Evening star., 1934-08-04
Seeing Is Believing.

Seeing is believing. said the Presi-
dent yesterday. addressing his well
come home audience OF Oregonians.
He spoke at the site OF the Bonneville
Dam and power project. on the lower
Columbia River. All about the Presi-
dent there were wonderful things for
him, and for his audience. 10 see
Within a few months steam shovels
and great armies OF workmen have
changed the landscape. piling noun
tains Of mud and rock where trees
grew before and digging great bitches
through which 10 turn the river while
work goes forward on the dam. A
small city OF workmen's shanties has
been built. Here for the next few
years will sound the roar OF drills
and dynamite and machinery, con-
structing the harness to turn the
rivers energy to electric power.
For the President, he said, the work
In progress was realization OF an old
dream. What he saw in Washington
on blueprints he was now able to
study at arst hand. Here is TO be one
of the National Governments three or
four "yardsticks" for the measure
ment of fair prices OF electricity-"so
that the people in this country will
know whether they are paying the
proper price for the electricity Of our
times" And with the provision of
power there will be other things.
Reclamation, and inland navigation;
ocean-going vessels penetrating the
interior Of oregon and barge lines
going all the way to the wheat coun-
try in Washington and even in Idaho.
Nor is that all. This, the President
told the natives, Is "a wonderful land
q land OF opportunity" There Is
plenty OF room for more OF the Amer
ican citizens who will come TO the
Northwest from other parts OF the
country. thinking about advantages
for mankind, good education. some
play, and, above all, chance for the
people to live their own lives without
wondering what is going to happen
tomorrow. Security for old age. Sc
curity against the ills and accidents
that come TO people. Above all, Sc
curity to earn your own living"
In other words. the promised land.
Seeing is believing" said the Presi-
dent. What the people OF Oregon
saw was their President, the head
of a Government that has made the
bountiful gift of ssl .0oO. 900, without
a penny of local expenditure, for
power development of their great
river, for reclamation of the land
and cheaper transportation OF their
produce to the sea as only one of
numerous such great projects that
promise them security against the
fates Of tomorrow" and the Ills and
accidents that come TO people" And
all about the people were the physical
evidence in the form of workingmen
and machinery laying the founda-
tions of Utopia.
There may have been those in the
audience who would have liked to
know what will happen to the salmon
industry when the Columbia River is
hsrneSsed to turbines and what will
happen to the power plants that now
furnish electricity to nearby Portland,
and what will happen to the railroads
in competition with Darges and ocean
ships that journey up the river from
the sea, and why, in the contempls-
tion of eventual security against those
"ills and accidents that come to peo-
pie, the dock workers and labor along
the Pacific seaboard have shown so
little patience with things as they are
for the immediate present.
But II there we're. they held their
peace. For seeing is believing, and
here before them. for all to see, was
the President, full of vigor and en-
thusiaSm and promise for what to-
morrow will bring, with tomorrow ly-
ing Just over the mountains.
~--s-@@w-S