June 10, 1948
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Mayor, Governor Wallgren:
I have a distinguished lady to introduce at this time, the First Lady of the great State of Washington, Mrs. Wallgren.
I am very happy to be with you today. The trip west has been an education to me, and I hope it will be an education to the country before I get through.
I received a very sad message from Washington this morning. I was notified about 5 o'clock this morning that Secretary of Labor Lewis Schwellenbach had passed away last night. Senator Schwellenbach--I always called him Senator Schwellenbach--he introduced me here in this city the first time I was ever here. He and I served in the Senate. He was an able Senator, a just judge, and a very great Secretary of Labor. The country has lost a real public servant, and I have lost a close personal friend-and I am sorry.
Yesterday, I visited Grand Coulee Dam for the third time. The sight of that great project moved me deeply, as it has moved me in the past. For Grand Coulee has a significance far beyond the direct contribution it makes to the prosperity of the Pacific Northwest, vital as that is. To me, that magnificent structure stands for many things--it stands for many things for which I stand, and for which I have always voted in the Senate.
It stands for the wise use of the natural resources with which God has endowed us for the benefit of all the people.
It stands for the use of water for two purposes essential to the growth of the West--irrigation and power.
It stands for the industrial development of the West, which is so vital for the growth of this whole Nation.
It stands for the courage and determination of farsighted citizens, who kept up the fight for the construction of this dam until that fight was won.
It stands for the use of the powers of the Federal Government to promote the welfare of its citizens.
And, finally, it stands for the great heart and the great vision of one who did so much to make it possible--Franklin D. Roosevelt.
When I saw Grand Coulee Dam yesterday, it was pounded by the waters of the worst flood that has visited the Columbia River in 54 years. Mr. Banks, who is in charge out there, told me that a million acre-feet of water per 24 hours are going over that dam. That is almost incomprehensible. This flood has taken precious human lives. It has done tremendous damage to towns and farms. I cannot express too strongly the concern that this disaster has brought to me. But it is an experience from which we can learn a lesson--or rather get added proof for a lesson that many of us learned a long time ago.
The Federal Government must go forward vigorously with projects to control the waters of our rivers and direct them to useful purposes.
The waters of the Columbia River can be controlled. The shock of this tragedy should reinforce our determination to build the dams and other structures needed to bring about such control.
Nothing can ever completely repair the damage caused by this flood, or replace the lives that have been lost. But we can do something to see that it does not happen again.
We know what must be done to achieve this. We have already proved it in the Tennessee Valley. The Tennessee River used to flood every year or so. But that doesn't happen any more. The waters have been checked by dams. Now, they are used for electric power, and for navigation and recreation. Now, those waters that used to rush down to the sea in floods are held and put to work. Every year, in the Tennessee Valley, millions of dollars--and probably many human lives as well--are saved because the floods have been stopped. And they can be stopped on the Columbia, too.
What we have done in the Tennessee Valley, we can do elsewhere. We have already been moving in that direction in other great river basins--the Missouri, the Colorado, the Central Valley of California, and the Columbia. Our purpose is the same in all of them--to conserve the use of water, instead of wasting it. But to achieve that simple purpose, we must follow a unified development of all the resources of each valley. And that is no easy job, for a number of reasons. Let me use the Columbia River Basin as an example.
The Columbia and its tributaries comprise a mighty river system draining parts of seven States and Canada. It discharges the second largest flow of water of any river in the United States. To harness this vast flow, will take many dams and many years of effort.
Furthermore, the Columbia Basin is rich in other resources besides water. It has fertile lands, vast bodies of timber, valuable minerals, and a multimillion dollar fishing industry.
We cannot plan in terms of water alone. The water and the land must be considered together. They must be studied in relation to the fisheries and the forests. Hydroelectric power must be considered in relation to the processing of minerals. All natural resources must be related to the industrial development of this region.
There must be, in short, a great vision of what the resources of a region can achieve if they are wisely conserved and developed together. And we must have the faith and the courage to carry out that vision.
