LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL 



NATIONAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE 



INTERIOR BUILDING 



WASHINGTON 



December 19, 1935. 

 The PRESIDENT, 



The White House, 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 



MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: 



I have the honor to transmit herewith a report entitled "Little 

 Waters: A Study of Headwater Streams and Other Little Waters: Their 

 Use and Relations to the Land. " 



This report is noteworthy in that it deals comprehensively with 

 a subject of high importance which has heretofore been neglected. 

 Governments, private enterprises, and engineers have been concerned 

 primarily with great waters and with the resulting problems of control- 

 ling major floods, developing hydroelectric power, providing for naviga- 

 tion, and irrigating arid lands. Yet it is the little waters which form the 

 great waters. We must utilize and control small streams if we are fully 

 to utilize and control great ones. 



For the first time this problem is here inclusively treated. Scien- 

 tific data made available by various Federal, State, and private agencies 

 have been integrated from the point of view of the long-term public welfare, 

 and the findings and recommendations are here formulated in a simple, 

 clear, and convincing statement. 



A reading of the text suggests the desirability of a comprehensive 

 program of conservation which will enable us to make beneficial use of 

 waters now permitted to go to waste, to save our lands from the disastrous 

 effects of improperly-controlled run-off, and to remedy conditions that 

 have proven socially and economically disastrous in numerous rural 

 communities. 



It is hoped that such a program may be undertaken without 

 undue delay, and that further studies may be made in the same field. 

 The effective control of little waters would, it is believed, be a lasting 

 contribution to the Nation's prosperity. 



Very sincerely, 



HAROLD L. ICKES, 



Chairman. 



