Address in Casper, Wyoming.

Governor Crane, Senator O'Mahoney, Mr. Chairman, distinguished guests, and ladies and gentlemen:

It is a very great pleasure to be in Wyoming again. I was in Wyoming in 1948, but I didn't get as far as Casper. But I am starting out in Casper this time, so I wouldn't miss it.

Seeing this western country and talking to the people out here always reaffirms my faith in the vigor of this Nation and the glowing promise of its future.

This is my first visit to the West since 1948. And I am making these stops and this visit to report to you as President of the United States, and to let you know that I am just as interested in what you are thinking and what you are doing as I was when I was out here trying to get your votes.

As you know, we have settled a number of issues since 1948. And we've settled them in the old-fashioned, American, democratic way. One of those issues is of particular importance here in the West. It concerns the policy this Nation is going to follow in developing the great wealth of natural resources.

In this country, there have always been two philosophies about the use of natural resources. One philosophy is that our resources should be exploited by a privileged few for their own welfare and benefit. This first philosophy holds that if we preserve or develop natural resources for the benefit of all the people, that is "socialism," or some other kind of "ism."

The second philosophy holds that our natural resources are the cornerstone of a strong, free democracy. As such, they must be used to advance the well-being and the prosperity of all the people. This philosophy holds that it is necessary for democratic government to make sure that our land and water, our forests and our minerals, are used wisely, and not exploited for the benefit of just a few.

You know which of these philosophies I believe in. It is the same one that the great majority of the American people believe in.

I am happy to be able to say that since I was out here in 1948, we have been making progress in strengthening the policy of using our resources for the benefit of all the people. This Congress has been moving forward--not backward.

I am particularly happy to have that to say to you here in Casper, Wyo. today.

Wyoming is a state with tremendous natural resources. Here in Wyoming, the great plains of the West, with their abundant agricultural possibilities, rise to meet the high plateaus and mountains, rich in minerals and water power.

Not so long ago this part of the country was considered "way out west." That phrase meant something more than physical distance. It expressed the attitude of too many people in important places in the East toward the real needs of this great region.

This country "way out west" was a source of low-priced raw materials for the East. It was an area where eastern money could be invested for quick, spectacular profits. The real needs of this western country were not understood or appreciated. Because it was "way out west," too many people, both in and out of Government, just didn't care about the future of this part of the country.

You know where that spendthrift, careless philosophy led us. Much of the best rangeland was badly damaged--some almost beyond recovery. Precious topsoils were washed down the rivers. The cream was skimmed off the mineral deposits. The primary emphasis was on quick exploitation of resources. The whole idea was to make money quickly and then move on.

I am sure that you businessmen, farmers, and ranchers remember the tragic results of this philosophy. You are still fighting to recover from the loss and the waste of that era. But now the American people are with you. They have renounced the narrow, selfish view of the exploitation of natural resources.

For 17 years, with one brief setback--and I told you about that setback in 1948--you had a Government that recognizes its responsibility for helping to preserve and develop natural resources. This is a government that works with you, not against you.

The contrast between the enlightened, democratic approach to the use of our natural resources, and the selfish, antidemocratic approach, is plain here in Wyoming. About 50 miles north of Casper lies Teapot Dome. About 50 miles southwest is the new Kortes Dam.

I met Mr. Kortes this morning for the first time. I met his son. That is a remarkable family, a most remarkable family. They have made a great contribution to this great State of Wyoming, and it is an example which a great many of us could follow to our advantage.

The name Teapot Dome stands as an everlasting symbol of the greed and privilege that underlay one philosophy about the West. It is not only a reminder that there were selfish or misguided individuals seeking special privileges. There are always such individuals. They are in every generation. It is also a reminder of what can happen in your own front yard when you have the wrong kind of government in Washington.

Kortes Dam is a product of a different philosophy about resources, and a different kind of government. High up in a mountain canyon on the North Platte River, this dam is a new source of wealth and strength for the people of the West. This is an example of the right way to use natural resources--for the benefit of all the people.

When the Kortes power plant goes into operation this year, its three turbines will add 36,000 kilowatts of electricity to our national store of energy. It will be tied into a network of transmission lines, and teamed up with the plant at Seminoe Dam 2 miles upstream and with other plants downstream. This development will bring light and power to thousands of homes, farms, and industries in Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska.