It will take the toughest kind of fight to put over these great projects for western development. For there are people in this country and in the Congress who will not support the development of western resources. A few of them, unfortunately, hold influential positions. They are opposed or indifferent to the development of these western regions for the benefit of the people here. They still seem to look on the West as some sort of wilderness in which the Nation should invest as little as possible.
I think the record is conclusive on this point. It was only 15 years ago that the tremendous waters of the great Columbia River rushed unused to the sea. At the same time, good farm lands in the Columbia Basin lay barren and dry. Industries which needed huge volumes of low-cost power stayed elsewhere. The same story was true throughout the West. In those days, too many of the West's raw products were shipped East to be processed; and the people here got neither the jobs nor the profits involved in their manufacture into finished goods.
Prior to 1933 the Reclamation Act had been on the books for 30 years. In all that time water for reclamation had been extended to less than 3 million acres throughout the West; and the hydroelectric power capacity installed on these projects was only 35,000 kilowatts. Compare that with the present situation. The Grand Coulee project alone will produce 92 million kilowatts of power, and water for nearly a million acres of land. And there are projects on a similar scale under way all through the West.
It is easy to accept conditions as they are today, and to forget the bitter struggles we went through to bring about this progress. But I am sure most of you can recall those days. When the Bonneville and Grand Coulee projects were before the Congress, they were bitterly opposed by the private power lobby. And that lobby is just as busy today as it was in that day. The lobby pointed out that there wasn't much industry in the Northwest. They claimed that these projects would turn out to be "white elephants'' because there would be no use for their power. And a lot of people believed them.
But the projects were put through, and the cries of the private power lobby were proved to be absurd. The low-cost power produced at Bonneville and Grand Coulee attracted new industries to the Northwest at a rapid rate. During the war this power proved of tremendous importance. I am sure that Bonneville and Grand Coulee speeded up the victory to such an extent that they more than paid for themselves in money and men during the war.
Since the war, the growth of the Northwest has continued. The demand for power, instead of decreasing with the decline of war production, has greatly increased. I wish those Congressmen--and there are a lot of them--who are still listening to the private power lobby, would look at these projects now. I wish they could have been with me yesterday. They are turning out every last kilowatt of power they can, and new generators are being installed as fast as they can be obtained--or as fast as Congress will let us obtain them.
Moreover, the rapid industrial development of the Pacific Northwest is going to require a great deal more power in the years ahead. Let's look at some of the facts about this industrial development. In less than a decade the power from the Bonneville and Grand Coulee projects has led to the establishment in the Northwest of electric-process industries turning out $140 million worth of products each year. And those unbelievers said it couldn't be done. Many other new industries have sprung up in the Northwest. The indirect effects of industrial growth here have been felt across the Nation in higher employment, higher income, and greater wealth.
For example, the new aluminum rolling mill at Spokane is selling its products to 600 plants throughout the Nation which employ 350,000 workers. This shows that industrial development here in the West does not detract from the prosperity of any other region. Instead, it adds to the prosperity of the whole Nation. The United States is still growing, and growing fast. The growth of the West means a better life for people here, and better markets and sources of supply for the rest of the country as well.
You might think that the private power interests and others who have fought against the development of the West would have learned by now that western growth means increased national prosperity. But they still haven't learned. Again the record is clear.
Last year, I asked the Congress, in my annual Budget Message for an appropriation of $146 million to carry forward the reclamation program for the development of water resources. There was a powerful move in the Congress to cut this back to less than $50 million. Even in the face of protests from all the Western States, the House of Representatives voted to cut my figure by more than half. And this year the Congress doesn't seem to be quite so interested in holding back the development of the West. But I have a suspicion that this might have something to do with the fact that this is 1948. I do not believe that the people of the West will go along with a system that appropriates enough money for western development only 1 year in 4. And even this year, the appropriation of adequate funds is in doubt.
Some of the people who oppose western development represent selfish interests who are more concerned with present profits than with future growth. They refuse to admit that funds spent for reclamation projects and powerplants and navigation locks and fish ladders are investments which pay huge dividends as the years go by to the people of the United States.
