Page 21: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 15, 1969)

MVA Celebrates 50 Years Of Growth-Grant Barcus Of Kansas Elected President The recent 50th Anniversary meeting of the Mississippi Valley Association held in Washington, D.C., was an outstanding success, with some 1,800 delegates attend-ing. The delegates, from 42 states, represented all facets of commerce, industry and agriculture. Grant Barcus Grant Barcus, a Kansas City, Kan. heavy construction firm own-er, was elected MVA president for the coming year. He succeeds Tom Adams, Florida's secretary of state, who became chairman of the board. Tom Adams Newly elected members of the Mississippi Valley Association's ex-ecutive committee were Henry Zac Carter, New Orleans, La.; James R. Smith, Omaha, Neb., and T. M. (Mark) Simmons, Belzoni, Miss. Re-elected for a new term on the executive committee were: Alex Chamberlain, Louisville, Ky.; F. A. Mechling, Joliet, 111. ; Henry B. Miller, Dubuque, Iowa; Robert Nabholz, Conway, Ark.; E. C. Rip-pie, Minneapolis, Minn., and Jo-seph L. Quinn Jr., Terre Haute, Ind. James R. Ayers Jr., president of Ayers Materials Co., Inc., of Har-vey, La., and the Association's 1967 president, was elected to the ad-visory board. The advisory board, consisting of the Association's five past presidents, now includes Glade R. Kirkpatrick, of Tulsa, Okla.; Charles J. LaMothe, St. Louis,Mo.; John C. Kelly, Sioux City, Iowa; Arnold Sobel, Chicago, 111., and Mr. Ayers. There was, in addition to the regular business conducted, a sug-gestion to change the name of the half-century old Association. The proposal springs from the fact that the organization was originally founded in New Orleans, in 1919, and was initially intended solely to promote water transportation on the lower portion of the Missis-sippi River. Today, however, the Mississippi Valley Association in-cludes a membership scattered throughout 38 states, and more im-portantly, its programs now encom-pass virtually every aspect of sound water and soil resource develop-ment within the United States. Another important and popular aspect of the annually-held MVA meeting was, as it has been in the past years, the Waterways Exposi-tion, the nation's largest and most complete display of waterways- ori-ented material and equipment. This year's exposition boasted mock-ups, scale-models and various pres-entations representing a widely as-sorted array of manufacturers and dealers in transportation equip-ment. The group's 1969 convention fea-tured addresses by Sen. Karl E. Mundt, (South Dakota); Sen. Thomas F. Eagleton, (Missouri) ; George M. Stafford, vice-chairman, Interstate Commerce Commission; Adm. Willard J. Smith, comman-dant of the U.S. Coast Guard; Gen. William F. Cassidy, chief, Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army; Henry P. Caulfield Jr., executive director. Water Resources Council, and out-going Association president, Tom Adams. Mr. Adams, in the president's re-port, reviewed the changes and de-velopments that have occurred with-in the Mississippi Valley Associa-tion during the past year. He noted that the Association "stands big-ger, stronger and more diversified than ever before in our history." He continued, "I wish I could report to you that our labors, and those of others, had been as suc-cessful with the Federal establish-ment as our organizational efforts have been. "Expenditures for the war in Vietnam and for unproven economic and social programs continue to in-crease and water resource develop-ment continues to sufifer. The ap-propriations which Congress has made continue to be simply figures on paper and the actual expenditure remains considerably lower than the appropriated figure." Mr. Adams then commented that the Corps of Engineers was forced to stop letting virtually all new construction contracts late last year and the freeze continues. He stated that the outgoing Adminis-tration greatly increased the inter-est discount rate used in comput-ing the benefits of water resource projects and scores of worthwhile projects have been dealt a severe bodv blow. Of the discount rate, Mr. Adams said that the change "greatly re-duced the cost side of the benefit to cost equation, but that the fed-eral bureaucracy has steadfastly re-fused to recognize any of the obvi-ous secondary and regional benefits of water resource projects. These are still not being considered in most instances. Thus the benefit side of the equation has been re-duced and many projects which normally would have been present-ed to Congress for authorization this year are being sent back for further study. With