206 Broader Bases for Choice: The Next Key Move 



changed more in variety than in species since the conservation move- 

 ment took root fifty years ago. The methods for carrying out those 

 aims have involved a multiphcation in numbers of organizations but 

 relatively few fundamental innovations in form. The tools for assess- 

 ing the success or failure of these ventures, while still far from ade- 

 quate, are much improved. We know enough, at least, to ask a few 

 basic questions and perhaps to suggest some of the answers. 



Why have states generally failed to exercise a strong hand in most 

 resources fields other than wildlife management? Why have attempts 

 to consolidate the splintered federal agencies been prevented? Why 

 has formal co-ordination of federal and federal-state agencies usually 

 been meager in returns except in forest management? Why has "part- 

 nership" between federal and private enterprise been largely fictional 

 and often exploitive? Why have articulate, aggressive interest groups 

 played an increasingly powerful role? The reasons are many and com- 

 plex. I shall examine only a few of them. As for positive suggestions, 

 I must warn in advance that I shall conclude by stressing a line of 

 action that in recent years has been considered old hat — no more 

 modern, perhaps, than the idea of a daily period of family meditation, 

 but perhaps as needed in a confused and harassed society. And even if 

 accepted, my suggestion would promise no early end to agency rival- 

 ries and program conflicts. 



I am not unaware of the more thoroughgoing and ambitious solu- 

 tions that have been proposed. It may be useful here to oudine the 

 range of remedies that are offered from time to time. I list them not 

 by way of endorsement — some of them appeared more promising to 

 me ten years ago than they do today — but to indicate the diversity of 

 views which some others have of the problems at issue. 



What was recognized as a general need in 1908 — to provide inte- 

 grated management of resources over entire units of area — appears to 

 be among the urgently felt needs in 1958. This may be illustrated with 

 one resources field that has been trampled by more earnest survey par- 

 ties than any other — the nation's water resources. The administration 

 of water resources now involves division of authority among eight 

 major and numerous minor federal agencies. Many of these are single 

 purpose; others are in conflict over multiple-purpose programs. Each 

 state has several agencies in the field; few have unified administration, 



