The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1939-1949, 1945-04-26
COLUMBIA Valley Authority 10
Aid DEVELOPMENT Of Entire Area
By HUGH MITCHELL,

By HUGH MITCHELL.
U. S. Senator from Washington
(This is the third in a series
of articles in which Senator
Hugh Mitchell explains why the
situation in the Pacific North
west requires an overall CO.
ordinating organization, and
what sort of eva is proposed
in the bill he recently intro
duced into Congress0
Up to this point in the series
we have discussed the matter OF
Valley Authority in a general
way, indicating what such an
Authority is and how it meets
the present urgent need for an
integrated development program.
It is time now to get down to
particular cases, to the Columbia
Valley Authority, and what the
aims of an organization should be
in the development of the Colum-
bia Basin.
Every great river basin in the
United States has its own char
acter and its particular problems.
The Tennessee River valley is one
in which great floods used yearly
to do incalculable damage, and in
which the land was used up and
the forests depleted. The problem
the IVA faced there was rebuild
ing devastated area. Here in the
Pacific Northwest we are still
blessed with an unspoiled and
rich country. An Authority in this
region would have the duties Of
preventing reckless exploitation
Of our resources; of opening up,
to economic uses, land, minerals,
and other resources which are still
dormant; and Of helping the
growth Of the industries which
would result from the develop
ment of farm, forest, and mineral
resources, and which are needed
to balance our agricultural econo-
my.
This, then, is what eva is to
do: to reclaim land that is poten-
tally fertile more than two and
a half million acres Of it; to open
up the river system to navigation
so that the great Inland Empire
will have cheap and easy access
to the sea; to make the plentiful
and cheap hydroelectric power
latent in the river available to
the most remote farm and hamlet
so that productiveness will be
heightened and life made more
liveable; to explore the great
mineral resources still under
ground and plan for their develop
ment; to study the industrial pos
sibilities of the region and to
make the growth Of feasible in
dustries reality; to see that the
fish and wild-life Of the region
thrive so as to support industry
and sport; to make sure that the
recreational and tourist facilities
are developed as much as pos
sible; to regulate the flow Of
water, through storage and other
controls, and determine the pri-
critics in its use in accordance
with the best interests Of the re-
gion as whole.
FROM WAR TO PEACE
These are the great, the gen.
eral, and the long-range aims to
be achieved by a eva. But more
particularly, at this time, such
an Authority must assume the
burden of cushioning the transit
ton from war to peace. The crux
of the matter, for us in the Paci-
fic Northwest, lies in the increase
in population which has occurred
in our defense industry centers.
In these centers are thousands of
people who have jobs which will
cease to exist when peace comes.
About half million workers and
returning service men will shift
their employment and look
for other jobs. The urgency of
the employment problem, once the
war is ended, is clear. There is
no central organization in the re-
gion, no one agency responsible
for attacking this problem, plan
ming to meet it, budgeting for it
-