Evening star., 1934-12-27
NEW DEAL SCHEME |
BELIEVED DOOMED
Too Many Obstacles De.
cIared Facing 25-Year
Natural Resources Plan.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

BY DAVID LAWRENCE.
will Rogers idea Of plan to end
all plans" may come to fruition sooner
than is generally expected If the
administration continues with its am
bilious programs for developing nat
ural resources.
The latest plan-the project for
utilizing the resources of the Mis-
sissippi Valley-has been made pub
lie after many weeks OF planning,
but the White House significantly
lets it be known that all this is tied
up to the big plan of the National
Resources Board. The latter involves
a 25-year-plan, costing about $685.
O0,O0O,OOO
If the planners are to await the
discovery of ways and means OF
financing such a huge undertaking
very little will be done about it during
the present generations struggle with
the depression.
Too Big a Job.
In other words, the more the plan
ners try to plan the more they find
that the whole of the United States
has to be reconstructed, and that's
a rather large order, even for an ad-
ministration which won such an
overwhelming victory at the polls last
November Fortunately or unfortu-
nately, parties do not stay in power
for Is years with such heavy majori-
ties in both houses Of Congress, where
the authorization for spending Is
made
Also, there's another fly in the
ointment The President gently re-
minds the press that the localities
affected should pay part Of the cost.
One needs to turn back few years
to the files of the newspapers just
after the Mississippi flood and it will
be discovered just how enthusiastic
the various States affected by flood
control were about paying the cost
of the construction work which was
to protect them against future floods.
Maybe, If the Tennessee Valley prof.
ect were assessed against the residents
of the territory affected, there might
be a different attitude toward some
of the improvements being made in
gions should bear special assessments,
just as city property owners do, who
have the benefit of improvements. is
rather novel coming from the Fed
eral administration.
Local Opposition Seen.
If this part Of the Presidents policy
Is retained, 1t will have the effect
of ending all plans much sooner than
the planners dream. For a pickering
match on what each locality should
pay would lead to all sorts Of log
rolling and doubtless such a lopSided
arrangement as to discourage the ma
tional plan.
One of the principal difficulties the
planners have is with the American
system of government, which still
gives the States and the cities certain
rights and obligations and powers to
raise revenues for their own purposes.
The forthcoming conferences on
means of eliminating tax duplication
between Federal, State and city gov
ernments may accomplish much, but
tax coordination will have to be done
by moral suasion and cannot be
achieved by compulsion.
The same thing Is true of the degree
of cooperation between Federal, State
and city governments to put into ef-
feet such mammoth plan as the
Mississippi Valley project. The COM
mittee, which drew it up was well
aware of this difficulty, for it re-
marked in conclusion as follows:
Vast Changes Necessary.
The Nation can create such Mis-
sissippi Valley as has been outlined II
1t collectively so wills"
But it would have to express its
will in many changes in State con-
stitutions and city charters and the
National Resources Board would have
to be superseded by a national board
that would derive its authority from
the Congress in cooperation with the
several States.
1t can be done. There's no doubt
that the Constitution is sufficiently
flexible to be amended to iron out all
differences and make the Nation adopt
a broad-gauged plan, even though II
drives the Government into various
businesses in competition with private
industry and forces investors to lose
as consequence
But the probabilities are that nc
such national plan will be undertaken
for the simple reason that, just now
the crying need Of the country is for
somebody to bring out plan that will
give 100000 persons work in the
year 1885, and not 25 years hence.
(Copyright 1934)