The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-05-26

other sections of the country and might go far towards overcoming the hardships of postwar unem- ployment, population shifts, public works planning and the reconver- sion of industry to civilian goods production.
 This West Coast federal-state CO., operation movement stems from two different things.
 First, the somewhat loose work ing arrangement which the three Pacific state governors have had with federal war agencies during the past four years. This was car rled on through the Office of Civil ian Defense set-up. While the war effort is still going full blast on the West Coast, OCD has become a bit of casualty here as elsewhere and that emphasizes the need for a working council of federal and state officials to meet postwar problems. INTERSTATE COOPERATION VOTED
 Second build-up for this idea comes through the recent confer ence Of eleven western state gover- nors in Carson City, Nev. They passed resolution there calling for interstate cooperation to avoid unemployment of returning service men and women.
 California offers an excellent ex- ample of the opportunity for this kind Of federal-state joint action on regional basis. The Golden State has its Reconversion and Re-em- ployment Commission which has made a number of good reports to the State Legislature, But neither this state nor any other state has complete postwar program.
 This is equally true of the fed eral agencies. In fact, their situa- tlon seems to be even worse. Agri- cultures Forestry Service, Interiors S Bureau of Reclamation, Armys Corps of Engineers, the Housing Ad- ministration, War Manpower Com mission and other federal depart ments which will have continuing jobs to do when the war is over, just aren't pulling together as ef- fectlVely as they did on the war ef- fort.
 They may have their headquart- CTS in Washington, but when their branch offices filter out in the big western states, they sometimes know less of what the others are doing than do their bosses in Wash lngton. Congress doesn't seem. to have Well-focussed picture of what goes on, either.
 ENGINEERS VS
 RECLAMATION BUREAU
 Classic example is the cross-pur- pose working and planning of the Army Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation. In the big western Seml-arld areas, where water re- sources make sense even to an east erner, first interests of the Army engineers are navigation and flood control. Reclamation, however, has the added interests of electric power development and irrigation.
 Congress having given both agen- cles authority and money to oper- ate in their resective fields, an al- most hopeless muddle has been cre- ated in which opposing factions within the state are walloWing.
 There is further riling because the state governments themselves have no clear-cut water policies. Cali fornia's Legislature now has before 1t a couple of bills to create State Water Authorities which could gradually acquire federal invest ments in water resources. But the battle over any such clarifcation of the issue is splattered by proponents Of private vs public electric power. These people never do seem able to get together.
 Issues of this kind have their counterparts in other areas of the country and they all point up the need for more national and local. cooperation if there is to be any domestic order brought to this bright new world after the fall of Japan.