228 Can We Still Afford a Separate Resources Policy? 



effectively, and the choices among policies subjected to more search- 

 ing comparisons. To this end we need major political changes which, 

 in themselves, entail some risks but which should be undertaken be- 

 cause in our radically worsened international position the risks of 

 doing nothing are much greater. The supporting reasons, long per- 

 suasive, became overwhelming with the drastic adverse shift in world 

 political power that crystallized late in 1957. But there is, of course, 

 no assurance that we shall listen to reason. 



Professor White wants new machinery in the Executive Office itself 

 and in the departments. The near unanimity of natural resource policy 

 critics in proposing to suspend the fist of the President over the pro- 

 grams and agencies involved shows how formidable the difficulties of 

 co-ordination are perceived to be. But there are two things wrong 

 with this approach. 



First, these proposals are largely confined to improving relation- 

 ships among the major land and water agencies in their central devel- 

 opment programs; but the times call for a much more systematic cross- 

 evaluation of natural resource policies both internally and also in 

 their relationships to other policies, especially to fiscal and foreign 

 policies. Until quite recently it seemed that we might wisely try to 

 separate from the general stream of policy development the decisions 

 on public land and water programs, in order to improve their com- 

 parative evaluation, say in the President's Office. Now we need to 

 organize and develop all our resources if we are to survive the long 

 future of deadly international competition. We must balance expendi- 

 tures for natural resource development against other financial claim- 

 ants, national defense, for example, or education. This never has been 

 absolutely necessary before. Moreover, we need to weigh natural re- 

 source policy as a whole including the present and future availability 

 of various minerals which, despite the miracles of substitution, are still 

 essential to our economy but which are also in short (or even non- 

 existent) domestic supply.^ 



Finally, our continued national survival now clearly lies in inte- 

 grating our economy as completely and as rapidly as possible with 

 the economies of our allies and friendly nations. Many of these na- 



^ See a series of articles by Richard Rutter upon "The Dangerous Decline of 

 U.S. Natural Resources," New York Times, November 9-12, 1957. 