This administration is determined that it will continue to move ahead with a constructive, practical program against the delaying tactics of ignorance and selfishness. It will fight in the future with the same vigor as it has fought in the past.
The private power lobbyists are still fighting. Where they can't block the production of public power, they're trying to block its distribution at low cost. For example, down in California, Shasta Dam has been completed and has begun to turn out power. If that power is to be used for the people's benefit, it must be moved over the transmission lines to the areas where it's needed. But the Congress has blocked the building of the necessary transmission lines year after year. This has been at the expense of the public, and to the benefit of a private company. We can't stand for that. And if you people out here stand for it, it is your own loss. I am fighting for you. Now you do some fighting for yourselves. This is the same company which has so little faith in the future of the West that it failed this spring to be ready to furnish vitally-needed power. As a result, the whole of Northern California has to resort to a "brown-out." Those people are just like the Aluminum Company of America, where not so long ago old man Davis came down and told me that 300 million pounds of aluminum was all the country would ever use, and that was enough. You have got 3500 million capacity now, and we are short!
There is no reason why the public should be forced to suffer in this manner. Utility companies must not be allowed to block publicly-owned transmission lines which will bring public power to the people at low cost.
As more and more public power becomes available from the great dams all through the West, we can see the time when all the great systems will connect together. From the Colorado through the Central Valley up to the Columbia Basin, there should be a vast network of high voltage transmission lines. I suppose when that time comes we'll still have to battle with the men of little faith! I am sure of it. You had better wake up.
The fight over whether or not publicly produced power shall be used for the public benefit is only a part of the larger battle concerning the development of the basic resources of our great river valleys. One important lesson we have learned from the Tennessee Valley experience is that the resources of a watershed area must be developed jointly and in relation to each other, if they are to contribute everything possible to the development of the region. A second great lesson we have learned from the Tennessee Valley is that the local, State, and Federal Governments must work together in regional development, if that development is to be in fact for the benefit of the people.
I have urged time and time again that the experience of the TVA shows the way in which we should move in other great river basins.
We are only a small distance along the road we want to travel. Water that can be used for power, for irrigation, for navigation, is going to waste all over the country. Millions of acres of land that are now dry or swampy can be put to work in productive agriculture. Soil, water, and forest conservation is just beginning to be understood and put into practice on the scale needed.
In the Columbia River Basin, Bonneville and Grand Coulee mark a fine beginning. But we must have more dams in that mighty stream if it is to be effectively harnessed for useful purposes. I believe the present flood shows that we should try to make progress even faster than we had planned--not slower. Last year the Congress threw us backward when it cut the appropriations for this work. The cuts that are threatened this year will throw us back again if they are made. Such cuts as this are the worst kind of false economy. You know what they are doing with these appropriations now? They are tying them up in such a way that even if we get them, we can't use them to the best advantage and the best interests of the public.
All of us should take to heart the tragic events that have happened here in the Northwest in the last few weeks. If we don't conserve our resources wisely we shall pay a terrible price. We cannot afford that price, if we are to remain strong and to enjoy a better life in the years to come. Let us keep before us the goal of using all our natural resources fully, for the benefit of our children as well as for ourselves.
But we will have to battle every step of the way. There will still be men of little faith who are afraid to trust to the people the development of the resources of the Nation.
I believe we have the courage and the will and the vision to carry the program through in spite of these men. I believe the people here in the Northwest, and in every other part of the country, understand the issue clearly, and will choose the path of growth and progress.
We know what must be done and we know how it can be done.
But in order to get it done, you must make your voices so plainly heard in the Congress that there will be no mistaking your will and your faith in the future of this great Nation.
NOTE: The President spoke at 2:30 p.m. in the Memorial High School Stadium in Seattle. In his opening words he referred to William Devin, Mayor of Seattle, and Mon C. Wallgren, Governor of Washington. Later he referred to Frank A. Banks, District Manager of the Grand Coulee Dam. Dudley M. Brown served as President of the Washington State Press Club, and Emil G. Sick served as General Chairman.
The address was carried on a nationwide radio broadcast.