Furthermore, Kortes Dam is a part of the reclamation work of the Federal Government. This dam is built as part of a project which will bring more water to irrigated lands. The income from the power produced at Kortes will help repay the investment in the irrigation work.

The completion of Kortes Dam is thus a step toward developing natural resources for the welfare of the people. But this dam has another significance. It is based on a recognition of the fact that water and land and forests must be treated together. We can make proper use of our resources only if we base our plans upon that fact.

Like many of you here today, I was born and raised in the Missouri Valley--a little farther down in the Missouri Valley, but still in the Missouri Valley. Like you, I have seen at first hand the terrible effects of looking at resources separately. When too much sod on the plains was broken to plant crops, when the rangeland was overgrazed, the result was not only a loss of grassland and soil cover. The result was floods, and dust storms, and a heritage of waste that has had to be slowly and painfully overcome.

Today we know that soil and forest conservation, flood control and the development of power, navigation, and irrigation, must all be tackled and solved together. We have learned that a great river valley cannot be developed in piecemeal fashion. It is not possible to separate the land from the water. It is foolish to prepare for floods downstream but to pay no attention to soil cover and small creeks upstream.

It has taken years for us to organize our efforts in line with this concept of the interrelationship of all resources. We have met great opposition from selfish or shortsighted people--although I am glad to say that many have gradually been converted to the fight viewpoint as the soundness of what we are trying to do has been demonstrated. We still have further to go. But the progress we have made in the last 17 years is tremendous.

Here in the Missouri Valley, which covers one-sixth of the whole country, work is going forward to develop the land, water, and forests. We have embarked on these enterprises in the best democratic tradition. Our success has been possible because of private initiative, coupled with cooperative work by the Federal, State and local governments.

You can see the results of this all about you. The city of Casper lies in the midst of an area containing about a half a million acres of irrigated land. Private enterprise and local, State, and Federal governments are all playing a part in making irrigation farming more secure and more productive. Not the least part of the success of irrigation farming is due to the national investment in irrigation and the power facilities by the Federal Government.

There are a lot of people who oppose that. There are a lot of people who hate like everything to see those developments made, and I want to say to you that if we hadn't made some of these great developments in the Tennessee Valley, and the Columbia Valley, and other places in this great Nation, we would have had a hard time winning the war. Those power developments helped us to win the war more quickly.

That investment is good for the farmer, and it means a more stable economy for the people in town. For the Nation as a whole, the investment in sound reclamation work is a 'part of our broad effort to create a growing economy.

Here in the western part of the Missouri Valley, we have also been working to conserve and improve range lands. For the long-run success of livestock ranchers, a well-grassed and a well-watered range is absolutely essential.

Before 1934 almost nothing had been done to create that kind of range. Since then, much has been done on both private and public lands. We have found better grasses to provide improved cover and more profitable grazing. We have learned to build small ponds and reservoirs, as a defense against drought.

Right here in Natrona County, within the past 10 years, 2,000 stock water ponds have been built. With more watering places, cattle and sheep can spread out over the range instead of overgrazing some parts and letting the good grass go to waste in other parts.

In ancient times the Mesopotamian valley, one of the richest in the history of the world, was ruined by overgrazing. It was also ruined by useless washings and things of that sort, but overgrazing contributed to the ruination of that wonderful valley.

This range improvement work means a more productive and secure livestock industry. It is important also in another way. Poor management of rangelands contributes to floods and allows silt to go down the rivers to fill up the power and irrigation reservoirs. Good management of rangelands prevents erosion, helps to hold back floods, and protects our investment in reservoirs.

These upper States in the Mississippi Valley have made a great contribution to the land holdings of the States at the mouth of the Mississippi Valley. We actually ought to lay claim to the southern counties on the Mississippi because all the soil came from up here.

We should be proud of the work we have been doing--on the rangelands, in irrigation, in power development, and all the other parts of our resource work. Green fields, blue reservoirs, clear streams, and the shining new transmission lines tell the advance we have made.

In the development and use of our resources, however, some of the most challenging tasks still lie ahead. There are a lot of things to do.

We need to put more of our land under good conservation practices. We need to build more ponds and reservoirs on the ranges, and dikes to spread water more evenly over the land. Millions of acres need reseeding. We are far from a balanced range program. Through the agricultural conservation program, we are making a national investment on private rangelands which is considerably larger per acre than the amount the Government is spending on public rangelands. Incidentally, the amount we are spending on public rangelands is less than one cent per acre per year.

