SOUTHERN HORIZONS 



burned down to roast a pig; enormous effort to little 

 effect, the mountain that labors and brings forth a 

 mouse; tremendous expense for pitiful returns, the ten- 

 ton truck hauling a bag of peanuts these are old, fa- 

 miliar errors of human judgment. We cannot stop mak- 

 ing such mistakes, but we can check and correct them 

 by counting the cost. 



While the simplest common denominator is money, 

 we must admit that cash values do not always give the 

 final answer. Nevertheless, even if we toss aside the 

 initial cost and current maintenance expense of the 

 TVA flood control program, we are forced to conclude 

 that what was planned to benefit the people of the 

 Tennessee Valley has actually hurt them. We could 

 afford to laugh at the ridiculous result of drowning for- 

 ever more land than would be flooded by Nature once 

 in half a century, provided Congress stopped such ex- 

 pensive jokes at the taxpayer's expense. It is no laugh- 

 ing matter, however, that a national experiment in the 

 coordinated economic development of a large region 

 has gone so far askew in one of its simplest, most direct 

 objectives. To the people of the Valley, whose basic 

 problem is low income, this is a tragedy. To the people 

 of the United States, seeking help in the solution of 

 desperate economic problems, it is pretty dismal 

 comedy. 



If the TVA has failed to provide a yardstick for hy- 

 dro-electric power costs, it gives the Congress and the 



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