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. . . Most important of all we have a national character which cantin\!! s to be impatient, which is aiert for rtew ventures, a character in which " imagination is strong and in whicrl hdpe is dominant. It is beginning to dawn on the American people that waste in any form is contrary to our common interest. Among the wastes are the destructive processes of noods. It is as important for the national economy to avoid waste as it is to produce new wealth. In recent years we have learned by painful experience the devastating effects of uncontrolled rivers. The losses fall heaViest, it is true, on the people in the inundated valleys, but the national economy is likewise adversely ~,n1'luenced, first, by the direct expendi- tures for rehabitation and relief, and secondly, by the subtraction from our national wealth not only in billions of dollars, but what in the long run may be even more important, the loss of life sustaining food supplies. Our experience Wi. th the ~!issouri River this spring has brought into focus the problem which has been before the American people for a long time. 'Ille earliest record of the white man's observation of the Missouri River was in 1673. The Jesuit miSSionary l1arquette, with his companion Joliet, came down the Mississippi in that year and observed the Missouri as it entered the Mississippi River. Marquette described in his Journal what tie saw as follows: "I have seen nothing more frightful. A mass of large trees--real floating islands. They came rushing so impetuously that we could not, without extreme danger, expose ourselves to pass across." For almost three centuries the story has been the same in times of flood. As early as 1836 the federal government "began to concern itself with the Missouri River. In that year Congress appropriated some money 2478 4