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Mayor, Governor Wallgren:
I have a distinguished lady to introduce at this time, the First Lady of the great State of Washington, Mrs. Wallgren.
I am very happy to be with you today. The trip west has been an education to me, and I hope it will be an education to the country before I get through.
I received a very sad message from Washington this morning. I was notified about 5 o'clock this morning that Secretary of Labor Lewis Schwellenbach had passed away last night. Senator Schwellenbach--I always called him Senator Schwellenbach--he introduced me here in this city the first time I was ever here. He and I served in the Senate. He was an able Senator, a just judge, and a very great Secretary of Labor. The country has lost a real public servant, and I have lost a close personal friend-and I am sorry.
Yesterday, I visited Grand Coulee Dam for the third time. The sight of that great project moved me deeply, as it has moved me in the past. For Grand Coulee has a significance far beyond the direct contribution it makes to the prosperity of the Pacific Northwest, vital as that is. To me, that magnificent structure stands for many things--it stands for many things for which I stand, and for which I have always voted in the Senate.
It stands for the wise use of the natural resources with which God has endowed us for the benefit of all the people.
It stands for the use of water for two purposes essential to the growth of the West--irrigation and power.
It stands for the industrial development of the West, which is so vital for the growth of this whole Nation.
It stands for the courage and determination of farsighted citizens, who kept up the fight for the construction of this dam until that fight was won.
It stands for the use of the powers of the Federal Government to promote the welfare of its citizens.
And, finally, it stands for the great heart and the great vision of one who did so much to make it possible--Franklin D. Roosevelt.
When I saw Grand Coulee Dam yesterday, it was pounded by the waters of the worst flood that has visited the Columbia River in 54 years. Mr. Banks, who is in charge out there, told me that a million acre-feet of water per 24 hours are going over that dam. That is almost incomprehensible. This flood has taken precious human lives. It has done tremendous damage to towns and farms. I cannot express too strongly the concern that this disaster has brought to me. But it is an experience from which we can learn a lesson--or rather get added proof for a lesson that many of us learned a long time ago.
The Federal Government must go forward vigorously with projects to control the waters of our rivers and direct them to useful purposes.
The waters of the Columbia River can be controlled. The shock of this tragedy should reinforce our determination to build the dams and other structures needed to bring about such control.
Nothing can ever completely repair the damage caused by this flood, or replace the lives that have been lost. But we can do something to see that it does not happen again.
We know what must be done to achieve this. We have already proved it in the Tennessee Valley. The Tennessee River used to flood every year or so. But that doesn't happen any more. The waters have been checked by dams. Now, they are used for electric power, and for navigation and recreation. Now, those waters that used to rush down to the sea in floods are held and put to work. Every year, in the Tennessee Valley, millions of dollars--and probably many human lives as well--are saved because the floods have been stopped. And they can be stopped on the Columbia, too.
What we have done in the Tennessee Valley, we can do elsewhere. We have already been moving in that direction in other great river basins--the Missouri, the Colorado, the Central Valley of California, and the Columbia. Our purpose is the same in all of them--to conserve the use of water, instead of wasting it. But to achieve that simple purpose, we must follow a unified development of all the resources of each valley. And that is no easy job, for a number of reasons. Let me use the Columbia River Basin as an example.
The Columbia and its tributaries comprise a mighty river system draining parts of seven States and Canada. It discharges the second largest flow of water of any river in the United States. To harness this vast flow, will take many dams and many years of effort.
Furthermore, the Columbia Basin is rich in other resources besides water. It has fertile lands, vast bodies of timber, valuable minerals, and a multimillion dollar fishing industry.
We cannot plan in terms of water alone. The water and the land must be considered together. They must be studied in relation to the fisheries and the forests. Hydroelectric power must be considered in relation to the processing of minerals. All natural resources must be related to the industrial development of this region.
There must be, in short, a great vision of what the resources of a region can achieve if they are wisely conserved and developed together. And we must have the faith and the courage to carry out that vision.
