HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 197 
Sarurpay, J/unwmiry 9, 1904. 
The committee met at 11 o’clock a. m., Hon. J. W. Wadsworth in 
the chair. 
STATEMENT OF PROF. WILLIS L. MOORE, CHIEF OF THE 
WEATHER BUREAU. 
The Cuarrman. We will take up your increases in order. 
Professor Moors. Very well. 
The Cuarrman. The first item is, ‘‘ Four professors of meteorology, 
at $3,000 each, for duty in the city of Washington, or elsewhere, as 
the needs of the Bureau may demand” (one additional submitted). 
Professor Moorg. Yes, sir. 
The CHarrman. Please tell us about that increase. 
Professor Moors. That increase of one professor of meteorology 
brings us to the river and flood service. I can show the necessity for 
that increase. 
The Cuargman. It is not actually an increase; it is simply a promo- 
tion of one professor from $2,500? 
Professor Moorr. We dropped one district forecaster at $2,000. 
This change is necessitated by our desire to reorganize the river and 
flood service. : 
Mr. Bowie. Is not that really to provide a first-rate, competent 
man to have charge of your affairs in your absence? 
Professor Moors. No, sir. It is to make the river and flood service 
a separate division of the Weather Bureau, instead of being a small 
part of a division. That change is very important. If you will per- 
mit me, I will read a few pages from my report: 
The work of the river and flood service, owing to the recent numerous and disas- 
trous floods, has of necessity been a very prominent feature of the year. Several of 
the floods were the greatest of which there is authentic record, and were remarkable 
both for their wide extent and destructive character. In no instance was the coming 
of a dangerous flood unheralded. The warnings were uniform, prompt, and timely, 
and in the main remarkably accurate. The forecasts of the great floods of March, 
April, and June, 1903, afford noteworthy examples of the efficiency the river and 
flood service has attained, and are later made the subject of more extended mention. 
The following extract from an editorial in the New Orleans Times-Democrat of April 
12, 1903, testifies to the value of the work: 
“We have been placed this year under another obligation to the Weather Bureau 
for its high-water news and predictions. It has kept the people of the lower Missis- 
sippi well informed of what they may expect in the way of high water, and its pre- 
dictions have been subsequently verified by the facts. * * *” 
I read this because our warnings enabled the city of New Orleans to 
raise its levees 2 feet, and those warnings, too, saved the city from 
going under water, as they did once before, in 1897. 
Mr. Scott. Permit me to interrupt you to inquire if you know how 
much higher the levees are now at New Orleans than was thought to 
be sufficient at the time they were constructed ? 
Professor Moore. I believe that 4 feet have been added in the eight 
years that I have been at the head of the Weather Bureau. 
Mr. Scorr. At that rate, in the course of things, the bed of the river 
will be over the city. 
Professor Moore. No; the bed of the river has not changed; but 
the confining to the channel of all flood waters by the extension of the , 
