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Show time, the farmer's economic position was unfa- vorable. His production was unrestricted, but the markets in which he bought and sold were more and more tightly controlled. These fac- tors combined to encourage misuse of the soil to the point where erosion became one of the Nation's most serious problems. In the same period the rise of the railroads, affording areas without water transportation ac- cess to river, lake, and ocean ports, ushered in a new transportation era. The growing inter- dependence of the entire country, characteristic of the modern commercial and industrial era, led to a tremendous increase in the demand for economical transportation. As far as waterways were concerned, the traditional shallow draft river and canal became obsolete. A modern system of deep waterways became necessary to transport bulk commodities long distances at the lowest possible costs. The need for waterway improvement became urgent. Similarly, the tendency of commercial and industrial centers to push their structures, and the location of railroad tracks which join them, down into the natural flood plains of rivers, tended to create a major problem of protection every time a river, swelled by melting snow or torrential rains, overflowed its banks. The need for flood control appeared critical. Meanwhile, the expanding cities and industrial plants began to overload the streams with their wastes, thus causing pollution which gradually rendered them unfit for beast, bird, fish, or man. Water treatment and pollution control became imperative. Electric power gave the final impetus to the transition to our modern industrial economy. Each tumbling rapids or waterfall on a stream, whether large or small, became a source of the great energy of modern times, electricity. In the early years non-Federal interests developed the most economical water power sites, constructing projects designed for the single purpose of produc- ing and selling hydroelectric power. But a rising recognition of the many purposes which dams and reservoirs could serve and the approach of the time when huge water power potentials could be tapped only through Federal multiple- purpose basin undertakings led to the develop- ment of Federal power policy as an integral part of water resources policy. Healthy Regionalism These changes paralleled the ending of the free land, pioneer stage which opened up the conti- nent. With its ending, a new regionalism began to develop as an economic revolt against the cen- tralization of industrial and commercial wealth in older Northern States. It was directed at the tendency to restrict the new regions to a semi- colonial, low per capita income, raw material- producing status. The revolt struck at all the in- stitutional arrangements which tended to perpet- uate this centralization. Particularly it found in the river basin programs a means of develop- ing better balanced rural-industrial economies, which would increase opportunity, hold popula- tion, and raise general income levels. This new regionalism had other important ob- jectives besides the mere correcting of economic maladjustments. Each region had its peculiar climate-products of its geography, its pioneer traditions, observances, customs, and spiritual tradition, and its indigenous economic activities. The people of these regions became increasingly conscious of their regional cultures as the pressure of economic centralization began, through a score of ingenious devices, to impose the cultural pat- tern of the metropolis, tending to obliterate re- gional identities. They saw a broad regional economic development which would restore a proper balance of regional opportunity and sus- tain the regional identity as their only hope of preserving rich regional values. Evolution of Water Resources Policy The rise of water resources policy to meet ever- changing conditions provides one of the great ex- amples of the effectiveness of a democratic society in meeting the widely varying needs of its people. So, in attempting a restatement of national water resources policy, this Commission feels that |