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000234 morale, malnutrltlon, and shortage of both the war materials and the finished products which make human life endurable wlll even- roaiiy--opeffit6' to~ UF6tttf.-uuwn" -Uie-'i'aii~n€ti . or Germany and Italy. On the basis that most rar-slghted states- men wlll admit tha validity of the above hypothesis, I submit the following principal grounds for inclusion of reclamation in a hroad program of preparing this country for war: I. Neither troops nor battleships wlll rem- edy the deep-seated Uls which beset the' Plains and some of the Intermountain States. Un- relleved. the continuance of this situation Is a perU to our internal national economy, a. disturbing element In establishing politIcal harmony and a tragic waste or human en- deavor. An opportunity for a livelihood for farm ramllles droughtetl olf the Plains, say nothing of the younger generatlon reach1ng maturity on older Irrigation projects In the Intermountain section, Is still an unsolved problem, the only apparent answer for which Is more new Irrigated farms and more water for projects now Inadequately supplied. The unemployed In the densely populated East will In the main get jobs In the huge Industrial expansion set in motion by the de- fense program. This Is slmllarly true, but to a more limited extent. 01 many sections of the South. Southwest, and on the Pacific coast. But It will not allay the pain In the Plains or in the intermountain country. And may I add that building bigger and better roads and more airports and creating new na- tional park$ will not remedy what Is wrong with thiS vast region superficially attractive though they may be. I repeat, there Is only one answer; 1. e., more irrigation develop- ment. This region Is the Nation's No. I prob- lem child and until something Is done about It. beyond endless studies and surveys, this Nation Is not girded for a fight and definitely lacks something In true preparedness. I ask how Bny reasonable person can ex- pect either patriotism or tsx-paylng ability from Grapes of Wratbers eking out an exist- ence In the great country stretching from the one.hundredtb meridian to the Cascades and the Sierra Nevadas? 2. Defense IndustrIes, despite fine talk about decentralization. are quite apparently and. probably BOundly seeking locations hsv- Ing easy. quick access to the Atlantic .or Pacific seaboard or the Gulf. At least I have heard of none being established In the plains or intermountain country. The taxes of the land-bound Plains and Intermountain States are In part going toward the estebllshment and maintenance of those industries but they wlll only remotely feel the stimuluS of In- creased business activity and reemployment. Can It be considered either fair play or sound national economy In view of this situation to shut olf the comparative dribble of Federal funds now flowing into the construction of Irrigation works In the territory which profits least by this program? 451148-2l851 3 I a. Recent developments In the Orient In- dicate that our Pacific coast may be the first - ::ie:-=~::yl~~~~~ ~~~~~~i;~~~----~~ we need 8 two...ocean NQ.VY Bnd defenses on the PaCific as well as tho Atlantic cOast line, who has arisen to say that we need as a sec- ondary defense line a two-ocean bulwark of near-at-hand food supplies? For 10 years I have contended that West coast population was outstripping develop- ment of near-at-hand staple fOOd supplies. Preliminary census reports Indicate that the Western States have Increased In population about 14 percent during the past 10 years while the Increase In the Nation as a whole has been only 6 percent. In this 10-year period there bas been no increase in cultivated acres In the West; In fact, It Is conceded thst from the one-hundredth meridian to the Pacific coast more cultivated dry"land acres have been retired than are olfset by the fringes of land newly Irrigated along our streams. The net Of this situation Is that our western staple food supply plant has been curtailed while demand was steadlly-yes, rapidly-In- creasing. True. we have yet enough lettuce and oranges and nuts, but western popula- tion Is Increasingly being supplied with the main staple articles of diet from the Missis- sippi Valley States and those on the eastern edge of the plains. That being the case. i ask what the food supply :,auatlon might be It It became neces- aary to feed an army of a roU11on men moved to the west coast to defend that region. If I think straight, they would be fed over five Unes of single-track transcontinental railroad congested by a desperately urgent movement of munitions of war. That Is. unless fighting men can be fed on nuts, apples, and asparngus And agaIn, are these railroads with their tun.. nels and trestles and bridges and river canyon roads not peculiarly vulnerable to attack by bombing planes? I can think of places on at least one transcontinental rallroad where one well-placed large bomb would tie up traffic for. weeks in spite of our best engineering genius. Well, to come down to earth, a6,000 farmers In the Columbia Basin could provide butter, milk. potatoes, beans. and hacon for that army of a million men protecting the Pacific coast. Mr. Speaker, as Mr. Haw here points out, the feeding of hundreds of thousanda of additional people-workers, soldiers and an expeditionary force on the Paclfi~ coast and In the southwest Pacific area- must Inevitably be accomplished by pro- ducing more staple foodstutIs within a reasonable freight haul of the Pacific coast, and that means Increased produc- tion on Irrigated farm lands. That can be accomplished only by providing more water for existing Irrigated farm landa where there Is now an Inadequate water supply, or by furnishing a complete new water supply to new lands which are su~