272 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



New England character, for instance, is supposed to have cer' 

 tain traits of frugality and shrewdness. New England soil, New 

 England factories, New England activities, such as fishing, are 

 all thought of as belonging particularly to New England. In 

 other words, all of the factors that affect planning in the area 

 called New England are much the same. The same thing is 

 true in the Great Plains. When you think of the Great Plains, 

 you think of cattle as the major industry. You think of a certain 

 type of person as a typical Great Plains rancher. You think of 

 a certain kind of flat land as Great Plains country. In this way 

 you can divide the country into about seven regions. These 

 seven regions would not necessarily follow state lines. 



The major objection to overfall regional planning which disre' 

 gards state boundaries is this. Within each state there is set up a 

 series of county, town, and state governments. These units 

 are convenient tools of government. If regions should be laid 

 out so that parts of two or more lie within one state, that will 

 mean that it will be difficult to adjust the units of state govern' 

 ment to two or more different types of regional plans. 



The important thing about planning regionally or by any 

 system is that the plan should do three things. (1) It should 

 protect the resources of the region. (2) It should enable people 

 to have what is called an abundant life. (3) It should give 

 people the highest amount of individual liberty. The flow of 

 power must run in such a way that the big decisions are always 

 made by the people in the region affected, and that in carrying 

 out the will of the majority, the minority groups are not treated 

 unfairly. 



TENNESSEE VALLEY 



There is one section of the United States in which planning 

 is being tried on a large scale. This is the Tennessee Valley. The 

 Tennessee Valley Authority is a planning agency based on a 

 river system. Primarily the Tennessee Valley Authority has 



