White House Press Release, Informal Remarks of President Harry S. Truman Outside the Spokane Club, Spokane, Washington

IMMEDIATE RELEASE JUNE 9, 1948 226 Remarks of the President outside the Spokane Club in Spokane, Washington, June 9, 1948, 9:20 a.m., Spokane time. Thank you. Governor Wailgren, Senator I agnuson dis- tinguished guests and citizens of the eastern half of the State of Washington. I know the whole State of Washington must be here from the looks of this crowd. I can't help but be affected by a welcome like that. I am also intrigued with the sunshine that you have here. I understand that you need a little sunshine. You see I have my hat. I rode all day yesterday in this Western sun and got my face fried. I didn't want to get it turned over and done this time. I am happy to be here because I am interested in the development of this part of the world. I have made many trips here. I was here when the aluminum plant was set up when a lot of other plants were set up which were top secret, and still are top secret, in this part of the world. At that time I was chairman of an investigating connittee in the Senate, of which Senator Wallgren was a member, and we made some very important trips out here for the purpose of helping win the war. And this part of the world -- this part of the United States made a magni- ficent contribution toward winning that war. Had it not been for the immense power plants along the Columbia River, which we had insisted on being built for the benefit of the public, we wouldn't have won that war as quickly nor as thoroughly as we did win it. Now the thing that is staring us in the face is to make that same contribution to the peace. And I know that is just what you are going to do. NARA I am going from here to Grand Coulee, and then I am going to go over the flood areas that have been affected by the Columbia River. I know something about floods. The Missouri has a habit of going on a trampage about once every three years, washing away all the farm lands in the valley. When we came down the Columbia River this morning on the Northern Pacific Railroad, I could see scenes that reminded me of things exactly as they happened in Missouri time after time. And you know what that does. It has been a long time since you have had. a flood like this, and you had forgotten what it means. Now you will be sympathetic when the Missouri and the Connecticut and a lot of other rivers overflow and ruin all the industries along the line. In that way we will get a cure for it. There is a cure for it. I was told last night in Butte that the Silver Bow Creek which rises in Butte, Montana, is one of the head waters of the Columbia River in the United States, and I told that audience that if we could control the Silver Bow Creeks that make up the Columbia River, as we should control the little rivers that make up the Missouri, we wouldn't have these floods. We don't have floods on the Tennessee River any more. They know how to control them. These same situations can be developed on the Columbia River, the river that empties more water into the Pacific Ocean than any other river on the western coast of the United States and it empties the second largest amount of water of any river in the United States. And that water ought to be utilized. You need it too badly here in the Northwest, to have it go out in the Pacific Ocean and go to waste. I would like to see that project carried out to its logical conclusion. But you are not going to get those projects as long as you have a Congress that believes in the theory of Daniel Webster: that the West is no good and there is no use wasting money on it. There are still men in the Congress who are following Daniel Webster, and they are chairmen of key committees which make these appropriations. If you don't do something about that, you don't deserve to have anything, that's all I can say to you. (over)