It will take the toughest kind of fight to put over these great projects for western development. For there are people in this country and in the Congress who will not support the development of western resources. A few of them, unfortunately, hold influential positions. They are opposed or indifferent to the development of these western regions for the benefit of the people here. They still seem to look on the West as some sort of wilderness in which the Nation should invest as little as possible.
I think the record is conclusive on this point. It was only 15 years ago that the tremendous waters of the great Columbia River rushed unused to the sea. At the same time, good farm lands in the Columbia Basin lay barren and dry. Industries which needed huge volumes of low-cost power stayed elsewhere. The same story was true throughout the West. In those days, too many of the West's raw products were shipped East to be processed; and the people here got neither the jobs nor the profits involved in their manufacture into finished goods.
Prior to 1933 the Reclamation Act had been on the books for 30 years. In all that time water for reclamation had been extended to less than 3 million acres throughout the West; and the hydroelectric power capacity installed on these projects was only 35,000 kilowatts. Compare that with the present situation. The Grand Coulee project alone will produce 92 million kilowatts of power, and water for nearly a million acres of land. And there are projects on a similar scale under way all through the West.
It is easy to accept conditions as they are today, and to forget the bitter struggles we went through to bring about this progress. But I am sure most of you can recall those days. When the Bonneville and Grand Coulee projects were before the Congress, they were bitterly opposed by the private power lobby. And that lobby is just as busy today as it was in that day. The lobby pointed out that there wasn't much industry in the Northwest. They claimed that these projects would turn out to be "white elephants'' because there would be no use for their power. And a lot of people believed them.
But the projects were put through, and the cries of the private power lobby were proved to be absurd. The low-cost power produced at Bonneville and Grand Coulee attracted new industries to the Northwest at a rapid rate. During the war this power proved of tremendous importance. I am sure that Bonneville and Grand Coulee speeded up the victory to such an extent that they more than paid for themselves in money and men during the war.
Since the war, the growth of the Northwest has continued. The demand for power, instead of decreasing with the decline of war production, has greatly increased. I wish those Congressmen--and there are a lot of them--who are still listening to the private power lobby, would look at these projects now. I wish they could have been with me yesterday. They are turning out every last kilowatt of power they can, and new generators are being installed as fast as they can be obtained--or as fast as Congress will let us obtain them.
Moreover, the rapid industrial development of the Pacific Northwest is going to require a great deal more power in the years ahead. Let's look at some of the facts about this industrial development. In less than a decade the power from the Bonneville and Grand Coulee projects has led to the establishment in the Northwest of electric-process industries turning out $140 million worth of products each year. And those unbelievers said it couldn't be done. Many other new industries have sprung up in the Northwest. The indirect effects of industrial growth here have been felt across the Nation in higher employment, higher income, and greater wealth.
For example, the new aluminum rolling mill at Spokane is selling its products to 600 plants throughout the Nation which employ 350,000 workers. This shows that industrial development here in the West does not detract from the prosperity of any other region. Instead, it adds to the prosperity of the whole Nation. The United States is still growing, and growing fast. The growth of the West means a better life for people here, and better markets and sources of supply for the rest of the country as well.
You might think that the private power interests and others who have fought against the development of the West would have learned by now that western growth means increased national prosperity. But they still haven't learned. Again the record is clear.
Last year, I asked the Congress, in my annual Budget Message for an appropriation of $146 million to carry forward the reclamation program for the development of water resources. There was a powerful move in the Congress to cut this back to less than $50 million. Even in the face of protests from all the Western States, the House of Representatives voted to cut my figure by more than half. And this year the Congress doesn't seem to be quite so interested in holding back the development of the West. But I have a suspicion that this might have something to do with the fact that this is 1948. I do not believe that the people of the West will go along with a system that appropriates enough money for western development only 1 year in 4. And even this year, the appropriation of adequate funds is in doubt.
Some of the people who oppose western development represent selfish interests who are more concerned with present profits than with future growth. They refuse to admit that funds spent for reclamation projects and powerplants and navigation locks and fish ladders are investments which pay huge dividends as the years go by to the people of the United States.
