Address by Senator Harry S. Truman at the Annual Meeting of the Mississippi Valley Flood Control Association, New Orleans, Louisiana

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ADDRESS BY SENATOR HARRY S. TRUMAN OF MISSOURI, TO BE DELIVERED AT 10:00 A. M., DECEMBER 19, AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY FLOOD CONTROL ASSOCIATION. RELEASE ON DELIVERY Mr. Chairman, it is an honor to address the annual meeting of the Mississippi Valley Flood Control Association. You have given me the real pleasure of being once again with my friends in the Mississippi Valley. Your organization was formed to battle against the needless waste of our natural resources and wealth. This waste has cost us too much in the past. We have never been able to afford it. We certainly cannot now afford it. Your conservation work is of paramount importance, especially in these days when the costs of carrying on global warfare are so staggeringe The Special Committee of the United States Senate to Investigate the National Defense Program, of which I have the honor to be the Chairman, has as one of its paramount objectives a job of conservation. We will win this 7ar- We know that we cannot win it without expending huge sums of money From your own experience in flood control, you know that money must be spent now to keep the forces of evil from destroying us. As you also know, unnecessary expenditures defeat their own purpose. The larger the sums involved, the greater the danger of reckless extravagance. The Committee is a watch dog for the people, and an organized expression of the common desire that every necessary military need and every necessary service of government be c. dequately supported, but that not one cent be spent needlessly. It is easy to appropriate billions of dollars, but. it is not so easy to obtain those billions of dollars. There is a limit to the amount by which we can safely increase our national debt. and & Us and