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Show informational assistance within each region is essential. The small-business man, farmer, and craftsman are rarely able to employ the research technicians and engineers whose skills are needed for profitable development of the latent oppor- tunities provided by the raw materials, and by the local and interregional need for useful commodi- ties and services. For many years this fact has been recognized in Federal and State public policy with respect to the farmer. He has had placed at his disposal the fruits of agricultural production research in- tended to increase and improve his farm output. (Unfortunately, until recent years, he has not been equally serviced with scientific knowledge concerning proper land and resource use so that his increased output has in the past often been purchased at the expense of his and the Nation's basic soil and timber capital.) But the small industrialist or craftsman-entrepreneur has been without comparable public assistance. He must moreover try to operate in an industrial environ- ment increasingly determined by conditions of imperfect competition. Government is the chief, though not the only instrument available to breach those monopoly controls. The Federal Government in coopera- tion with State and local institutions has an ob- ligation to help uncover new opportunities for resource utilization. It can at the same time point the new developments in constructive di- rections which increase or conserve with least waste the regional resources base of water, land, and minerals. Efforts by Private Corporations At the conferences held by the Commission in various parts of the country, representatives of private corporations reported what they had done along similar lines in the field of resources development. The Georgia Power Co., for ex- ample, reported on its efforts to promote the proper use by small industries of native re- sources, both human and physical. Its agri- gricultural division has been active in promoting the planting of lespedeza, clovers, and grasses for hay and cover crops, pastures and forage to help hold the soil and permit the change from cotton and tobacco to livestock farming. On its own reservoir lands, it also maintains an experimental soil improvement project where badly eroded land has been terraced, fertilized, and planted with cover crops. The Arkansas Power and Light Go. offered evi- dence of similar activities in the field of regional development. Another example was cited at the Commis- sion's Atlanta conference by a representative of the southern pulp and paper industry. The firms in the industry established the National Council for Stream Improvement of the Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Industries, Inc., for research on waste abatement and utilization problems. The industry also supports a number of cooperative organizations whose functions are to conserve available forest resources by improved forest fire protection systems, the adoption of improved cutting and logging practices, and better silvi- cultural methods. Need for Federal Participation If we could weld together within each region public and private efforts for the full and proper use of our resources, we would be applying within our borders the basically sound idea implicit in the "Point Four" program abroad. That rests upon the historical truth that as extractive econ- omies are modified by a suitable and efficient industrial development, consumption levels are raised in particular regions. This in turn, by multiplying purchasing power and increasin; trade, enriches the whole world community This conception deserves similar, careful appli- cation within our own national borders. Because many of the important possibilities of stabilizing or further developing the opportunities for optimum use of water, mineral, and land re- sources transcend the boundaries and the legal jurisdiction of the States, it is inevitable that there be Federal participation with the people of the States and localities, and their governments. Interstate compacts should lessen the degree of 22 |
