The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-02-23
Many Ways to Spend

For long time the uppermost thought of the New Deal was to release flow or money throughout the nation to stlrnu- late buying. to restore confidence, and to put business back on normal basis We never were told just what that normal basis was, but we all believed that 1t must be a compromise with the so-called stand ards of the Coolidge boom days. Only recently has President Franklin D. Roose- welt indicated at what year in modern times were living conditions rated as an index. He spoke some few days ago about restoring price levels of 1926.
 There are more things though, to be restored in this nation than price levels There are our natural resources to be restored and then protected from such invasions as they have suffered Ill the past half century. If the federal govern 1nent would apply itself to the task Of rebuilding the real substance of this country it would find enough work for all our idle men and women. A gigantic program of improvement and restoration could very easily be drawn up which might be 25 years in the making, but which would surely turn our thoughts from war and internal disorders.
 It could be started prosaically, as the President is trying to do, with tremend- ouS house-building drive. The country lacks millions of home units in every section. To make construction possible millions of home-SiteS must be available. To make millions of home-SiteS available thousands of miles of new roads and new streets must be laid out and built Then osxx ;xoo,@ low = lights, sidewalks hard-Surfaced thoroughfares, storm-water drains, and lastly, modern sanitation. This is problem that is nationwide.
 Stream pollution could we'll be tied up with such a widespread program, for 1t is yitally linked with home-building. If every community has it's proper sewage disposal facilities which are so modern ized that they do not include pollution of natural water-courseS then colossal undertaking has been accomplished. Only through federal intervention and aid can the task of ending stream pollu- tiSN be made universal in the United States. Such drive would be productive of much work on all sides.
 Uncle Sam's contemplation of huge system of cross-country Super-highways should become reality. It would mean not merely few gigantic roadWays, but the necessary feeders at every point. It would open up new regions for settlement and for recreation It would invade terri tory hitherto considered inaccessible. It would at the same time result in some damage, which in the replacing would provide still more work and planning. For every inch of damage two inches of repair would be made.
 And there we come to restoration of natural resources. Wehaye cut down our forests. We would continue to rebuild them. We have dried up our rivers and ponds We would seek conditions that would render possible a return to original form. SenselesS reclamation of marsh and swamp areas would be curtailed. We would put back into the land what we have taken so ruthlessly and without foresight for so many years. The idea is not Utopian; it is utilitarian. It involves not millions, but billions. It is not five-year plan, but quarter or half century one. It would center an entire nations attention on it's own backyard problems and make it forget about such things as world war, internal discord, un- employment, and the like.