One issue of the coming campaign-- one issue that illustrates in sharp terms the differences between Republican drift and Democratic drive -- can be summed up in one word: Water.
The history of civilization -- the location of all major cities -- the rise and fall of ancient and modern states -- the tides of peace and war of prosperity and famine -- all have centered on the supply, the use and the control of water. It is as major a factor in the Middle East as oil. It is as important to Africa as gold. It gets as much attention from Mr. Khrushchev as his sputniks. And it is the one great key to the future -- to your future, to your farms and cities and hopes for new industry -- here in the West. With water, for example, we can tap the world's largest oil shale deposits here in Western Colorado, develop the processes to make their fullest use commercially feasible and thus double our total petroleum resources. With water, we can accommodate the tremendous population growth in this area which will follow such a development.
And yet in America today, even as demand is already beginning to equal supply, even as our population and consumption grow at a fantastic rate, we are wasting our water assets and ignoring our water needs. The present Administration has consistently halted and hamstrung water development projects, soil conservation, reclamation and irrigation works. It has completely ignored the dynamic long-range requirements of an expanding population and economy. That policy of retrenchment and retreat must now be reversed. We cannot begin twenty or thirty or fifty years from now when disaster will be upon us. We must begin in 1961, under a new Democratic Administration.
During the coming months, it is the task of the Democratic Party to formulate a new program on water and water resources -- a program that will be ready for action in January of 1961. Permit me to take this opportunity to stress four principles which I believe must be embodied in any new Democratic water resources program.
First, the Republican "no new starts" policy must be promptly reversed -- and replaced with a policy of "full development". No nation can afford to abandon its energy resources to budgetary fears -- especially when all the evidence shows these fears are shortsighted and without foundation. No nation can afford to allow its invaluable river sites -- the property of all the people -- to be exploited for purely private purposes. New dams can supply sorely needed power at low cost, expand the water supply for industrial, farm and domestic use, provide outdoor recreational opportunities and prevent damaging floods. We can start this new policy right here in Colorado with a storage reservoir, and a supply of water for irrigation and power, on the Gunnison River (the Curecanti Project). This year we succeeded in getting a token appropriation of $1 million through the Senate for Curecanti, in spite of Administration opposition. Unfortunately, as you know, this had to be eliminated in Conference to avoid a Presidential veto. But the effort will be made again. For far more than the welfare of Colorado farmers is at stake in trying to break through Administration intransigence. This is an issue for our entire economy.
Secondly, this reclamation of land must be restored to its former high priority. Reclamation has been the stepchild of this Administration. They don't believe in it. They have ignored it. They have starved it. And yet, within the confines of a single state there is often both water surplus and drought -- both arid lands and a snow pack -- both floods and deserts. Intelligent planning and development is necessary. And the cost of adequate reclamation -- certainly less than the cost of this Administration's high, higher interest rates -- is returned many times in the benefits and increased revenues it would bring.
There is no better illustration of the benefits that flow from such projects than the farms and orchards of Colorado. The Upper Colorado River Project and others like it conclusively prove the ability of such a program to benefit both Colorado and the nation. It can and should be repeated all over the nation.
Third, it is time again for a searching high-level appraisal of our water resources, a bold plan for their full development, and Cabinet level responsibility for continuous supervision. Steps in this direction were made in 1950 and 1952. The Truman Water Resources Policy Commission and the Truman Materials Policy Commission pioneered in making comprehensive analyses of our capacity and our emerging requirements. But for seven years those studies have been smothered in inaction. The Bureau of Reclamation, the Army Engineers, the Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of the Budget -- all of these and other agencies have added new confusion, but no new concepts, no comprehensive plans, no course of action worthy of the challenge of the sixties. A new commission -- and a real follow-up -- will be urgently needed by 1961.
Fourth and finally, we must embark on a crash program of finding ways to cheaply convert salt water to fresh water. This is one of man's age-old dreams. But now it is more than a dream. It is a necessity. The nation that first develops this process will win the everlasting gratitude and respect -- if not control -- of all the arid, poverty stricken nations bordering the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean and the African Coast, among others. It will have an impact one hundred times greater than the launching of the first earth satellite. And it will greatly affect the competition for economic supremacy between free and slave states, between the United States and Russia, between India and China. It would solve our own water problems forever -- giving California, for example, all the fresh water she needs without taking more from Colorado.
And yet this program in the Department of Interior has been short-changed, short-handed and shoved back. It has been turned over to a defeated Republican Congressman with an inadequate budget. I do not know what the Russian scientists are doing on this project. I only know that we need to do more.
Source: Papers of John F. Kennedy. Pre-Presidential Papers. Senate Files, Box 905, "Democratic dinner, Grand Junction, Colorado, 30 November 1959." John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.