This administration is determined that it will continue to move ahead with a constructive, practical program against the delaying tactics of ignorance and selfishness. It will fight in the future with the same vigor as it has fought in the past.
The private power lobbyists are still fighting. Where they can't block the production of public power, they're trying to block its distribution at low cost. For example, down in California, Shasta Dam has been completed and has begun to turn out power. If that power is to be used for the people's benefit, it must be moved over the transmission lines to the areas where it's needed. But the Congress has blocked the building of the necessary transmission lines year after year. This has been at the expense of the public, and to the benefit of a private company. We can't stand for that. And if you people out here stand for it, it is your own loss. I am fighting for you. Now you do some fighting for yourselves. This is the same company which has so little faith in the future of the West that it failed this spring to be ready to furnish vitally-needed power. As a result, the whole of Northern California has to resort to a "brown-out." Those people are just like the Aluminum Company of America, where not so long ago old man Davis came down and told me that 300 million pounds of aluminum was all the country would ever use, and that was enough. You have got 3500 million capacity now, and we are short!
There is no reason why the public should be forced to suffer in this manner. Utility companies must not be allowed to block publicly-owned transmission lines which will bring public power to the people at low cost.
As more and more public power becomes available from the great dams all through the West, we can see the time when all the great systems will connect together. From the Colorado through the Central Valley up to the Columbia Basin, there should be a vast network of high voltage transmission lines. I suppose when that time comes we'll still have to battle with the men of little faith! I am sure of it. You had better wake up.
The fight over whether or not publicly produced power shall be used for the public benefit is only a part of the larger battle concerning the development of the basic resources of our great river valleys. One important lesson we have learned from the Tennessee Valley experience is that the resources of a watershed area must be developed jointly and in relation to each other, if they are to contribute everything possible to the development of the region. A second great lesson we have learned from the Tennessee Valley is that the local, State, and Federal Governments must work together in regional development, if that development is to be in fact for the benefit of the people.
I have urged time and time again that the experience of the TVA shows the way in which we should move in other great river basins.
We are only a small distance along the road we want to travel. Water that can be used for power, for irrigation, for navigation, is going to waste all over the country. Millions of acres of land that are now dry or swampy can be put to work in productive agriculture. Soil, water, and forest conservation is just beginning to be understood and put into practice on the scale needed.
In the Columbia River Basin, Bonneville and Grand Coulee mark a fine beginning. But we must have more dams in that mighty stream if it is to be effectively harnessed for useful purposes. I believe the present flood shows that we should try to make progress even faster than we had planned--not slower. Last year the Congress threw us backward when it cut the appropriations for this work. The cuts that are threatened this year will throw us back again if they are made. Such cuts as this are the worst kind of false economy. You know what they are doing with these appropriations now? They are tying them up in such a way that even if we get them, we can't use them to the best advantage and the best interests of the public.
All of us should take to heart the tragic events that have happened here in the Northwest in the last few weeks. If we don't conserve our resources wisely we shall pay a terrible price. We cannot afford that price, if we are to remain strong and to enjoy a better life in the years to come. Let us keep before us the goal of using all our natural resources fully, for the benefit of our children as well as for ourselves.
But we will have to battle every step of the way. There will still be men of little faith who are afraid to trust to the people the development of the resources of the Nation.
I believe we have the courage and the will and the vision to carry the program through in spite of these men. I believe the people here in the Northwest, and in every other part of the country, understand the issue clearly, and will choose the path of growth and progress.
We know what must be done and we know how it can be done.
But in order to get it done, you must make your voices so plainly heard in the Congress that there will be no mistaking your will and your faith in the future of this great Nation.
NOTE: The President spoke at 2:30 p.m. in the Memorial High School Stadium in Seattle. In his opening words he referred to William Devin, Mayor of Seattle, and Mon C. Wallgren, Governor of Washington. Later he referred to Frank A. Banks, District Manager of the Grand Coulee Dam. Dudley M. Brown served as President of the Washington State Press Club, and Emil G. Sick served as General Chairman.
The address was carried on a nationwide radio broadcast.