Another field in which greater effort is needed is the control of insect pests. Here in Wyoming, I am told, there is a serious plague of grasshoppers. I can remember it now, as a little boy, my mother telling me about the grasshoppers in Missouri when they ate up everything, even the pitchfork handles. The Federal Government should bear its full share of the cost of overcoming this plague through the excellent Federal-State cooperative program that has been worked out.

In the forests we need to build more roads, so that we can reach the timber and use it.

Along the rivers, we need more sound irrigation projects. In addition, we need other works to control and use the waters of the rivers--from the small creeks and tributaries in the mountains all the way down to the mouths of the main streams.

Minerals must be conserved, too, in the sense that we must take out of the ground all that can economically be extracted, and must increase our exploration for new sources.

Furthermore, we need to go ahead rapidly to conserve our limited water supplies. Out here in the West, water has always been relatively scarce. And as more and more water is put to beneficial use, it is becoming more and more necessary to conserve every drop. Even in the East, it is becoming obvious that more needs to be done to assure an adequate supply of good water.

The water problem is not only serious for farmers and for cities and towns. In many parts of the country it is also a serious problem for industries. For example, down south of here in Colorado there are huge reserves of oil shale. In the years to come, we may well need to obtain oil from that shale. It will take a lot of water to do that, however, and there is a real question whether there is enough water for that purpose.

This whole problem of limited water supplies and growing water uses, is the reason I appointed a Water Resources Policy Commission earlier this year. I asked some of the best experts I could find to serve on that Commission, including several from the Western States. They are making a thorough study of the facts, and should give us some sound recommendations for our future progress.

Now it is a pitiful thing, that three-quarters of the earth's surface is covered with water, and yet some of the finest land in the world cannot be productive because there is no water to go on it to make things grow. There are places in this United States that have thousands of square miles of the richest land in the world, yet it can't be used. Now, this water survey commission of mine is going to try to work out a plan. You see, New York is short of water, believe it or not. Eastern Texas is short of water, Beaumont, Tex., is short of water, Los Angeles is short of water. There are lots of places short of water, as well as in the reclamation districts, so it is a national problem, which we are going to try to solve. I don't know whether we can do it or not, but we can't be charged with neglect if we try.

As we move forward in our use of resources, we must improve the organization of the Federal Government so that its part of the development job can be done better and with more effective participation by State and local governments.

There are still reactionary forces that oppose every forward-looking proposal to develop the resources and increase the prosperity of the West. That philosophy produced Teapot Dome, and that philosophy is not dead yet, by any means.

But these reactionary forces are fighting a losing battle. We have been overcoming their opposition for 17 years. And we are going right on beating them--and I mean that.

Those who are opposing us now are the same ones who said the soil conservation program would regiment the American farmer. A few years back, they asserted that it was socialism for the Government to lend money to farmers to build rural electric lines. They claimed it was a boondoggle to plant shelter belts of trees on the plains.

Now, they're for those things. They admit that these programs have been good for the country. All they want to do now is to prevent any further progress! They are not going to get away with it!

But their past record is clear and plain. And their new arguments are no better than their old ones were.

The American people will continue to go right ahead, taking the practical, sensible steps that are needed to build a better future. We are a strong, free people. We know that to continue free and strong, we must wisely develop and use the resources with which nature has endowed us.

The money we spend for effective conservation work is a sound investment in better living for ourselves and our children. We will not be dismayed by those who say the cost of such investments is too great. The cost of not making them would be far greater. We cannot afford to slacken our efforts, for this is work which is vital to our future.

Today, more than ever before, we can see how important it is to take these steps to develop our resources. We are engaged in a worldwide struggle to bring lasting peace to the world. In that struggle we are being opposed by a cynical imperialism which asserts that freedom and democracy are soft and incapable of strong action.

We can prove how false, how hollow, are the claims of communism. But we can prove that only by deeds. We must demonstrate that our free country, along with other free countries, can achieve strength, prosperity, and growing welfare for all our people.

To do so, we must continue to move forward in our use of natural resources. We must not permit any backsliding toward the old philosophy of private greed and the public be damned. We must continue to look upon our resources as a public trust, to be preserved and increased as the physical basis for a growing future.

In the tremendous conflict that exists in the world today, our fundamental strength is our belief in the worth of the individual, under God. Our whole democratic tradition rests on our faith that free men, working together in cooperation, can achieve justice and well-being for themselves and for one another.

In that faith, we shall move forward on the path of freedom and peace.