new roadblocks constantly being created by the bu-reaucracy in the Bureau of the Bud-get and in the Office of the Secre-tary of the Army, many projects are slowly being reviewed to death while floods and droughts con-tinue." He then proposed that the Mis-sissippi Valley Association "take the lead in urging presidential at-tention be given to the develop-ment of better and more realistic methods for identifying and meas-uring cost benefits in waterway construction?both in primary and secondary benefits." He then told his audience that all of these kinds of problems did not rest in the nation's capital and that legislatures in practically all of the nation had sessions in 1969 and that "detrimental legislation has already been introduced in sev-eral states." Mr. Stafford began his address by saying that "it has long been the desire of the Commission to encourage voluntary coordination of service, which in my opinion, is a better method when it can be achieved." "My philosophy", he continued, "is to provide only such regulation in the public interest as is required to meet the specific demand pre-sented. "Those whose primary interest is transportation seldom realize the breadth of the water resource de-velopment programs which now in-clude, besides navigation and flood control, bank stabilization so neces-sary to keep river bottom farms in one place from crop to crop, stream flow maintenance to combat pollu-tion, irrigation, power, and now as-suming a greater role, recreation," he said. "The availability of water trans-portation does much to secure heavy industry and produce a flour-ishing agriculture," he pointed out. "But it cannot and does not accom-plish this by itself. There must be railroads, pipelines, trucks and air lines. It is the interaction of these different modes which creates the willingness of industry to invest and the atmosphere for agriculture to prosper." "In my view," Mr. Stafford con-tinued, "the Commission has an obligation to foster a climate in which vigorous competition can flourish. To the extent that com-petition is healthy and effective in producing efficient service and rea-sonable rates, the job of regulation can be minimized. The chief prob-lem is never whether a particular carrier gains or loses traffic, but whether an equally or more efficient means of transportation has a fair opportunity to compete for it. This is one of the basic reasons the In-terstate Commerce Act was enact-ed. Despite the limitations which are necessary in any regulated in-dustry, the basic public policy of encouraging competition as a means of promoting the public interest is nevertheless applicable to transpor-tation as other areas of the econo-my." He concluded by noting that "neither government nor individual members of society can answer tht challenge of the public interesi alone. But working together, gov-ernment and industry can make good to the people the bright prom-ise of the most efficient and in-ventive transportation system the world has ever known." Maryland Shipbuilding Names Seitz Manager Engineering Department Richard G. Seitz Richard G. Seitz has been pro-moted to manager Engineering De-partment at Maryland Shipbuilding & Drydock Company, according to an announcement by Arnold P. Mc-Ilwain, president of the company. Maryland's Engineering Depart-ment is self-contained and capable of all phases of engineering and de-sign work required for ship con-struction, conversion and repair. Mr. Seitz is a graduate of the University of Michigan, with de-grees in naval architecture and ma-rine engineering. He joined the company in 1946; since that time he has had responsibility in all phases of the Engineering Depart-ment. Some of the past projects include engineering and design work on the oceanographic vessel Atlantis II, a ballistic missile track-ing ship, American Mariner, USNS Point Barrow, T-2 jumbo concept, and various containership construc-tion and conversion projects. He is a member of the American Society of Naval Engineers, Amer-ican Welding Society and The So-ciety of Naval Architects and Ma-rine Engineers. He has been ac-tive in the Chesapeake Section of SNAME since 1960, serving on various committees including mem-bership and meetings, and was for-merly vice-chairman of the Section. Admiral Tames Retained By Bell On SES Project Rear Adm. Ralph K. James, USN (ret.), has been retained as a con-sultant on air cushion vehicles by Textron's Bell Aerosystems Com-pany. Admiral James was formerly ex-ecutive director of the Committee of American Steamship Lines and recently opened his own office as a marine consultant. March 15, 1969 23