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Message to the Congress Transmitting the Report of the Muscle Shoals Commission.

December 17, 1931

To the Congress of the United States:

In my message to the Senate on March 3d last returning without my approval Senate Joint Resolution No. 49, I suggested that as the solution of the Muscle Shoals problem was a matter of major interest to the States of Tennessee and Alabama these States should set up a commission of their own representatives to cooperate with a like commission appointed by me to consider the disposition of the Muscle Shoals project.

On March 20, 1931, the Legislature of the State of Tennessee passed the accompanying resolution which was approved by the Governor on March 23, 1931. Under this resolution Mr. Mercer Reynolds, Mr. Vance J. Alexander and Mr. W. A. Caldwell were appointed members of the commission. As Mr. Alexander and Mr. Caldwell were unable to serve, the Governor subsequently appointed Mr. J. F. Porter and Mr. R. L. Moore to fill the vacancies. On June 30, 1931, the Assembly of Alabama passed the accompanying resolution, which was approved by the Governor on June 30, 1931, and under it Mr. S. F. Hobbs, Mr. Will Howard Smith, and Mr. W. F. McFarland were appointed members of the commission. On July 14, 1931, I appointed Colonel Harley B. Ferguson, Corps of Engineers, United States Army, Colonel Joseph I. McMullen, office of the Judge Advocate General, United States Army, and Mr. Edward A. O'Neal, President of the American Farm Bureau Federation, as members of the commission.

Hearings were held and after long consideration of the subject, the commission rendered to me a unanimous report which I now transmit for the consideration of the Congress. In addition the commission has prepared a brochure showing the evidence on which its recommendations are based. This I also transmit for the information of the Congress.

HERBERT HOOVER

The White House,

December 17, 1931.

Note: The message and accompanying papers are printed as Senate Document 21 (72d Cong., 1st sess.).

Herbert Hoover, Message to the Congress Transmitting the Report of the Muscle Shoals Commission. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/207085

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