Evening star., 1934-02-11
Project OF IVA.
HUGE EXPERIMENT.
Forces of Humanity and
Nature Are Mingled in
New Development.
Continued From First Page.)

Valley. The whole area lies well
south Of the Mason-Dixon line, but
the economic development OF the
northeastern and the southwestern
sections was along entirely different
lines. The former was developed al
most altogether as a society of small,
pioneering and poor free-holders. It
followed much closer the lines of Ver-
mont and New Hampshire than those
traditionally ascribed to the South.
It was always bitterly anti-slavery
hnd pro-Union. There are whole
counties whose people hardly ever
have seen colored man. The latter
developed along the lines of the plan
tation system and the renter" sys-
tenn which grew out of it after the
Civil WARMTH all the evils of alb
sentee landlordism and all the bene-
fits of unified control of large areas
There are counties of appalling
iliteracy There are other counties
where colleges dot the landscape al
most as thickly as in New York or
New England-although for the most
part they are battered, struggling sec
tartan institutions which have missed
the prosperity Of their Northern fel-
lows. There are prosperous county
seats whose business streets are bril-
liant with red neon lights. There are
other county seats most of whose
dingy houses hardly have felt the
paint brush for a generation.
Seek Fullness of Living.
The TeppeSSee Uallav artbori+v
seeks to build up experimentally under
Ill these conditions social and econ
onic ways of life suited to achieve the
maximum fullness of living in each
setting, but at the same time to CO.
ordinate all the units into a unified
regional culture. Here, as elsewhere
in the past, social and economic evo-
luton has been hit-or-miSS mat
ter. Where coordination has been
achieved, it has come about only
through the expensive and painful
process of survival of the flttest. The
result has been more or less of mess
with the people probably falling far
short of reaping the full benefit OF
their natural inheritance. Their lives
have been governed by the iron hand
of dogma-agricultural, industrial and
cultural dogma. AS the mountain
pastors still thunder of hell-flre, so
the mountain farmers still plant corn
on rocky sleeps, fitted only for blue
berry bushes.
Not that the Tennessee Valley re-
gion is a horrible example among
lands 1t is neither better nor worse.
but only representative of what came
about under the old, unScientific ways
of development In some ways it is
behind, and in some ways ahead Of
other parts of the country.
Why was this highly diversified area
chosen as the laboratory of historys
greatest social experiment?
Partly because of its very diversi-
fication Most of the problems of the
rest Of the United States are en-
countered here. This s50,000000 ex-
pertinent is not being set up for the
benefit of a section. 1t is in no sense
a elorifled "pork-barrel grab" II
the valley people benefit by it, that
N their good fortune, but they are
not the objects of special solicitude
on the part of a paternalistic Gov
eminent. The experiment Is intend
Cd for the benefit and guidance OF
the whole United States. and since
science cannot long remain national,
o. the whole world.