF THE BEAUMONT NAVIGATION COMMISSION, BEAUMONT, TEX. Mr. WEED. Gentlemen, I was before you last year, a year ago last December, in reference to the particular matter that we have in mind at Beaumont. At that time you had some rule passed whereby you did not recognize new projects at all, and it was a question of whether or not this piece of work that we want done in the Neches River was a new project. If you will permit me, I will read my statement, because the statement I have here contains the information as far as possible. I will state at the outset that I am the engineer for the Beaumont Navigation District Commission, which commission put up one-half of the money for building the Sabine-Neches Canal, and river improvement. That matter we went into last year, a contract was actually entered into under the authority of an act of Congress of July 25, 1912. That act provided that the Secretary of War and the Chief of Engineers should enter into a contract for cutting off the bends, and for further improving the channel of the Neches River, providing that the total cost should not exceed the amount of money then appropriated, which was $956,000, for the whole project, of which we paid one-half. Now, the unfortunate thing came up at the locks. We entered into the contract, and the contract we thought was going to be carried out, but in the end the locks, which were estimated originally to cost $170,000, cost actually $230,000, and that left us short of the funds to cut out these sharp bends, which were so objectionable to the engineers and the board of engineers. The CHAIRMAN. Which is the act you refer to? Mr. WEED. July 25, 1912. The CHAIRMAN. That act reads as follows: Improving the Sabine-Neches Canal, Texas, from the Port Arthur Ship Canal to the mouth of the Sabine River, the Neches River up to the town of Beaumont, and the Sabine River up to the town of Orange: The authorization for the improvement adopted by the river and harbor act of February twenty-seventh, nineteen hundred and eleven (Thirty-sixth Statutes, page nine hundred and forty-three), is hereby extended so as to include the cutting off of bends or the widening of the channels to such extent as may be recommended by the Chief of Engineers and approved by the Secretary of War: Provided, That the total cost shall not be increased beyond that specified in the act of February twentyseventh, nineteen hundred and eleven: Provided further, That nothing herein contained shall change the terms of cooperation specified in said act. Mr. WEED. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. That was the act adopting the project? Mr. WEED. That was the act adopting the project. We unfortunately had some slides building the lock. The cofferdams failed, the slides slid in, and the waters came in on the engineers, not once, but twice, and that increased the cost to a quarter of a million dollars to build those locks, whereas originally we estimated that the cost would be $100,000. Then we increased the depth 28 feet, in order to provide for future improvement to the canal without injury to the locks, within the estimated cost of $170,000. It actually cost $230,000 before we got through with it. If we had had the money it would have been used in cutting off Smiths Bluff bends. There are three of those sharp bends right above Smiths Bluff, which could have been cut out, but it would cost $170,000 to do it. I am not going to read all of this. I will file it with you and you may read it yourselves. We have asked for three things. One is for the cutting off of Smiths Bluff bends, the second is for the removal by dredging Harbor Island at the turning basin at Beaumont on the Neches River, and the third is for the construction of a suitable dredge of the capacity of the dredge Orange, or larger, as may be recommended by the Chief of Engineers, and to be used for the maintenance and improvement of the Sabine-Neches Canal, including the Sabine and Neches Rivers; provided, that the Beaumont and Orange interests shall contribute $50,000 toward the cost of such dredge; and provided that such contribution on the part of Beaumont and Orange shall relieve said local interests from their obligations to maintain the channels in the Neches and Sabine Rivers for a period of three years, such maintenance to be assumed by the Government in consideration of the $50,000 considered to be the cost of the dredge. I was instructed to make that proposition to Congress, and, furthermore, I talked it over with Col. Taylor, and he told me frankly that he had no information on the subject at this time, and he did not know what to say, but he told me he would refer the matter to the engineers, and take it up; but my chief idea, my chief reason for being here to-day, is to get the Smiths Bluff cut-off provided for. The Senate provided for it last year, but it was left out in the general acts by Congress. You appropriated a lump sum and it was cut out. We did not get it. The CHAIRMAN. Well, as I understand now, we provided for this work to be done within the estimated cost of the old project? Mr. WEED. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Do you find that it can not be done within that estimate? Mr. WEED. It can not. The CHAIRMAN. But, notwithstanding that, you still want the work done? Mr. WEED. Yes, sir; we think it is very necessary to be done. Mr. WEED. This is the Neches River. I will show you a map of it.` This is a tracing from House Document 136. I have the document before me now. Mr. FREAR. What session? Mr. WEED. Sixty-first Congress, second session, I think. Now, gentlemen, these bends right here are the ones that are very objectionable one, two, three. This point where my finger is, is Smiths Bluff, and by cutting through from Smiths Bluff from bend No. 1 to bend No. 3 we cut out three bends. Mr. KENNEDY. How long are those bends? Are they short? Mr. WEED. Yes, sir: they are short. It is less than a mile across. That cut-off there contains a radius of less than 1,500 feet, and it is very objectionable. Mr. BURGESS. What is the width of the channel in those bends? Mr. WEED. In some places it is about 300 feet, but right at the bends themselves it is not that wide, probably 200 feet. Mr. HULBERT. What was the estimated cost to make that canal across there, between those two bends? Mr. WEED. $70,000. That is the present estimated cost, and the Senate bill last year carried that amount. Mr. HULBERT. Who has the right of way there? Mr. WEED. We have secured the right of way ourselves. Mr. HULBERT. You mean the State? Mr. WEED. No; I means my navigation district board. Mr. WEED. The title is vested in the United States Government. Mr. HULBERT. It has been ceded over by the United States Government to the upland section? Mr. WEED. I do not know whether it has actually been ceded by. the Government, but we secured the right of way all right. Mr. DIES. The Government required them to secure the right of way before they secured the contract. Mr. WEED. The right of way has been secured. Mr. HULBERT. Who made the estimate? Mr. WEED. Col. Taylor. We could have done this work last year for $56,000, because we had a contract, an offer and guaranty by the Powers Dredging Co., which was doing our work, that if we got the project through at the last session of Congress they would do that work for 7.29 cents per cubic yard. Mr. BURGESS. Under what authority did Col. Taylor make the estimate? Mr. WEED. I do not think he submitted any. Mr. DIES. The United States Government made a contract to do the work, and after they found that it cost so much more money they had to get out of it. Mr. BURGESS. I wanted to know under what authority Col. Taylor made the estimate. Mr. WEED. Under the authority that was granted to him to make this contract, the supplemental contract, July 25, 1912, and he actually entered into that contract. We had a contract with this company last December a year ago that was actually entered into at a price of 7.29 cents per cubic yard, and there were 698,000 yards, to be exact. That was made by the district engineers at that time, Maj. T. H. Jackson, of Dallas. The dredging company was there, and they were ready to do this at the price at which the whole project had been let, but now we will have to pay about 9 cents. I talked the matter over with Col. Taylor, and he thinks it could be done for 9 or 93 cents, and I feel that we can guarantee that price, so that $70,000 would absolutely complete that bend. Mr. HUMPHREYS. Those are the only bends that are necessary to take out? Mr. WEED. No, sir; there are two more bends, but not so objectionable as they are. The board of review originally objected to five bends. Six of them there have already been taken out. It does not show on the blue print. Mr. HUMPHREYS. Has that bend where you put your finger been taken out? Mr. WEED. Yes, sir; right straight across there. All those bends at the upper end have been taken out, but these were the five bends originally that the board of review complained about. Mr. SMALL. Will you point out the mouth of the Sabine River there? Smiths Mr. WEED. It is right at this end there [indicating]. Bluff is about 7 miles above the mouth of the Neches River. Mr. KENNEDY. Is it to save time that you want the work done? Mr. WEED. No; but to provide for the ships that are ready to come in right now. Mr. KENNEDY. Could they not come in? |