AUTHORITIES HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY " SEVENTY-FIFTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON S. 2555 A BILL TO PROVIDE FOR THE CREATION OF CON- JUNE 21 TO JULY 7, 1937 Printed for the use of the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry CREATION OF CONSERVATION AUTHORITIES MONDAY, JUNE 21, 1937 UNITED STATES SENATE, The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:30 a. m., in the committee room, 324 Senate Office Building, Senator James P. Pope presiding. Present: Senator Pope (presiding), Senator Schwellenbach, and Senator Norris. Senator POPE. The committee will be in order. We have before us this morning Senate bill 2555, introduced by Senator Norris. To begin with I think it might be appropriate to have the message of President Roosevelt placed in the record, relating to this problem. (The message of the President follows:) To the Congress of the United States: Nature has given recurrent and poignant warnings through dust storms, floods, and droughts that we must act while there is yet time if we would preserve for ourselves and our posterity the natural sources of a virile national life. Experience has taught us that the prudent husbandry of our national estate requires far-sighted management. Floods, droughts, and dust storms are in a very real sense manifestations of nature's refusal to tolerate continued abuse of her bounties. Prudent management demands not merely works which will guard against these calamities, but carefully formulated plans to prevent their occurrence. Such plans require coordination of many related activities. For instance, our recent experiences of floods have made clear that the problem must be approached as one involving more than great works on main streams at the places where major disasters threaten to occur. There must also be measures of prevention and control among tributaries and throughout the entire headwaters areas. A comprehensive plan of flood control must embrace not only downstream levees and floodways, and retarding dams and reservoirs on major tributaries, but also smaller dams and reservoirs on the lesser tributaries, and measures of applied conservation throughout an entire drainage area, such as restoration of forests and grasses on inferior lands, and encouragement of farm practices which diminish run-off and prevent erosion on arable lands. Taking care of our natural estate, together with the stopping of existing waste and building it back to a higher productivity, is a national problem. At last we have undertaken a national policy. But it is not wise to direct everything from Washington. National planning should start at the bottom, or, in other words, the problems of townships, counties, and States, should be coordinated through large geographical regions, and come to the Capital of the Nation for final coordination. Thus the Congress would receive a complete picture in which no local detail had been overlooked. It is also well to remember that improvements of our national heritage frequently confer special benefits upon regions immediately affected, and a large measure of cooperation from State and local agencies in the undertaking and financing of important projects may fairly be asked for. |