The people's voice., 1950-03-10
Essentials of Valley Development Plan
Continued from page one)

Continued from page one)
region it covers and as complicated the combined
patterns of wealth extraction from all available re
sources The history of invention is that two chances
for improvement grow out of every process, or ma
chine, that is perfected Multi-purpose development
will naturally follow similar law and time for its
completion cannot be to marked day on calendar
For instance, great plan Tor increased forestry may
still be an expanding operation rs 100 years hence
The applies to control of soil erosions increases
in land productivity.
AS l see it, the comparatively conception of
valley development should consist in the many sided
process of extracting maximum usefulness from the
many resources the valley possesses This should be
done, needed, a long tne without waste, and
in the interest of all the people and for genera
tions to This can be done only pursuant to a
balanced general plan and the whole program must
have focus of centralized guidance and control 1t
calls for the of every chronological and scientific
skill we muster; many new and better methods will
have to be worked out time goes
For five years l have contributed what l could
toward securing complete and efficient development
of two of great river valleys-the Columbia and
the Missouri My home county lies partially in each.
By tenmile trip to the top of the mountain ridge,
that lies back of my home, can look down both val
eys. What now there is not altogether pleasing.
Under authorizations made by Congress some projects
being constructed by the Corps of Engineers and
others by the Bureau of Reclamation, in each valley
In Columbia Valley where the water supply ap
pears to be than ample believe work far per-
formed is all to the good. However the authorized
projects constitute only engineering skeleton upon
which to hang real development PLAN They do not
constitute such plan Presently authorized projects
provide for utilization but do nothing about the
land In nature there is unity between land and
water This should be preserved in all development
work 1t will be fruitless to construct great
vors for flood CONTROL power and irrigation purposes
and then take steps to prevent these reservoirs
from filling with silt. Nor, is there any point in
bringing land under irrigation while permitting
valuable top soil, from thousands of improved
to wash off and down the stream in each spring flood
Somewhat like Central Valley in California, Mis-
souri, Valley development is in More than
half of the valley lies in the semi-arid Great Plains
and water supply in the river and its tributaries
is not sufficient for all the development work that
needs doing. The Congressional authorization is for
a 9foot deep flowing navigation channel, along ITO
miles of the lower river plus about five million
of irrigation betterment in the upper reaches of the
valley. There is insufficient water supply to ade
quately both. Nobody knows whether the irri-
gationsts the navigatonists will get the major
part of such water is available
AS result of the conflicting and i'll advised plan
which Congress has authorized Missouri Valley is not
going to get than third of the co-ordnated
and efficient development to which is entitled There
can be-if and when, it will pay-a type of naviga-
ton channel that will require only fractional part
Of the water needed for the presently authorized navi
cation project. incidentally have evidence
whatever, that any type of navigation will pay at the
present level of valley development, at any level
present plans promise to brng.)
By rearrangement permitting consumptive use
If millions of acre-feet of annual flow, to be
DOWN Cne lower cnanHel, ana Via MISSISSIPPI,
the Gulf of Mexico least three possibly five
million of additional fertile land be irrigated
Power production can be doubled perhaps trebed A
lire threat of decreasing water supply and failing
wells be aevated OF greater long range import
,nce to Missouri Valley and the Nation, vast and
orely needed program of erosion stoppage, soil
ervaton revegetation and better land be add
ID in. One such program, carefully prepared by the
is. Department of Agriculture, has been rejected
because it will take too much of the water supply.
After all, we must face the fact that wind and
ater erosons and increasing depletion of soil fer
ility is the number problem in America today
necessary, we may be able to win another war; but
cannot win a sufficient and permanent food supply
or the future by continuing to defy nature and the
that brought it about. half dozen books
tudous and we'll reasoned as well reports of our
oil Conservation Service bringing startling
Id il-bodng facts to national attention.