The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-10-13

OuE ldIlu use pOl1Cy IS d Q1lIeTs ent thing. have just visited much of the work that the na- tioral government is doing to stop soil erosion, to have our forests, to prevent floods, to produce electric power for more general use and to give people chance to move from poor land on to better land by irrigating thousands Of acres that need only water to provide an opportunity to make Q good living.
 I saw bare and burned hillsides where only a few years ago great forests were growing. They are now being planted to young trees, not only to stop erosion, but to provide a lumber supply for the future.
 I saw eco boys and WPA workers building check-dams and small ponds and terraces to raise the water table and make 1t pos- Sible for farms and villages to re- main in safety where they now are. I saw the harnessing of the turbulent Missouri, muddy with the top soil of many states. And I saw barges on new channels carrying produce and freight athwart the nation.
 Illustrations of Results Let me give you two simple H. lustrations of why government projects of thls type have 8 na- tional importance for the whole country.
 In the Boise Valley in Idaho saw district which had been re- gently irrigated to enormous fer tility so that family can now make @ pretty good living from forty acres of its land. Many of the families who are making good in that valley today moved there from 8 thousand miles away. They came from the dust strip that runs through the middle of the nation all the way from the Canadian border to Mexico - a strip which includes large portions of ten states. That valley in vest ern Idaho, therefore, assumes at once a national importance as a second chance for willing farmers. And, year by year, we propose to add more valleys to take care of thousands of other families who need the same kind of second chance in new green pastures.
 The other illustration was at the Grand Coulee Dam in the State of Washington. The engineer in charge told me that almost half of the whole costs of that dam to date has been spent for materials that were manufactured east of the Mississippi, giving employment and wages to thousands of indus trial workers in the eastern third of the nation, 2,000 miles away.
 All of this work needs a more business-like system of planning and greater foresight than we use today. '''. \. ''
 That is why I recommend to the last session of the Congress the creation of seven planning re- gions, in which local people will originate and coordinate recom- mendations as to work of this kind to be done in their particular re- gions. The Congress will, of course, determine the projects to be selected within the budget limits.
 To carry out any twentieth cen- tury program we must give the executive branch of the govern ment twentieth century machinery to work with. I recognize that Democratic processes are neces- sarily and rightly slower than dic- tatorial processes. But I refuse to believe that Democratic pro- cesses need be dangerously slow.
 A Patchwork Government
 For many years we have all known that the executive and ad- ministrative departments are a higgledy- -piggledly patchwork of duplicate responsibilities and over- tapping powers. The reorganiza- ton of government machinery which I proposed to the Congress last winter does not conflict with the principle of the Democratic process, as some people say. It only makes that process work more efficiently.
 On my recent trip many people have talked to me about the Ynil- lions of men and women and chill dren who still work at insufficient ' wages and over long hours.
 American industry has searched the outside world to find new mar kets. But 1t can create on its very doorstep the biggest and most permanent market 1t has ever had. It needs the reduction of trade barriers to improve It's foreipn markets, but 1t should not over. look the chance to reduce the domestic trade barrier right here right away-without waiting for any treaty. A few more dollars a week In wages, a better distribu- ton Of jobs with shorter work Ing day Will almost overnight make millions of our lowest t-paid work CTS actual buyers of billions of dollars of industrial and farm products. That increased volume or sales ought to lesson other cost Of production so much that even 6 considerable increase in labor costs can be absorbed without i'm. posing higher prices on the con- surner.
 I am Q firm believer in fully adequate pay for all labor. But right now am most greatly con- cerned in increasing the pay of the lowest-paid labor--those who are our most numerous consuming group, but who today do not make enough to maintain e decent standard of living or to buy the food, clothes and other articles necessary to keep our factories and farms fully running.
 FarSighted business men already understand and agree with this policy. They agree also that no one section Of the country can saAa.sa d AsakISS ka,aARlk lA..tR At.