Big Dam Backlash Rising in the Sun Belt - Southern Water, Southern Power - page 85

Carolina and Georgia defined the social merits and economic benefits of the proposed dam
for members of Congress while also adding some others, including soil conservation and
recreation. National defense, however, quickly rose to the top as a new vehicle for Hartwell.
National defense likely represented a sincere attempt to secure federal dollars, given
the nation's emerging Cold War relations with the Soviet Union. The Hartwell Project …
Now pamphleteers linked the new Communist threat with old fears expressed by their New
South predecessors: Georgia and South Carolina lacked coal and petroleum reserves. Thus,
the Sun Belt could not support itself during a national war emergency, and industrial opera-
tions could “be paralyzed” by striking miners or rail workers. 18 The committee's argument
that hydroelectric facilities were good for national defense because river water was always
available ignored the fact that rivers could, in fact, shrink considerably as they did in the
past. Regardless of history, boosters interpreted Hartwell as a critical tool for national de-
fense and energy security. When the promoters released The Hartwell Project … Now in
1949, they may not have known that the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) planned to
locate a nuclear weapons material manufacturing plant on the Savannah River downstream
from Augusta. However, the Hartwell cheerleaders surely recalled that Congress was quick
to approve New Deal and World War II public works projects when such projects suppor-
ted national defense objectives. 19 And if they did not remember, Georgia senator Richard
B. Russell would have certainly provided the institutional memory.
Born in Winder, Georgia, Richard B. Russell Jr. (1897-1971) was elected to the state le-
gislature in 1920, governor in 1930, and U.S. senator in 1932. He served in the Senate for
nearly forty years until his death. As a New Deal Democrat, Russell supported agricultural
programs and the Rural Electrification Administration's enabling legislation. But by 1938,
he was casting a critical eye on the New Deal after President Franklin D. Roosevelt attemp-
ted to purge Georgia's other senator and southern Democrats who valued white suprem-
acy over liberalism and civil rights. 20 After World War II, Russell came into his own, and
he mastered the Senate's rule-making and legislative process as a member of two power-
ful committees—appropriations and armed services—where he served for decades and at
times as chairman. Russell excelled in his ability to win allies; he lobbied for their projects
and expected their debts to help pave the way for his own interests. For example, Russell
helped Oklahoma's Robert Kerr, an equally savvy and powerful senator, win federal dol-
lars in the 1950s for water projects. Half-jokingly Russell noted, “If any is left over after
you … get through with the Treasury, I hope to get a few dollars for Georgia.” Dam and
water schemes were an instrumental part of this horse-trading process that Russell tapped
to build out Georgia's hydraulic waterscape. 21 Russell and the Savannah River's boosters
worked hand in hand to build an industrial and commercial sector in the valley and to meet
their collective vision for a commercial Sun Belt.