208 Broader Bases for Choice: The Next Key Move 



Other answers have been put forward from time to time. For exam- 

 ple, the valley authority alternative still finds favor in some quarters. 

 These will suffice to indicate the sorts of remedies that are on the table 

 and, indirectly, the ailments in the body politic which they are in- 

 tended to heal. 



They have been discussed long and often, and little has been done 

 about them. An impressive series of arguments may be marshalled for 

 and against each proposed reform. The arguments against often have 

 a circular pattern, as for example : it would do little good to consoli- 

 date agencies because the basic policies are in conflict; a unified water 

 policy cannot be enacted because of divisions among Congressional 

 factions and committees; Congressional committees cannot be re- 

 formed because the executive activities are divided among several 

 departments each with its own cluster of supporting interest groups; 

 public information is handicapped by the existence of separate agen- 

 cies promoting under Congressional direction their own separate pro- 

 grams. 



Somewhat similar arguments may be raised with respect to organi- 

 zation in other fields such as public lands and energy production. In 

 themselves they do not seem a sufficient reason for lack of progress 

 during the last fifty years. 



The entrenchment of agencies and their associated interest groups 

 and Congressional connections often is advanced as a principal reason 

 for resistance to any substantial change in organization. Lines and 

 sinews of bureaucratic empires undoubtedly play a role, but I don't 

 believe they are the answer, either. It seems likely from the record 

 that deeper conflicts and uncertainties as to social aims and means 

 play a larger role. These now will be reviewed, first the aims, then the 

 means. 



While there have been shifts of emphasis among the basic aims of 

 government agencies involved in the management of natural resources, 

 there has been relatively little change in the broadly stated objectives 

 during the fifty years since the Inland Waterways Commission and the 

 Governors' Conference stated so many of them. Ernest Griffith in the 

 first essay of this series has noted some of the persistent strands in 



